JPT Scare Band - Live At Crosstown Station (2026)

For decades, JPT Scare Band has existed as one of heavy music’s most enigmatic cult secrets—a band formed in the early 1970s whose thunderous acid rock and proto-metal fury remained largely undocumented on official releases… until now.

Live at Crosstown Station captures a 2011 concert put together by KKFI 90.1 FM in Kansas City. The show was largely improvised and rehearsed just enough to confirm starts and stops. As frontman Terry Swope told the crowd that night after playing "Sleeping Sickness": "We played that song once, in 1975. This was the second time."

This is a vital piece of underground rock history finally seeing the light of day. Despite forming in Kansas City, Missouri over five decades ago, JPT Scare Band didn’t properly issue studio albums until the 1990s and beyond, leaving their legendary live energy mostly to word-of-mouth and battered bootlegs. This live set changes that and offers the clearest sonic snapshot yet of their heavy psych/acid rock hybrid in a raw, room-shaking setting. The release will appeal strongly to collectors of obscure heavy psych and early metal, and anyone who worships at the altar of Sabbath, Blue Cheer, and Leaf Hound.

The multitrack recordings were helmed by local engineer Dave Brock. Sound was run by Rocky Rude, whose resume includes Deep Purple, Mountain, and The Who. Psychedelic visuals by Paul Grigsby's son John Paul (now bassist for Gregory Alan Isakov) flanked the stage. Paul later mixed and mastered the tracks at Kung Bomar Studios. The result is raw, spontaneous, and historically vital: a cult band's live debut, five decades in the making.

Formed in early 1970s Kansas City, JPT Scare Band have spent decades graduating from totally unknown to painfully obscure. And yet—original lineup still intact. Still making meaningful music. Still proud of the twisted analogue insanity they've been recording since the days of reel-to-reel.

About the band's genesis, guitarist and vocalist Terry Swope recalls: "The JPT Scare Band had no official beginning. The kind hand of fate brought Jeff, Paul and I together in 1973 and left us to sort it out. We moved into a house and set up our gear in the basement. As we jammed away the days and nights, an odd organic process was set in motion. Jeff, Paul and I discovered that we could make a mighty noise. Rather than question this remarkable development, the three of us simply accepted it as fact. We rarely discussed chords or arrangements; those things were beside the point. All that concerned us was combining our energy and using it to create a habitable musical world. Once we made that happen, our travels began.”

Over the years, word has crept into odd corners of the world. In 2007, Classic Rock Magazine named them among the "Lost Pioneers of Heavy Metal" alongside Iron Butterfly, Bloodrock, and Leafhound. The band will take it, even if they never quite called themselves metal. Their first two albums Acid Acetate Excursion and Rape of Titan's Sirens were issued on vinyl only and vanished fast. Their first CD release, Sleeping Sickness, was swallowed when the label Monster Records imploded amid tragedy. For years, JPT existed mostly as rumor and out-of-print artifacts.

Then came Ripple Music. In 2010, guitarist Jeff Littrell reached out to Todd Severin of The Ripple Effect website, asking him to produce an album. Todd instead founded the now world-renowned label Ripple Music and released Acid Blues Is The White Man's Burden as a double gatefold vinyl. Success followed. Fifteen years later, these two forces of nature team up once again to present this essential live work to the masses, with the exclusive release of JPT Scare Band's Live at Crosstown Station in the spring of 2026.

JPT Scare Band is
Terry Swope — Guitar, Lead Vocals
Paul Grigsby — Bass, Vocals
Jeff Littrell — Drums, Vocals