Bulbous Creation, You Won’t Remember Dying (1970)

Put Bulbous Creation in the same league as Jerusalem, Suck, Weed, Fresh Blueberry Pancake, Orang-Utan and countless other righteous acts who came along in the heavy ’70s, released one or two albums and succumbed to the passage of time and never wound up going further than that. Based out of Kansas City, their debut LP, You Won’t Remember Dying, was issued either in 1969 or 1970 on private press, and was the only full-length the band — its lineup comprised of vocalist Paul Parkinson, guitarist Alan Lewis, bassist James Wine and drummer Churck Horstmann — would release in their time, though Wine and Lewis would continue with a different lineup as Creation afterward. Nonetheless, with Parkinson‘s charismatic frontman presence and underlying organ on “Fever Machine Man,” Bulbous Creation and You Won’t Remember Dying stand alone, singled out by a psychedelic blues weirdness and overarching languid stoner groove that serves them well across the record’s eight tracks. With Wine‘s bass as the anchor for much of the material, Lewis‘ guitar is free to roam through darker fuzz kept in motion through Horstmann‘s swinging drums, and an organic lo-fi style only adds to the enduring appeal.

They start off somewhat proggy on “End of the Page,” but by the time they get around to the wide-open jamming of “Let’s Go to the Sea,” they’re entrenched in heavy blues groove. Parkinson, who’d go on to perform as a singer-songwriter, isn’t over-the-top as a vocalist, but he gets his jibes in and he seems all the more in command of the songs for the restraint he shows. One might dig into the paired-off “Having a Good Time” and “Satan” and hear shades of Black Sabbath‘s “Hand of Doom,” but while Sabbath‘s self-titled debut seems an atmospheric touchstone for You Won’t Remember Dying, it’s worth remembering that Paranoid wouldn’t show up until Sept. 1970, and it’s more likely both groups were taking influence from Ten Years After, of whose “Sugar the Road” Bulbous Creation are covering with “Having a Good Time.” “Satan,” on the other hand, is an original worthy of the cult rock tag with which it would be saddled if it came out today, and seems to find a druggy companion in the slower buzzsaw shuffle of “Hooked” on side B, almost Alice Cooper-esque, though Billion Dollar Babies wouldn’t surface until 1973.

That doesn’t mean You Won’t Remember Dying is the secret touchstone of ’70s heavy by any means, but it’s a badass record front to back and soaked in a vibe that many who attempt to take on the tape-recorded spirit of its era would die to capture. I’m amazed no one has taken on the Zep-blues of “Stormy Monday” as a lost-classic of heavy jams, but so it goes. If they had three soundboard-quality bootlegs of live shows out there, Bulbous Creation would be legends.

Barring that, You Won’t Remember Dying has been reissued by Numero Group and is available as a vinyl/download as of this post. As noted, half of this band would continue on as Creation, but Lewis died of esophageal cancer in 1998 and Parkinson of leukemia in 2001, so Bulbous Creation will sadly remain a group who never had their day, even despite the album’s current availability.

Hope you enjoy.

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I sent notice via the social medias — the Instagrammaphone, thee Facebooks — but all next week I’ll be doing the next Quarterly Review. If you don’t know what that means, no sweat, I won’t take it personally. It’s 50 reviews over the course of Monday to Friday, broken up into five installments of 10 reviews each day. It is a massive undertaking, but the last two (three really, if you count the end of last year) have been very satisfying for me both in the actual doing and on an existential level that there aren’t just 50 records I’m ignoring because I don’t have time to cover them, so it is very much a thing that’s happening. I’ve been getting album cover images and setting up posts the last couple days so I can get down to writing this weekend. It will be fun.

Also next week: On Monday, a track premiere from Brain Pyramid, who have a new album coming out through Vincebus Eruptum Recordings, and at some point an interview with Neil Fallon of Clutch that I’m hoping to get posted before their next tour starts. Fingers crossed.

Other than that, what, 50 frickin’ reviews isn’t enough for you?

Ha.

I’d like to note that today is my 11th wedding anniversary. The Patient Mrs. and I have been together for 18 years, more then half of our lives, and I am incredibly lucky and grateful that she even wants to have anything to do with me at all, let alone be married to my unprofitable, difficult-to-live-with, complains-all-the-time-and-does-nothing-to-better-his-existence, can’t-hold-a-note-but-won’t-stop-singing, doesn’t-do-nearly-as-much-laundry-as-he-used-to, consumes-way-too-much-garlic ass.

Before I go, I want to say thanks again to Doug Sherman, Darryl Shepard, Dave Jarvis and Mike Nashawaty for having me as a guest on Show Sucks on WEMF radio last weekend. If you missed it, you can listen here, and thanks if you do. It was a lot of fun to sit in with those guys and bum the room out with my opinions of local athletes and venues. I felt like a jerk later, and rightly so.

Thanks everyone for reading. I hope you have a great and safe weekend, and please check out the forum and the radio stream.

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The discography of Kansas City trio JPT Scare Band is not a particularly easy one to trace. Albums were recorded during their initial early-’70s run and then left to sit for decades, then there were compilations and other studio works after they got back together that only made it more difficult to put to a convenient timeline. Bottom line, however, is that their output is worth the effort of trying to make sense of it time-wise. Their latest outing, 2009’s Rumdum Daddy (review here), led to a signing with Ripple Music for the subsequent 2010 comp, Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden (review here), but prior to that, the band had also issued records like Jamm Vapour, Past is Prologue and Sleeping Sickness (discussed here) on their own Kung Bomar imprint, leaving just their first two outings, Acid Acetate Excursion and Rape of the Titan’s Sirens, yet un-reissued.

Ripple is stepping in to rectify the situation, and will oversee the release of both records as a 2LP set in April. Below, the PR wire brings word of the new vinyl and does as admirable a job as I’ve seen of making JPT Scare Band‘s complex history — did I mention the members live in different states? — make sense to the layperson. And by “layperson,” I mean me.

Dig it:

Proto-Metal legends JPT Scare Band to release vinyl set via Ripple Music | Stream album track ‘It’s Too Late’

Banded together during the tumultuous years of the early 70s, JPT Scare Band fused a sound equally heavy in hard rocking blues as it was tripped out in psychedelia, creating a sound so imposing that it perfectly reflected the emotions of the era. Formed by guitarist/vocalist Terry Swope, drummer Jeff Littrell, and bassist Paul Grigsby, JPT Scare Band began recording songs in their Kansas City basement and soon compiled a vault full of reel-to-reel tapes that would make up much of the band’s catalogue.

Though the band formed in 1973, JPT Scare Band’s first album, Acid Acetate Excursion, wasn’t released until 1994, over twenty years after the band’s formation. Along with Acid Acetate Excursion, the band, in conjunction with Monster Records, released two more albums, 1998’s Rape Of Titan’s Sirens and 2000’s Sleeping Sickness. Both releases highlighted the bands heavy psych/proto-metal blues sound through the otherworldly and unheralded guitar work of Terry Swope, and each has become an underground cult classic.

The new millennium has seen JPT Scare Band delve deeper into their archive of recorded material, accumulated through massive jam sessions throughout the 70s, as well as the 90s, and a flood of product was soon released. Through the band’s self-realised label Kung Bomar, seven albums hit the streets including 2002’s brilliant Past Is Prologue, 2007’s stunning release of all new material with Jamm Vapour and most recently, 2009’s Rumdum Daddy.

In the waning months of 2009, JPT Scare Band merged their energies with rock label Ripple Music to release Acid Blues Is The White Man’s Burden, a collection of unreleased tracks, extended jams, and outstanding cover tunes that helped bridge the gaps in the JPT chronology and turn on a whole new generation on to their classic version of acid rock.

Despite being scattered across the US, JPT Scare Band has never stopped working and creating relevant music. JPT have the uncanny ability, an almost shared consciousness, to pick up right where they left off after being apart for fifteen years and hammer out a set of hard edged guitar driven rock that would have made Cream sound soft. JPT Scare Band will appeal to fans of Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and Black Sabbath.

This April, Ripple Music will release a very special LP set consisting of their first two, seminal releases – Acid Acetate Excursion and Rape Of The Titan’s Sirens – re-presented in full, with new gatefold album art that incorporates the images of the original two albums. Originally recorded in the 1970s, these albums have been out of print since the original Monster Records release in the early 90s and represent the full early history of the band that Classic Rock Magazine once hailed as one of the, “Lost pioneers of Proto-Metal.”

Acid Acetate Excursion and Rape Of The Titan’s Sirens will be released together via Ripple Music on 28th April 2015.

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JPT Scare Band, “It’s too Late”

Beginning with the foreboding organ intro of “Overture,” there’s a lot more to Merlin‘s Christ Killer than it immediately seems. The self-releasing Kansas City, Missouri, double-guitar five-piece preceded their sophomore full-length by making a single out of second cut “Execution” (review here), but even that on its own doesn’t provide a context for what the album as a whole seems to be trying to accomplish, blending various genre elements together in a psychedelic brew that’s admirably individualized. A cinematic ramble of Western-style acoustics threads its way across the severely-titled CD’s five-track/39-minute run, guitarists Carter Lewis (also piano) and Benjamin Cornett leading a vinyl-ready march through the sundry peaks and valleys within the songs, building up in length shortest to longest until the final duo of “Lucifer’s Revenge” and the instrumental closer “The Christkiller” top 10 and 11 minutes, respectively. Comprised of Lewis, Cornett, bassist Evan Warren, drummer Caleb Wyels and standalone vocalist Jordan Knorr, Merlin reportedly based Christ Killer around an unmade screenplay by Nick Cave for a sequel to the film Gladiator, and Knorr shows something of a Cave influence singing as well, a low-register sneer à la The Birthday Party working its way into the eight-minute centerpiece “Deal with the Devil,” topping a cresting wash of noise, building, consuming, and finally, receding.

As the single for “Execution” hinted, Merlin are a much different band on Christ Killer than they were when they issued their self-titled debut digitally last year or any of the sundry other live outings, or demos that have popped up since their start in 2012. It could be that they’ve found their style with this album and will continue to work to refine it, or that from here, they’ll explore a completely new direction their next time out. Frankly, based on the audio here, I wouldn’t put myself on the hook for betting either way. Though the material — even on “Deal with the Devil” and “The Christkiller” — always has direction if not a distinct verse/chorus structure, Merlin conjure an abidingly open feel in the songs, and while the production is crisp and their performances nodding at the Melvins and Clutch and other heavyweights of that ilk, there’s a darkness at the sonic heart of what they do that matches the album’s theme. Cave‘s screenplay follows the tale of Russell Crowe‘s character, dead in the first movie, as he’s sent by the gods to kill Jesus and his followers on their behalf in order to live again with his wife, but is ultimately tricked into killing his own son and then becomes war through all time. Not a movie that would ever get made — certainly a far cry from Crowe playing Noah in a Biblical epic earlier this year — but decent fodder for the likes of Merlin to go exploring, the opening guitar/bass-drum sally of “Execution” reminding again of Clutch‘s “The Regulator” but unfolding with Knorr channeling his inner King Buzzo over the album’s most resonant hook. Liberal use of slide and wah ensues, but Merlin never lose control of the song, and that remains true of “Deal with the Devil” as well, as far out as that piece goes and as unwilling as it seems to step back from its atmospheric distances.

No doubt “Execution” is Christ Killer‘s catchiest moment and “Deal with the Devil” the most experimental, but “Lucifer’s Revenge” seems to be where they find the balance between the two impulses and even blend in some of their earlier (speaking relatively, we’re still talking about a band that’s been around for about two years) heavy psychedelic impulses in both guitar and keys. A classic doom feel emerges, presented with the same rich production but a garage-style simplicity, and as one part meshes into the next, Merlin make their way toward a post-jam apex that harkens directly back to “Execution”‘s chorus vocal patterning and simultaneously channels elder Pentagram in its deranged bluesy sway. It is Merlin‘s ability to make these things fluid and their sheer command of their own direction that makes Christ Killer so hard to pull your ears away from. I’m not sure they’re doing anything that’s never been done, even as “The Christkiller” begins its mournful roll with percussion and twanging acoustic and howling wind, gradually building over its 11 minutes to what might’ve been the end credit chaos — the film was said to cap with an extended montage of wars over the centuries — but their clearheaded execution is undeniable, and that Merlin would prove not only so ambitious, but so able to meet their ambition head on, makes Christ Killer impressive beyond its titular silliness and forceful in ways more subtle even than the smoothness of its instrumental flow. Merlin are still growing, but they’ve constructed a work of relentless creativity here, and while it may prove a stepping stone along one or another path as they continue to progress, it’s worthy of attention in its own right as well.

Merlin, Christ Killer (2014)

Merlin on Thee Facebooks

Merlin on Bandcamp

It’s hard to decide what’s more striking about Execution, the new two-song single from Kansas City five-piece Merlin — the full, crisp production of the tracks themselves, or just how different the band comes across in them as compared to their late-2013 self-titled debut. Since that album’s release last August, Merlin have added rhythm guitarist Ben Cornett to the lineup with lead guitarist/backing vocalist Carter Lewis, vocalist Jordan Knorr, bassist Evan Warren and drummer Caleb Wyels, but it’s hard to believe one six-stringer can bring about so much change in the band’s approach, and that rather, the shift from meandering shoegaze psych rock to heavier crunch and twang-ready stomp in “Execution” can only have been the result of some conscious decision. “Execution,” which comes paired with a cover of Pentagram‘s “Forever My Queen,” meters out an initial roughneck stomp that has twang à la the intro of Clutch‘s “The Regulator” and moves into Melvins-style vocals and (sure enough) Pentagram-style doom and roll. Whatever else it might be, it’s a long, long way from shoegaze.

When Execution first came to my attention, I hadn’t yet heard the self-titled, and so pegged Merlin as looking to fit with bruiser American-style heavy rock, but in the context of the prior album, the “Forever My Queen” cover makes even more sense. The version that opens Pentagram‘s First Daze Here is 2:24, but Merlin‘s take is over six minutes, and since the song itself it kept largely intact the extra time comes from an extended jam on the back end. I hadn’t picked up on it because of the production value of the single — which, again, is crisp and accessible and professional — but what they’re doing there is an extension of the open vibe they brought to tracks like the lazily unfolding “Achimedes” from Merlin, just repurposed to suit their shift in sound. Where “Execution” only seems to build into something more raucous even in its second-half bridge, “Forever My Queen” opts to space out a little more. It makes more sense after one hears Merlin jam all over their self-titled, and where it might at first seem like they’re trying to milk the Pentagram track for everything they can get out of it, further investigation reveals that in fact, jamming has been an essential part of their work to date.

How this might continue to manifest on Merlin‘s upcoming second full-length, Christ Killer (due out April 18), I don’t know, but “Execution” seems to hint that perhaps the band is trying to find a middle ground between boozy heavy groove and trippy psych jams. It’s a noble pursuit, and it shows Merlin have the potential to distinguish themselves in more than just one niche going forward.

Hear “Execution” and “Forever My Queen” now as part of the 24/7 stream of The Obelisk Radio and grab a name-your-price download from the player below, conjured from Merlin‘s Bandcamp.

Merlin, Execution Single (2014)

Merlin on Thee Facebooks

Merlin on Bandcamp

Today, The Obelisk is thrilled to bring you an exclusive premiere of the new video from heavy ’70s lost classics, JPT Scare Band. The clip is for the song “Long Day” from the trio’s 2011 album, Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden (review here), and like the best of things, it combines rocking out in the living room with righteous psychedelic imagery.

Check it out below, followed by some info courtesy of the good people at Ripple Music:

After more than three solid months of Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden holding down a top five spot in CDBaby.com’s “Extended Jam” category, legendary acid rockers, JPT Scare Band come roaring back with a blitzing assault on their newest single, “Long Day.” Featuring the sizzling guitar work of Terry Swope, “Long Day,” tears through more than eight minutes of searing guitar leads, massive bass riffs, and mammoth drum jamming, all in the definitive JPT Scare Band style.

“Long Day” will be available as a digital single from CDBaby and all fine digital music emporiums. Meanwhile, Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden is still available in limited quantities from Ripple Music in two-toned, gatefold, double-LP with two bonus tracks, deluxe digipak CD, or digital at www.ripple-music.com.

If it’s as they suggest with the title of their new album, Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden, then all our cracker asses owe Kansas City’s JPT Scare Band a thank you card, because they’re definitely carrying more than their share of the weight. The release, available now through Ripple Music, compiles tracks from throughout the band’s multi-decade career, resulting in a record that doesn’t quite flow like an album per se, but manages to engage with its individual songs nonetheless.

For those unfamiliar, the story of JPT Scare Band goes that the band — drummer Jeff Littrell, bassist Paul Grigsby and guitarist Terry Swope — formed in the early ‘70s (and they’ve got the archival footage to prove it) but didn’t release an album until 1994’s Acid Acetate Excursion. Since then they’ve been steadily uncovering old recordings and adding new material to them, at once celebrating what they were and what they are in a way few bands can actually pull off convincingly. Their last outing was the righteously guitar-led RumDum Daddy, and with Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden, the trio once again honor their ‘70s rock lineage while also showing off their current sound. Fortunately for all of us (crackers and not), the one is not so far removed from the other.

Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden begins with “Long Day” and “Not My Fault,” a catchy pair of straightforward jams. One of the typifying elements of JPT Scare Band’s sound is Terry Swope’s extensive soloing, but it’s clear on these more recent cuts that the focus is on songwriting. Toward the end of the album, with the more heavy acid material from the ‘70s like the title track and closer “Amy’s Blue Day,” they let more of their jam tendencies show, leaving what’s between to hold the balance. I don’t know the exact dates of when all seven songs were recorded – though with “Death Letter 2001,” I’m willing to hazard a guess as to the year — but the general progression seems to be backwards in time, which is as it should be, informing the listeners as to what the band can do now before what they’ve already done. It wouldn’t work the other way around.

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As previously reported, everyone’s favorite super-underground Kansas City rockers, JPT Scare Band, have a new album coming out called Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden. In honor of it, the band has just compiled their first-ever video, which The Obelisk is honored to be on a short list of sites premiering. The song, originally written by the band in the ’70s, is called “Not My Fault,” and as the video shows, it’s just as applicable today as it was then. Some things, never change. Like scumbags. Scumbags never change.

Here’s the clip, plus some info off the PR wire:

Legendary rockers JPT Scare Band released some of the most collectible psychedelic/acid rock of all time, and now they’re about to release their first ever music video. Banded together during the tumultuous years of the early ’70s, JPT Scare Band fused a sound equally heavy in hard rocking blues as it was tripped out in psychedelia, creating a sound so imposing that it perfectly reflected the emotions of the era. Hailed as one of the “lost pioneers of Heavy Metal” by Classic Rock Magazine, JPT Scare Band has seen a resurgence of interest by fans of 1970s heavy fuzzed out rock.

Now, on the heels of the release of their new album, Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden on Ripple Music, JPT will unveil their first ever music video for the new JPT classic, “Not My Fault,” a song written by JPT in the ’70s but never recorded until the early 2000s. The video makes direct use of the song’s title and biting sarcastic edge as it assails BP for their denial of any blame for the Gulf oil spill disaster. The video is thought provoking and inflammatory, in addition to being a good ‘ol rock video, with tons of never before seen footage of JPT Scare Band doing what they do best.

A while back, I reviewed RumDum Daddy by Kansas City rockers JPT Scare Band, and as a result, the band was kind enough to send me two more of their discs, 2007’s Jamm Vapour and the 2009 reissue of Sleeping Sickness (both on the band’s own Kung Bomar label). Now, as I said in the initial review, RumDum Daddy was my first real exposure — I own Past is Prologue but don’t really count it for whatever reason — but on the occasions I’d heard the band’s name, it was usually in connection to Sleeping Sickness, so I was glad to get the chance to listen. And now that I’ve spent some real time with both it and Jamm Vapour, I thought it warranted a quick note, if only to say “no regrets.”

2000’s Sleeping Sickness was the first album JPT Scare Band put out on CD. The two preceding — 1994’s Acid Acetate Excursion and 1998’s Rape of Titan’s Sirens — were vinyl only and have never been reissued (good luck finding them), so for most of us, Sleeping Sickness is the earliest glimpse at JPT Scare Band we’re going to get. Of course, the legend goes the band got together in 1973 and just never put out an album, but hey, 27 years late is still better than never, and listening to the mighty guitar solo work of Terry Swope on the 15-minute title-track, I’m certainly not about to start complaining.

What amazes me is how JPT Scare Band manages to capture the spirit and sound of early ’70s heavy/acid rock without coming off as retro or over-stylized. Jamm Vapour is even more given over to that spontaneity, but even on Sleeping Sickness, it’s right there waiting to be heard. JPT Scare Band pull off what every retro act in this generation has been trying for, and by all accounts, they do it in a basement in the Midwest. They’re like a mathematical equation that makes two and two equal five, and they kick ass in the process.

Bassist Paul Grigsby and drummer Jeff Littrell do an excellent job backing Swope throughout (Swope and Grigsby handle vocals when they come up), but there’s no doubt that both Sleeping Sickness and Jamm Vapour are vehicles for the guitar to shine. And man, it does shine. Swope‘s got the kind of lead playing used to make bands famous, and these songs feel like what Blue Cheer could have become after their first two albums if they’d been able to keep it together. Thanks to the band for sending this stuff over for me to experience. It’s been a pleasure getting to know this work.

And by the way, JPT Scare Band reportedly have a new double-vinyl/CD, Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden, due out this year on Ripple Effect Music. More info on that here.