Brother JT - Tornado Juice (Vinyl) | Mint (M) Mint (M)

Brother JT, aka the enigmatic John Terlesky, has returned with a mind-palace of an album entitled Tornado Juice. The album was recorded at Magic Door, a new studio in Montclair NJ, by Ray Ketchem, who produced the Original Sins’ Bethlehem album in 1996. This was a departure for the Brother, who hadn’t darkened the door of a real studio since 2007’s Jelly Roll Gospel, preferring the freedom of recording at his band’s practice space and overdubbing at home. True to form, however, after recording the main band parts JT took the files home and overdubbed vocals and guitar leads to his heart’s content onto his refurbished Dell laptop. A prolific writer, often inspired by the titular Tornado Juice (that’s LSD, kids), JT records on average 40 songs a year before narrowing the selection for an album. Often, it is the lyrics that come first, fast and furious - excerpts from one of JT’s many notebooks can be seen on the LP inner sleeve. “It could just be my subconscious going off, but these sessions really feel like a form of spirit channeling. I hear voices, all kinds of voices, and basically take down what they say. It might seem odd, but I feel like I’m giving these beings some kind of outlet. It’s like having a collaborator, say, Bernie Taupin, only from another dimension and much scarier.”A guitarist inspired by the ‘rudimentary guys’ or more specifically Lou Reed, Ron Asheton and Bo Diddley, JT plays a pelham blue Epiphone SG with an alnico whammy bar through a Blackstar Stage 40. Some favorite pedals for this intrepid psychonaut are Halifax wah-wah and Boss distortion and sometimes Roland RE-20 echo. While critics have referred to his playing as “miraculously distorted guitar... that’ll rip your mind to shreds” *, JT demurs “I don’t really enjoy playing guitar. I’d much rather be just a singer, like Mick Jagger or Tom Jones, but I just don’t have the hips for it. And plus, who’d play guitar?”

• Media Condition: Mint (M)
• Sleeve Condition: Mint (M)
• Format Detail: LP LP version pressed on black virgin vinyl with artworked inner sleeve featuring artwork from JT’s
• Format: Vinyl
• Label: Thrill Jockey Records
• Catalog Number: LP-THRILL-457