WZRD is NEIU’s Student-Run Freeform radio station. This past year, it celebrated its 50th Anniversary of curating and broadcasting music, voices, and ideas that challenge the status quo and engage all who tune in! To increase collaboration within our Student Media Board and to foster heightened interaction with all of our productions and publications, we are embarking on some joint endeavors, this new segment being one of them. Over time, WZRD has picked up more than 50,000+ pieces of physical media (CDs, vinyl, tapes), and now we share them with you. Tune in here every issue for a Review from the WZRD Vaults.

Review from the WZRD Vaults: “J.T. IV – Cosmic Lightning” (1987)

When flipping through the WZRD collection, I find myself stopping at record #7649 – the records are arranged numerically by date of donation to the station, meaning that as we head into this range, we are likely traveling back to a period in the late 80s (WZRD’s first live broadcast was in 1974).

You can immediately tell there’s a backstory to this one, with its DIY aesthetics that include: a paste-on cover with the artist prominently displayed, flipping you the bird, customized stamps of pigs, vultures, and space oddities, along with a hand-typed track list and dedications, to name a few of the unique elements.

This particular press indicates it’s copy #14 (of 150 pressed), being authenticated and signed off by the self-proclaimed “SINGER / SONGWRITER / AUTHOR / ACTOR / FILM DIRECTOR / ARTIST / ROCK AND ROLL VEGETABLE,” John Henry Timmis IV, a now Chicago underground legend (or should be considered so, at least). The record in question is the local Chicago private pressed “Cosmic Lightning,” by J.T. IV, released in 1987 on Timmis’ own label, “Rock and Roll Records.”

Technically, this is more of a compilation, containing all previously released J.T. IV singles, along with some unreleased tracks for good measure, with all the recordings having taken place between 1977 to 1987. Though it is unlikely that many were exposed to those earlier releases due to the limited quantities and lack of promotion (or luck) behind them, making this is a truly special time capsule that lies within the WZRD walls.

Musically speaking, this one fits right in with the “freeform” aesthetics that WZRD embodies, with sounds ranging from the punky, fuzzed-out, psychedelic mayhem included on Death Trip/The Monitors/Destructo Rock, to heartfelt, acoustic love ballads as heard on Song for Suzzanne, extending to the autobiographical stories from time spent committed in the Menninger Clinic on In the Can/Out of the Can, and even some covers, albeit, with slight twists, from the likes of Lou Reed and Nancy Sinatra on Waiting for the CTA/Sunday Morning/The City Never Sleeps at Night.

 J.T. IV even includes a frantically played instrumental, colliding a rapidly strummed acoustic guitar with a manically played saxophone that phases out at the end as Timmis instructs us to “go wild.” Not a tall order when taking this one in. With such a broad range of sounds covered, it’s difficult to define what is contained within the constraints of this 12” platter, but J.T. IV helps us out in this instance, describing this musical assault we are being exposed to as his own brand of “Destructo Rock.” Whatever you want to refer to this as, one can’t deny the heart and creativity that was put into this one-of-a-kind output.

Alright, so I had mentioned there was a backstory to this one, and while numerous others have at this point written about J.T. IV, what I was referring to is the physical copy in the WZRD collection, with the sharpie inscriptions written presumably by Wizards of the past. 

And while I don’t know exactly what triggered these inscriptions, I have heard that Timmis was an avid self-promoter and was known to phone in repeatedly to local radio stations to hype the record.

So again, while I can’t be certain, I imagine the phone ringing off the hook with song requests coming through day after day, so much so, that a certain Wizard finally had enough and decided to lightheartedly capture these insistent efforts for future DJs, noting “dis is my dialin finga” and “I got ya numbah” Indicating that this is “WZRD’s No. 1 requested stuff.” But eventually it must have crossed the line, with them wishing him (humorously, I’m sure) to be “6 feet underground.”

So, if you are one of the 149 remaining humans in the world who own this record, then good for you, but for the rest of us, feel free to give your local Wizard a call at (773) 442-4578 and request they throw on record #7649 and allow you to get blown away by some “Destructo Rock.”

If you’re reading this, thinking to yourself, “I didn’t know we had a sick, freeform radio station on campus”, come down to E062 to see what’s going on and maybe even get involved. And as always, tune in to 88.3 FM for all your Wizardly needs!