INTERVIEW: JPT Scare Band

Interview by John Wisniewski

Could you tell us about the release of your latest CD - Do you still enjoy playing together after all of these years?
Our latest CD came out of nowhere, as far as I can tell. The guys at Ripple Music somehow found us and made contact a year or so back with the idea of a double Vinyl /CD project using a lot of unreleased music.  Some of it was really old stuff and a couple were really new, like it's Not My Fault and I've Been Waiting, (the song is old but the version is from 2001).  Todd and John put together a really cool album with really psych swirling yellow/green vinyl.  It is quite psychedelic.. Great job Ripplers! The three of us would play together more regularly I'm sure if Jeff lived closer but whenever we have the chance we are playing and recording whatever comes out. As long as we have new ideas I suspect we will continue to have fun playing music together.

Could you name some of the bands that have influenced the sound of JPT Scare? Who are some of your favorite blues artists?
Vanilla Fudge, John Mayall, the Blues Breakers, Yardbirds, Clapton, Winwood, Canned Heat, just to name a few of my favorite blues bands. I think Led Zeppelin pushed me over the edge though. Jimmy Page and the gang put out some of the best music ever. Totally blues based heavy ass kicking rock and roll.

"JamVapour ' is an example of the band's freeform nature, sometimes-do you enjoy experimenting with a progressive sound?
Progressive? Man, I am not tuned into the label thing; we just play whatever we are into at that moment. Not sure of how I would categorize it but it surprises me to hear us described as a proto metal band too. I just thought we were playing rock and roll as hard as we could play it.

What guitars do you guys play?
I have 1972, 4001 Rickenbacker bass. I bought it new with a left hand body and a right hand neck since I usually turn a right handed bass over with the big string on the bottom. I played this on all the old stuff and on Rumdum Daddy. I have a chopped up headless Ibanez with some EMG humbuckers and a bunch of active EQ stuff on it. I use this one on a lot of our stuff like Jamm Vapour and at our live gig at Crosstown Station. I also have a nice SG Gibson short scale bass that sounds very cool too. I also have a Hoffner but it tends to feed back really bad when I turn it up loud.

What has kept the band going for so long?
We're brothers from another mother and we love playing music together. The stuff we do doesn't come out unless we play with us three. And that is a fact, Jack.

Do you find that the audiences have changed from the 1970's onward?
No, not really. Popular music has changed but back in the 70s when disco reared its ugly head we kept rocking, just like we continue to do now, regardless of what the popular norm may be.

One of your songs is called "Wino"- have you had some troubles with alcohol over the years?
No, nothing too dramatic anyway. The song is pretty cool though and it really hurts when we play it. Poor devil!

What lies in the future for the band?
I'm in the process of doing a blitz of media to regional colleges hoping to get enough airplay to enable us to get some gigs booked with our buddy Rocky Rude at the Knobs, showing the kids how us old guys roll. Who knows, maybe they would dig it?

Any stories about playing live or being on tour?
We really do enjoy working together STILL. In fact, July 22, 2011, JPT Scare Band played our first concert in 38 years. It was an incredible event for us and for those who came out to support us. They seemed to really dig what we were doing up there. Lots of noise between verses and songs. It's hard to hide real enthusiasm and it fed into what we were doing up there on stage. After it was all said and done I talked with Terry and Jeff about their experience up there in front of a crowd and we shared a similar story of having a very surreal experience. It had been so long since we had an opportunity to perform that we were all up there pinching ourselves for the first few songs. It just didn't feel real! It felt very psychedelic however, all of us fell into that place where our brand of madness tends to arise.

Ripple Music
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REVIEW: Inside It Grows - Slave of Saints

Heavy Metal from Greece
So, if you're at all following the Greek underground metal scene you may have stumbled across a band going by the name "Lucky Funeral" and also another band going under the moniker "Speedblow" (which I reviewed here last year). If not, well now you have. What we have here with "Inside It Grows" is a culmination of these two bands, rolled up in a meaty-gyro.

Mike from "Lucky Funeral" does all the vocal duties on "Slave of Saints", while John T. of "Speedblow" handles just about everything else on the album, minus some lead guitar work done by George "The Goat" Stavroulakis.

With there being a million different genres of metal these days, "Slave of Saints" to me, is genre defying, one minute it's bashing you over the head with progressive metal elements, using "Tool" like a "Crowbar" on your senses. Then at times drifting into a "Dream Theater" on ludes vibe. While never losing its metal-head design, plenty of double bass kicks. Chugging, churning riffs. Down-tuned and doomy axe slinging is in store a-plenty here. Iron Maiden esque twin guitar harmonies and even some groove metal, thrashy moments, which remind me of Machine Head at times.

Boasting a slick production, "Slave of Saints" sounds massive when listened to at earth shattering volume. All in all, if u bleed metal, and die by the sword. This could very well be your wet dream. Check em out on bandcamp.

by Adam Walsh

Bandcamp

Trailblazer Records

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The Heavy Eyes - Heavy Eyes

Heavy Rock from the USA
I've spent a lot of time with the debut release by this Tennessee band. Heavy Eyes seems to capture everything I dig in a rock record. Lots of fuzzy guitars, groovy foot stomping riffs and tons of attitude during its 11 tracks.

Imagine if you will, Brant Bjork, The White Stripes and Fu Manchu all sitting around puffing on a hookah listening to Zeppelin albums, then picking up their gear and just going for it. That's the vibe I get from this impressive slab of rock put forth on here. Plenty of soul and a real sense of honesty is captured during the whole duration of the album.

Seems to be that all these new bands that are opting to put out their music themselves, whether it's through iTunes, bandcamp or whatever file hosting website they choose is really making things interesting. The production on the album is stellar and really has a live jammy feeling to it. Maybe being mixed and mastered in the city where rock and roll started with Elvis in Memphis has something to do with it. Some of that voodoo may be rubbing off here. The band has posted on their bandcamp page: "We hope this album melts your speakers".  I'd say...mission accomplished!

by Adam Walsh

Bandcamp

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ReverbNation

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REVIEW: Muffler Men - Trigger and Fly

Alternative Rock from Belgium
This new band from Ghent has released their debut album to the masses, entitled "Trigger and Fly". And what you get here is some ready for the radio tunes, in the form of bands like Foo Fighters, Incubus, and Queens of the Stone Age, with a more meat and potatoes sensibility. What I mean by meat and potatoes is it has more substance, gristle and heft than those aforementioned bands. Sure u get some sing along choruses, but there's also some meaty guitar work in spots that can keep a metalhead interested, even some wacky horns on the end of "All Dressed Up".

"Trigger and Fly" despite its more mainstream vibe is really a pleasurable listen from beginning to end. The production is huge, resulting from the mastering job done by Brian Gardner, whose accolades include David Bowie, Foo Fighters, QOTSA and Them Crooked Vultures. And really sounds great for a self released debut album. These guys seem to have a clear vision of who they are, and where they are going.
by Adam Walsh

Cd Baby
Bandcamp
Record Heaven
Website
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Mars Red Sky To Release Debut Album on Vinyl

Psychedelic Rock from France
Mars Red Sky - Strong Reflection


Due to popular demand Mars Red Sky have decided to put their hugely successful debut release to Vinyl. Only 500 numbered copies available so you better be quick to snap one of the finest releases of 2011. Pre - Order now available via Big Cartel Only  €15euros / free shipping in europe and  €20.00 euros Worldwide...

Mars Red Sky has managed to put out one of those WOW-albums that comes two or three times a year! A word that comes to mind is; melancholy, super psychedelic and VERY tasty. After releasing the debut ep 'Cursed' earlier this year Mars Red Sky serves this master blaster on a silver plate! You get seven beautifully carved heavy psyche/stoner gems in almost 40 minutes. This is no mediocrity, rather a first class acid trip through the red dunes of Mars. No slips are made and every tone is carefully sewn into this magic carpet that offers a breathtaking journey through time and space. Read More..

Emergence Records * iTunes * JUNO * Myspace * Website * Facebook * ReverbNation *Big Cartel

REVIEW: Grifter - Self Titled (Ripple Music)

Heavy Rock from the UK
Grifter - Good Day for Bad News


Grifter fires on all cylinders on their new self-titled album. Full of hooky boogie rock, soulful and sincere vocals, and boasting a mammoth sounding production. Having a couple EP's under their belt, the time is right to finally show the world that Grifter means business, with their first full length album.

Right from the get-go, this UK based trio comes out swinging, and pummels your ear hole with a barrage of bluesy riffs and booty shaking time signatures. Taking the usual influences of bands like KISS, AC/DC and Motörhead and brewing them up with the more modern soundings of Clutch and Corrosion of Conformity, is really nothing new you might be thinking, but these guys do it better and with more finesse then most of the bands out there.

Sounding dirty and raucous, this is the perfect soundtrack to a night of debauchery. I can imagine walking into any random strip club with this blasting out of the speakers or just chillin' with some friends at a bbq. Either way you slice it, this is party music and has that certain something that will keep you coming back for repeat listens. Thanks to the fine folks over at Ripple Music for stamping this to plastic. Look for an October 4th release for this album of sonic majesty, both digitally and on CD. Cheers!

by Adam Walsh

Ripple Music  *  Myspace  *  Big Cartel  *  Bandcamp  *  Facebook

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

Track List

01 Good Day for Bad News

02 Alabama Hotpocket

03 Asshole Parade

04 Strip Club

05 Young Blood, Old Veins

06 Bucktooth Woman

07 Preacher and the Devil

08 Bean

09 Piss and Gas

10 Unwelcome Guest

11 Gone Blues

Pre Order from

Ripple Music

REVIEW: Black Capricorn – Black Capricorn (12th Records)

Heavy Rock from Italy
Black Capricorn - 10,000 Tons of Lava


Black Capricorn is a fairly new band coming out of Sardinia, Italy. Having recorded their self-titled release back in 2009, and falling below the radar for a couple years, it's finally been stamped on CD by the good folks over at 12th Records (High on Fire, Yob and Ocean Chief).

Black Capricorn takes the slow and low approach with their doom. Weaving 70's lo-fi occult worship (Electric Wizard comes to mind right away) with fuzz-drenched, drop-tuned guitars. Clean, slightly distorted, low-register vocals are in order for most of the album as well. However, they ebb and flow well with the dark macabre tone of the disc to a tee.

Some of the highlights on the debut are "Il Tamburo Del Demonio" and "1000 Tons of Lava", with their Kyuss-like riffs, unexpected time changes and creepy, psychedelic sound effects, really grab the listeners' attention and keep it. "The Maelmhaedhoc O'Morgair Prophecy", with subject matter that deals with the Catholic Church and the end of the world. Strange chanting and hypnotizing, droning riffs. It comes across like an equivalent to watching an old, black and white horror movie that you don't understand, but can't take your eyes from.

Black Capricorn really has something to offer here, and although not a landmark album, it really shows a good start to something. I can see this band really blowing some minds if they can keep it together long enough to encapsulate a 2nd recording.

by Adam Walsh

12th Records

Myspace

Website

Track List

01 Sa Bruxia

02 Perpetual Eclipse

03 Capricorn One

04 Il Tamburo del Demonio

05 10,000 Tons of Lava

06 Call of the Goat

07 The Maelmhaedhoc O' Morgair Prophecy

08 Liquid Universe

12th Records

INTERVIEW: Broken Betty

Heavy Rock from Poland 

Interview by Adam Walsh
Hello Pacior and thank you for your time.
The new album is called "Sorry Eye", what's motivation behind that title?
Album is titled after one of the songs.  It's not a common phrase, it's just a combination of words that somehow correspond to the lyrics in that tune - a piece about a despised guy, that everyone feels sorry for. We found it to be unusual enough for an album name.


You guys have a lot of different influences apparent in your music, what bands inspire you, old and new?
It's hard to pick just a few of them, really. Kyuss is an obvious choice, and all the stuff they did separately, after splitting up. Stoner/fuzz rock scene, bands like Fu Manchu, Dozer, Clutch and so on. Some late 80's/ early 90's alternative rock, like The Afghan Whigs, Helmet, Sonic Youth, Melvins, 16 Horsepower.  Older bands like Budgie (amazing riffs and my personal favourite 70's band), Hawkwind.

I don't hear much music coming out of Poland, what bands have you shared the stage with or should we know about, is there a big scene there?
Well, Poland is mostly associated with heavier stuff, great "big" metal bands like Behemoth, Vader, Decapitated, there's also a very strong post rock/metal scene, but when it comes to stoner, fuzz or rock music in general, we're still pretty much in the underground. But for two or three years now the scene is growing rapidly. We all try to keep in touch, and that's also pretty cool.  Some bands that are definetly worth mentioning: Blindead (more post rock and sludge oriented) Psychollywood, Octopussy (Dziablas's other band) Vagitarians, Satellite Beaver, Major Kong, Elvis Deluxe, Luna Negra...to name a few, and we've shared the stage with most of them.

Most embarrassing/worst gig?
Once we've waited too long for our turn to play, and our bass player drank about  6 or 7 beers (in Poland they're twice stronger than in the States) - he was having trouble keeping himself straight, and at one point dropped his bass on the floor. But it was all good, clean fun, and I can't say we were embarrassed back then.

Best gig?
Recently, release party for The Sorry Eye - we've headlined the show, a lot of  people came and everyone had a blast. Basically, gigs close to our home town are mostly really great, we have our audience, that we can always count on, sometimes they sing the lyrics with us. It feels good.

The track "Pull in Like a Black Hole" off of the first EP is one of my favorite tunes. What was the inspiration behind that song/writing process, or the process you guys use for all of your song writing?

Thanks! When we wrote songs that ended up on the EP, we mostly worked on the riffs and vocals individually at home. Then we brushed it up in our rehearsal space, and arranged it together. When it comes to "Pull In...", I remember that Dziablas came up with the bass riff first, but we couldn't take it any further for a long time. One day I was just improvising stuff over that part, and accidently grabbed a slide. I recorded my part over the bass line, and it basically inspired Dziablas to write the chorus and verses for the song, in one evening.
We took a different approach with "The Sorry Eye", one night we just jammed a lot, and recorded everything, and then we took the best parts out of our jams and turned it into songs. 90% of the album was written together in our rehearsal space.

How long did it take to record "The Sorry Eye"?

Recording drums took about 2 days, guitars and bass about 5 days, same as  vocals.

"The Sorry Eye" has a real epic feel to it, and the production is top notch. Where was it recorded, and what kind of equipment do you guys use?

Thanks again! We recorded, mixed and mastered it at Sounds Great Promotion studio in Gdynia. Dziablas works there as a recording engineer, and he did all the tracking for the album. We used a "vintage" approach to recording - most of the drum sound comes from just two microphones, we also used some really old mics for recording guitar and bass. We used Gibson Les Paul guitar through 1978 Marshall JMP and Orange Rocker amps, Fender Precision Bass and Premier drumset. Most of the work was done by our friend and owner of the studio, Kikut, who mixed and mastered the album. He used modern pre-amps and consoles, but for mixing he "compressed" all of the separate tracks into just four, and that really made a huge impact on the sound of the album.

A lot of bands from around the world sometimes sing in their mother tongue, is there a reason u choose to sing in English over your native tongue?
 That's true - we obviously play for Polish audience, mostly, and sometimes we   face the accusations of being "false", by not singing in our mother tongue. I don't agree with that at all. There are several reasons why we sing in English. First of all, we feel that it fits our music best. We treat rock music as a heritage of English and American culture, and English language is a part of that heritage, just like the electric guitar.  Playing stoner rock with Polish lyrics would be just  weird to us.
  Dziablas is quite fluent in English, his foreign accent is not so distinctive, so we think it sounds natural and not forced. We've heard the opinions from native speakers, that he sounds like an American, so that's pretty cool. Hopefully, we can reach out to much bigger audience that way. Maybe someday we'll be in the same league as Dozer or Truckfighters - and I don't think they'd achieve what they did, if they had their lyrics in native Swedish.

If you had one wish what would it be?

To be filthy fucking rich...then we could rent a nightliner and tour Europe and the States, just for fun...

Where do you see yourself(s) in 5 years?
On a USA tour in a nightliner, hopefully. But more realistic, recording our fourth or fifth album, maybe with backup from a good label, and gigging - a lot.

Do you guys make enough to survive playing music, or do you have day jobs? If so, what are they?
Today, when music comes free with an Internet connection, it's really hard to do. Right now we do it only part-time, and we're happy when the band's profits can balance the expenses. We all have day jobs, Dziablas works as a recording engineer and graphic designer, Seba is a sales specialist, and I'm a civil engineer.


Favorite expression/swear words?
Polish is a really beautiful language when it comes to swearing, and a simple "kurwa"(whore) or "jebac"(fuck) can have a lot of different meanings, depending on the context. I don't think I could ever pick just a few of them

Previous bands, members have been in?
Mostly just loose, no-name projects - Broken Betty is our first more serious band.

If you could tour with any band in the world, which would it be?
Tough choice...I'd probably go for the Melvins or Helmet - we idolize them and yet they seem to be very cool and down to earth guys, so it might be fun.

This last position is reserved for you to say anything you'd like to. Rant, rave or vent.
Thanks a lot for the interview, and thanks for taking the time to check us out. We can promise some new material, sooner than you expect, so be sure to keep us on the radar!



Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer these questions; I love the new album. Good luck to you guys!!

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