Original Sins’ John Terlesky Sings Blues

“Rock ‘n’ roll’s a loser’s game,” Mott the Hoople’s singer, Ian Hunter, sighed 20 years ago on an album that actually was a substantial winner.

Sitting in a club in Norman, Okla., a few days ago, waiting for a gig to start, John Terlesky sounded as if he knew exactly what Hunter had in mind.

Terlesky, who goes by the initials J.T. when fronting his band, the Original Sins, was speaking over the phone after two days of recording, two days of hard-traveling by van, and a previous night’s gig in Oxford, Miss., that he said was attended by five people.

So far, the Bethlehem, Pa.-based Original Sins have put out four albums and won highly favorable notices in Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and the Trouser Press Record Guide, which praises the band as “a snarling, psychedelic powerhouse.”

But waiting there in Norman, J.T. was feeling a strain of the unappreciated blues that’s common among struggling independent rockers.

Since forming in 1987, the Original Sins have recorded for tiny, East Coast labels that couldn’t give the band much promotional push. J.T. said the four band members still support themselves with marginal day jobs (he was working for a temp agency before the band’s current tour, which brings it to the Coach House on Tuesday, opening for the JudyBats). And, at 30, J.T. confessed in his low-key, matter-of-fact voice, he is beginning to have strong doubts whether the Original Sins will ever achieve their aim of signing a major-label deal, a step that would give them the financial cushion to work at music full time.

“Five years and having really nothing to show for it at all--it’s discouraging,” J.T. said. “It makes you wonder if it’s what you know or who you know. I don’t think we know anybody.” The band carries on, he said, because “it just seems to be what we’re meant to do, rather than making hoagies or something.”

Those downcast thoughts about the music business contrast markedly with the impassioned, unreserved love of rocking that leaps off of the Original Sins’ recordings. There is plenty of frustration and disappointment in the world that J.T., the band’s singer, songwriter and guitarist, creates on record, but none so deep that a slamming riff or catchy chorus can’t lift him out of it.

On earlier albums including “The Hardest Way” and “Self Destruct,” the Original Sins drew heavily on the garage-psychedelic style of such ‘60s bands as the Seeds, the Stooges, the Animals and the Modern Lovers. The Sins’ new album, “Move,” is a sparkling 24-song marathon, produced by R.E.M.’s guitarist, Peter Buck, that ranges more widely through ‘60s sources. There’s some Mitch Ryder-style rock-soul, and a few pop ballads in which J.T. echoes the scratchy-voiced weariness of the Kinks’ Ray Davies.

One song, the exuberant “If I Knew,” sounds like a 1967 version of Buddy Holly, with organist Dan McKinney rolling along brightly. The hard-rocking “Hit or Miss” sounds like a cross between Jimi Hendrix and early Alice Cooper. None of these borrowings sounds stale, because of the sheer vigor and immediacy the band is able to bring to familiar styles.

“Move” proceeds from examinations of romantic ups and downs to a more philosophical home stretch in which J.T. vacillates between angry pessimism, tired near-resignation, and hopeful statements of faith.

On the closing track, “Devil’s Music,” he puts his faith firmly in rock ‘n’ roll. Voice roaring over a hyperdrive, psychedelic take on the basic Bo Diddley stomp beat, J.T. declares: “It’s stupid and it’s ugly, it’s immature, obscene / It’s the greatest music that this world has ever seen . . . You can love it, you can hate it, but you can’t eliminate it.”

“We hope to continue doing things in a more pop way, and yet not sacrifice intensity,” J.T. said of the move on “Move” toward a zesty, melodic element that contrasts with the gritty roar-from-the-garage approach of previous albums.

“In the long run, the songs I remember most are songs that had a tune, a melody and hooks. I want to do stuff that may stick around for a while. The first record I did (in 1985) was solo, and it’s sickening pop. But I found when I got going live that people seemed to like it better when I was bashing my head into things.”

That element remains on such wild “Move” tracks as “Like an Animal,” in which J.T.’s beastly, son-of-Iggy Pop roars and hurtling guitars seek to strip sexuality down to its barest hormonal flow.

“I’m a little embarrassed by it, really,” J.T. said of “Like an Animal” in particular, and the band’s more brutal side in general. “But in the long run, those are the ones that go over best. The ambition to get approval outweighs pride. If you can do that and blow people’s heads off, I don’t care (about dignity). It’s hard to be moronic, but I can do it. I’ve never failed. I’ve never come up short in the moron department.”

J.T. was raised on the Beatles, the Stones, and other ‘60s sources handed down by an older brother. Instead of tuning in to the ‘70s rock that dominated the radio while he was growing up--including the Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin that has been a huge influence on today’s popular, Seattle-spawned grunge-rock style--J.T. turned for noisy rebellion to the Stooges and the Velvet Underground.

After playing as a sideman in other bands, J.T. formed the Original Sins in 1987 with organist McKinney, bassist Ken Bussiere, and drummer Dave Ferrara, since replaced by Seth Baer.

“I wish in a way I would have started (the band) earlier,” J.T. said. “I think (the music business was) more receptive in the mid-’80s and early-’80s to this sort of thing.”

This tour marks the Original Sins’ first trip to California. Dave Stein, the band’s manager, hopes that its Hollywood debut Thursday night at Club Lingerie, with record company scouts expected to be in attendance, will lead to a long-sought major label deal.

J.T. didn’t sound confident. “At this juncture I don’t see it happening,” he said. “People want to see things more than they want to hear things,” and the Original Sins, fronted by J.T. with his baby face and bowl-cut bangs, don’t exactly cut a glamorous image.

“They want to hear something they don’t have to think about too much. Pop songs do require cerebral action. You can’t just lay back. They’re aggressive, and they affect you.” In the absence of a big deal, he said, “We’ll just try to do it the best we can, in an honorable way.”

Then again, J.T. said, he may decide it’s not worth the trouble to carry on much longer. The other band members “know I’m not the most optimistic guy in the world. I’ll keep going as long as they want to keep going, but there is a limit.”

On record, the exuberance, life force and full-on wildness in the Original Sins’ music makes it seem as if rock ‘n’ roll can take you beyond limits, or at least make you forget them for a while.

“At times, if we have a good crowd, I feel that way,” J.T. said. “But a lot of the time I feel it’s an awful lot of effort to go through. I see us as one of these bands from the ‘60s that was approaching (commercial success). They get discovered 20 years later when they’re all working in gas stations. The ironic thing is, I don’t think we’ll get rediscovered. I don’t think there will be any interest in this kind of music in 20 years. But at least I’ve had my fun with it.”

The Original Sins play Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Coach House, opening for the JudyBats and Mytuswell. $10. (714) 496-8930.