Amazons

"SOME OF THE MOST BRILLIANT AND DISTURBED GUITAR PLAYING ON RECORD..."

Who in the freaking hell is this band, JPT Scare Band? Some kind of American mystery band from the 1970s who are putting out new CDs in the 21st century. Why has no one ever heard of these guys? Who are they?

Over the years, they have managed to progress from completely unknown to painfully obscure. The band was featured in an article in the March 2007 issue of Classic Rock Magazine titled, "Lost Pioneers of Heavy Metal" in which they were included in the same exalted company with Iron Butterfly, Bloodrock and Leafhound. The boyz in the band have never really considered themselves as heavy metal, but they will take any positive press that they can get.

In spite of everything... they are still together, with the original lineup intact. While still making meaningful music in the 21st century, this veteran group of jammers is also proud of their vast legacy of classic twisted insanity recorded back in olden analogue times. Here and there, in odd corners of the world, growing numbers of those who love the old school, guitar crazy blues rock somehow have become aware of the existence of JPT.

In June of 2010, the JPT Scare Band CD, Past Is Prologue, made the list of 10 Essential Proto Metal Albums on the Classic Rock Crate Digger blog on the Rhapsody digital download site. The other 9 bands on the list are Vanilla Fudge, Jeff Beck, Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult, Judas Priest, Rainbow, Uriah Heep, the Scorpions and Blue Cheer. "If vintage proto-metal is ...your thing, then here are 10 essential albums that will blow your doors clear off."

The members of JPT are extremely proud of the fact that their first two albums were released on vinyl only. Good luck finding a copy, as they are both long out of print. Their first CD, Sleeping Sickness, was originally released on Monster Records and featured tracks from the two vinyl albums. Sadly, Monster Records imploded and their web site simply vanished into thin air due to heavy craziness and the suicide of one of the founding partners. The Sleeping Sickness CD was out of print for many years. The band reissued the Sleeping Sickness CD on their own Kung Bomar Records label in 2009 and it is available here at CD Baby.

Their Past Is Prologue, Rumdum Daddy and Acid Blues Is The White Man's Burden CDs are still in print and are available at CD Baby. The Acid Blues album is also available as a double 12" vinyl LP set with extra bonus tracks. JCR Music News handles European distribution from Paris. JPT Scare Band tunes and albums are also available for download from CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon and other digital download sites.

So... it's time to take a little trip with JPT.

Here is a review from Todd Racer at Ripple Effect Blog:

Proto-Metal Report - JPT Scare Band - Jamm Vapour

It's just not supposed to happen like this.

I'm sorry, but a band who hadn't recorded together in decades and even then, by their own admission were "so very damned obscure," shouldn't be able to get back together, plug in, light some incense in their basement studio and knock out an album this freaking brilliant.

But then JPT Scare Band never did anything by the rule book.

Back in their day, the early seventies, The JPT Scare Band was an awesome purveyor of absolutely freaked out acid-drenched blues jam rock. Led by the maniac guitar playing of Terry Swope, an unrecognized genius of feedback ignited, blues rock trip-outs, and the stellar rhythm section of Jeff Littrell pounding the skins and Paul Grigsby losing half his cerebellum on bass, the boys put out some "painfully obscure," platters of steaming, freaked out acid trips. Often mislabeled as proto-metal, the guys were actually a throw back to the free form, let the music go wherever the bong water bubbles, psychedelic sixties with a hard-core blues background and a serious rock and roll heart. After releasing the excellent Past is Prologue compilation which culled some old classics with some newer tracks, the guys got motivated to dust off their guitars, amps, wrapping papers, and lava lamps and out poured Jamm Vapour.

And damn, it shouldn't be this good.

But it is. Jamm Vapour is an extended acid blues-rock freakout defying description. "Amazons," sets this platter alight, a nine-minute explosion of dripping feedback drenched guitar licks, flying bass lines and drums pounding away faster than a human could swallow a load of mushrooms. It is a timeless track, recorded in the 1970-2007 hallucinogenic zone. As an opening it's a stunner, immediately pounding the message home that the boys hadn't lost any of their edge or fearlessness over the last 30 years, or fried away any necessary neural synapses.

The next track "Ramona," hints at the bands early British Invasion roots, lifting a bass line from the Beatles and harkening back to some vaguely Lennon-esque melodies, if Lennon had taken a whole different crop of funny little pills.

Another amazing thing about this disc, is that it was recorded live in the boys basement, no overdubs or studio trickery, just fed directly into Yamaha AW-4416 workstation. Think about that as the extended time warping jam that is " Right Mind," blasts through your stereo, Terry's voice sounding particularly fine and his guitar scorching a trail from earth to some hallucinogenic planet near Alpha Centauri. No one lays down seriously demented psych-blues jams like these guys. Then or now.

"Don't Count me Out," a blues-addled ode to psychedelic madness ("I've got a monkey living in my head, sometimes I think he wants me dead,") is as dense and heavy as any stoner rock that's come around in the 35 years since JPT launched their first album on the world. Stunning guitar work, a relentless beat, a bass line that bounces across the atmosphere and back down to earth, all ramming against Terry's promise that madness won't get the best of his white matter. A searing, disturbing platter of acid rock.

Then comes "Gelo Jam," to which I can only say, "What the hell?" Dropping back to their roots, the boys decided to drop into a riotous 11 minute freeform jam, a wild ride of stuttering guitars and freaked out bass. Terry Swope's making up the vocals on the spot on this one-off, spontaneous recording. Contrast that to the millions of dollars spent by producers like Timbaland, trying to craft something blah into a pop song and the stunning power of JPT becomes all too clear. These guys are musicians musicians, three guys who love playing and love playing together. They just get into a groove, a steady, freaky space and hold that intention, moving time and space through their amps. This is where the album title came from. A full-out acid-drenched jam, allowed to go where ever the vapors flowed.

And the best thing of all, is that the boys are still at it. Check out their website at http://www.jptscareband.com and see for yourself the madness these guys bring forth. They're also running a discussion forum over at our friend's house, Peacedogman.com where you can pop on over and chat with the guys and discuss tabs versus blotters. Or best of all, just buy their CD's and see what all the fuss is about. Fans of amazing psych-blues jams will not want to miss this.

--Racer