The Comet Will Come: The Life and Continued Trips of Brother JT
“Never worry about being obsessive. I like obsessive people. Obsessive people make great art”― Susan Sontag
There is always a great record that is currently slipping between the cracks. Maybe it gets discovered eventually, maybe not…or maybe not, except by a few boring record collectors at some point (who is with me?). And then there are artists who continually create amazing works, who continue to be passed by…maybe getting discovered at some point (documented in films like Searching For Sugarman and Dreamin’ Wild) or maybe just following the mortal chain like the rest of us and fading into time along with their art (with some fading only to get rediscovered years later).
I realized a few days ago that I did not mention Brother JT’s 2023 release Shakey Jet Loner in my year-end best-of lists. I love the psychedelic evolutions practiced by this brother from Bethlehem Pennsylvania…and his latest self-released record once again showcases primo drippy, groovy recordings of JT’s melodic, often humorous and geniusly stoned poetic songs, songs like Yeehaw and California (you can download the whole record for free on his website). In a world where most records released under the moniker of “psychedelic rock” are boring, studied Wynton Marsalisian reproductions of a once vibrant sound, Brother JT’s music continues to embody the primal heart of the musical movement with a uniqueness that builds on his decades-long solo career.
I first came in contact with the music of Brother JT on his second solo release, an homage to Maya Deren, Meshes in the Afternoon, on the get-hipster 90s psych label Twisted Village. The Birdman Marc Silverman and I used to sit around the living room stereo, in the outer-crust of Beverly Hills on blazing Los Angeles days, getting lost in the meshes of his recorded trip…his songs more memories against the found sounds he wove together. We would search out other records of his, which we would learn is not the easiest excursion given that the self-releases were ramshackley received by your local indie record store. But they were beautiful when discovered…hand silk screened covers such as 1994’s Holy Ghost Stories on Bedlam and the follow up, Vibrolux (a name JT would use for his band) which included mind-twister pop-ditties like Time Was (“Time was, but now it isn’t…time was.”).
By the time Darren Mock released JT’s strongest record yet, Rainy Day Fun, on another great 90s psych label Drunken Fish Records, I really thought at least the alternative music world would start to take notice (remember, alternative music back in those days was more Butthole Surfers and less Lana Del Rey). One of Brother JT’s specialties are his three minute stoned pop philosophizations, and Rainy Day Fun had a bunch of ‘em including my favorites, Beginning to Smile, the sweet Intangible Mack Truck and the lo-fi rocker Oh Mother (click on all of the titles to hear the music).
It was around that time that I first saw Brother JT live…which added a whole new dimension to him as an artist: with a three piece band in tow and him on guitar, his performances embodied the sonic freedom and power of the MC5. Brother JT…Brother Wayne Kramer…it all made sense as he shouted rhyming hieroglyphics in between songs, in between sonic attacks that took his pop-melodies and forced them through a MC5/early Spacemen 3 grinder. Hanging on a magic carpet ride of a riff while he freestyled lysergic laminations, his shows were full-on sonic power. He was one of the lesser-known acts at the legendary Terrastock festival in San Francisco in 1998, but Brother JT, dressed in black amid a band wearing Star Trek uniforms (all wearing red uniforms, for those who follow the show’s likely death assumptions), shattered the minds of the psychedelic scenesters present: just dominating with his guitar-riff driven onslaught. He ended the set with George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord, played with a climatic abandon that was top peak breathtaking.
By then, JT had released a slew of records…as a solo artist…with his band The Original Sins, and with Vibrolux. The latter released records that showcased the sounds from the live show…long drawn-out jams, like Rock Show/ Comin’ Out on Doomsday Rock and The Comet Will Come on Music From The Other Head, both released on yet another classic 90s psych/noisy label Siltbreeze Records. For a minute, he was easy to find in the stores…somewhat coming through town to perform on a regular-ish schedule.
And yet, after that show in 1998, he went quiet for a while. In 2001 I received a package in the mail addressed to my label, Birdman Records. It was from JT himself…with a handwritten note and a burned disc. Would I consider releasing his batch of new recordings on my label? It was a no brainer before I even put the CD into the player: of course I would. Once I started listening, I got more excited. The record was Maybe We Should Take Some More?, released in 2002, featuring more JT in-the-garage classics (like S.O.S) framed in hand made music style reminiscent to a Gods record. I would release three Brother JT records over the next batch of years, my favorite being Off Blue, which I think is one of the best things he has ever done…a very quiet, acoustic perambulation that to me further proves his ability to write quintessential psychedelic poppy numbers, like Son of Sam, High School, and the David Crosby songwriting manifestation of Father’s Eyes. And they all were released and embraced…by his small but loyal following.
Since then, JT found himself on Thrill Jockey records, one of the bigger indie labels around, where he released a handful of once again great records, mostly showcasing the rockier side of his self. He has also ventured into writing books, painting, collage making, film making (creating the strangest cooking show ever to seep into youtube), all with the same psych esthetic that he infuses in his recordings. And yet, besides the collectors and labels out there who appreciate him, for some reason he has never connected with a bigger, sustained audience. Isn’t it interesting that some of the most influential labels of the day released his records over the past thirty years? There is something about his music that connects with those who are looking to champion the best of the best, those who are willing to put money and sweat behind the art. In 2004, Jay Babcock (of the marvelous newsletter Landline) celebrated JT by publishing a great interview in his Arthur Magazine and included a sidebar of some of my favorite JT records. It is one of the only featured stories I have ever seen him get from a respected music magazine.
Brother JT is still making great records, as is apparent on 2023’s Shaky Jet Loner; he is still out there fully embracing his path of creation. With the internet, and streaming, he is able to interface with the world on his own terms, throwing his magic creatures into the ocean for the discerning fisherman to net and talk to. He continues to create his music for another head…the question is: will you try it on? The answer? OHHHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
“I am the blob and I’ve come to rob you of your problems, so give me a job!” - Brother JT, I Am The Blob
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SON ASHER!
Mickey Rapkin on Carrying on a Conversation in “The Anne Frank Gift Shop”
Strangely enough, a short film that I am involved with (through my work at Reboot, I am an executive producer on it) is on the short list for an Oscar….and the voting is happening now (ends today, actually). It’s a hilarious, poignant 15-minute-watch-of-a-needed-story from first time director Mickey Rapkin (wrote the book for Pitch Perfect) featuring Ari Graynor (Disaster Artist), Chris Perfetti (Abbott Elementary), Jason Butler Harner (Ozark) and Josh Meyers (among others). You can watch the short here…
Once a Harbor: Senon Williams @ Emma Gray HQ, Los Angeles
Senon Williams of Dengue Fever has a new art show up in Los Angeles: “The paintings depict the beginning, middle or ending stages of our mercurial landscape. The dawn of life, life itself, or the ashes from which new life begins.”
Invisible Ink: At the CIA’s Creative Writing Group
This is a pretty nuts-o story…wonderfully told by Johannes Lichtman…
The CIA officer seated next to me asked if I thought it was worth getting a literary agent. I said yes, and she seemed skeptical.
“In my other work,” she explained, “I can get movie people attached.”
I still have no idea what she meant.
Great, deep-dive…albeit a tad frustrating (the outcome, not the article)…investigation of the life and disappearance of one of the original members of the Mickey Mouse Club. Looks into the life trajectory of someone who, as a kid, was sucked into one of the biggest brands around….
Incredible Footage of the Volcanic Eruption in Iceland
I was reading the fascinating article, Information Theory Can Help Us Search for Life on Alien Worlds on the Scientific American webiste when I espied a link to this article….more of a short documentary…with some beautiful footage of volcanos. Now…if you are into this kind of stuff, the must-see is the Werner Herzog film The Fire Within where he chronicles the work of Katia and Maurice Krafft, where he offers long segments of footage of close-up volcano eruptions and lava rivers.
Lot’s Wife
By Anthony Hecht
How simple the pleasures of those childhood days,
Simple but filled with exquisite satisfactions.
The iridescent labyrinth of the spider,
Its tethered tensor nest of polygons
Puffed by the breeze to a little bellying sail –
Merely observing this gave infinite pleasure.
The sound of rain. The gentle graphite veil
Of rain that makes of the world a steel engraving,
Full of soft fadings and faint distances.
The self-congratulations of a fly,
Rubbing its hands. The brown bicameral brain
Of a walnut. The smell of wax. The fee
Of sugar to the tongue: a delicious sand.
One understands immediately how Proust
Might cherish all such postage-stamp details.
Who can resist the charms of retrospection?
