Congratulations to Ripple Music on their one-year anniversary. The label is home to the likes of Mighty High, Poobah and Stone Axe, and in celebration of their solar revolution (hopefully the first of many), they’ve made an exclusive digital compilation available for free download from their Bandcamp page. That’s cool enough, but the compilation also features new music from Iron Claw and Grifter, who’ll both have new albums out before the end of the year.

Here’s the news from the label, followed by the audio stream of the comp:

Now, as Ripple Music moves into its second year, founders John Rancik and Todd Severin want to celebrate the enthusiasm of their music lovers with some anniversary specials. As a thank you to their fans and supporters who’ve allowed Ripple to strike out and bring independent music to the world, Ripple is releasing it’s first ever free digital compilation album.

Featuring every band that has made the first year of Ripple Music such a success, Ripple‘s anniversary album kicks off with Stone Axe, before heading down the Ripple highway of Poobah, JPT Scare Band, Fen, and more. And as a special bonus, The anniversary album features the world’s first sneak peeks at two new Ripple releases; Grifter‘s self-titled debut album, and the eagerly anticipated A Different Game, from underground legends, Scotland’s Iron Claw. But the free compilation album may be available for only a limited time, so get over there quickly to get yours!

But wait, there’s more. Over at the Ripple Store, everything is still 15% off until July 4, and every waverider who places an order will get their name placed into a drawing for a very special, last-one-of-a-kind surprise test pressing!

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.

It’s easy to sit behind a keyboard — or, for that matter, in front of an amplifier — and lament what could have been. “Oh man, if only the world had taken notice of this or that band, everything would be different.” Well no shit. So wait a second, what you mean to say is if things weren’t the same, they’d be unlike they are now? Guess that tautology major finally paid off!

If this the only reality we have to choose from (and so far it is), I think maybe it’s fortunate an act like Kansas City, Missouri’s JPT Scare Band remained obscure for the decades they’ve been playing together. Think of the still-performing heavy rock acts you know: Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, The Who, Kiss, and so forth. How many still have their original lineup? JPT Scare Band does. How many still have the passion that started them playing in the first place? JPT Scare Band does.

Not only that, but rather than some half-hearted attempt at updating their approach to appeal to a younger demographic at the behest of whatever label they happen to be signed with, JPT Scare Band also sound more truly authentic to their ‘70s beginnings and, on their latest album, RumDum Daddy (released through their own Kung Bomar Records), they capture a classic spirit of improvisation across several jams the likes of which even the most freewheeling of guitar gods from those mythical days of acid rock wouldn’t dare attempt in this century. Next time you see Ritchie Blackmore bust out something that stands up to guitarist/vocalist Terry Swope’s solo on “I’ve Been Waiting,” you let me know. And no, it doesn’t count if it’s on a mandolin.

The material on RumDum Daddy was recorded in 2004, and though relatively straightforward numbers like “You Don’t Wanna Know” and “Rat Poison for the Soul” (as opposed to chicken soup, one imagines) do an excellent job of leading into the album, it’s the jams, man. The jams. And I’m not talking about, “Hey, let’s all head out to The ‘Roo and catch Disco Biscuits” jams. Fuck those jams. JPT Scare Band traffic in epic guitar-led passages that would scare off trust-fund hippies faster than you can say, “There’s ham in the vegan pad thai.”

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