It’s not every day I come across a piece of psychedelic rock history that genuinely blows me away. That’s the feeling I got when I listened to Dark Shadows by Cold Sun, an ultra-obscure psych band from late-sixties Austin, Texas.
Formed by visionary lyricist and autoharp player Billy Bill Miller and his friend Tom McGarrigle on guitar, Cold Sun recorded a single album in 1970 called Dark Shadows. Along with Golden Dawn and the first two 13th Floor Elevators LPs, it may be the best psychedelic record that ever came out of the early Texas psych scene.
The album is a true cult classic. Though recorded in 1970, it wasn’t released until 1989 and then properly reissued two decades later by Germany’s World in Sound. Miller and Cold Sun came of age at the same time as the legendary Elevators, and they share connections with them. Miller was essential in revitalizing Roky Erickson, the Elevators’ frontman, after his notorious stint in Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
In 2011, Cold Sun reunited at Austin Psych Fest, performing just before Roky and headliners The Black Angels. Billy Bill Miller has given some interviews over the years, too. What’s amazing is that Miller was eighteen when he wrote the material for Dark Shadows and twenty years old when the album was cut.
Dark Shadows was reissued in May and is now available on Bandcamp. The vinyl may be sold out, but you can grab a digital copy.
Miller and the rest of the Cold Sun band would later become Roky’s backing band for Bleib Alien / The Aliens, further cementing them in psychedelic rock history. However, I’m unsure if many know about the terrific Dark Shadows LP, which sounds like an incredible mix between the Elevators and The Velvet Underground and possibly the most stoned music ever made.
Miller was a proto-goth figure who always dressed in black and was highly influenced by Joe Meek and vintage sci-fi/horror. He experimented with weird noises out of his electrified autoharp and favored the drug mescaline over the LSD associated with hippies. In interviews, Miller has said mescaline was simply a better drug, and it was also more audio-oriented. Cold Sun played at venues like the I.L. Club, a historical landmark of Austin blues and psychedelic music. Despite how remarkable it sounds, Dark Shadows languished for years on the shelves as Miller and the rest of the guys moved on to other projects, especially helping Roky Erickson revive his musical career.
I won’t ruin your listening experience of Dark Shadows by giving too many descriptions of what it sounds like. I suggest you go in with an open mind and let the music take you places. It’s a strange and darkly poetic record, with freak-out lyrics and vocals from Miller (which he claims predicted some future events and trends in their sci-fi explorations). Dark Shadows has a creepy, folksy sound made all the more psychedelic by the electrified autoharp.
Austin, Texas, was one hell of a place to be when psychedelic music exploded in the Sixties, and Dark Shadows proves it further. Between Cold Sun and the 13th Floor Elevators, you could surely make a case that Texas was the real birthplace of the psychedelic rock movement. Listen to Dark Shadows and be the judge for yourself. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
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