Dr. Frank's What's-it

I suppose that we can assume that the George W. Bush he's writing to in his last couple user posts (the "In Forum" link) is also *not* THAT George W. Bush.

Or, perhaps it is. He's got to get his news from somewhere, I guess.

I think you should go by "Nurse Frank" from now on in order to avoid confusion.

I really don't see what the problem is..

Or maybe on your next "solo" (aren't they all?) album, you could have Ben Stein do some intros or something and the album could be called Doktor Frank N Stein. bwahahahahahahaha

Something similar happened to Cervantes with continuation of Quixote.

or if dr. frank goes on "oliver beene" it could.. oh nevermind.

>Or maybe on your next "solo" (aren't they all?) album

Not to be too uppity, but the answer is 'no, they aren't'. I was there, I added my input, and we made the record as a band. They *are* Dr. Frank's songs, and I fully submit to following his vision of what this band is, but you must pardon my offense at the assertion that the 'three other guys' in his band are merely hanging around using up the oxygen.

Hey Elvis,

I notice on Bobby J's nascent tour-blog that you have met with a literary agent. Does this mean you are considering a memoir on the complicated history of the MTX? If so, as a fan, I request that it synthesize aspects of "my stupid life," "deep deep down," and "dumb little band" in a one third of each bildungsroman/murder-mystery/bedroom-farce kind of a deal. Also, I think it should be called "Dial 'F' for frankfurter."

Sorry to be a dick Bobby, but if "MTX" weren't more or less Dr. Frank (and his no-name/dumb little band) then I apologize, but what happened to Joel, Jon, John, Aaron, Gabe and whoever else was in "the band" at one time or another, with the exception being Jym, who must be feeling like an MTX senior citizen by now. I'm not slighting you or saying that you are just Frank's guitar-monkey or whatnaught, but it just seems as if MTX is Dr. Frank and whomever else has nothing better to do, again with Jym being the exception. How many times has somebody requested Frank to play something only to hear that "the band doesn't know that one". I'm sure Jym knows it, he's the only one that's been around long-enough to know it (besides Frank). I remember an excerpt that Frank wrote stating that "Joel was perfect for MTX because he already knew and could play the entire catalogue, too bad he lost interest and quit coming to practice and quit trying and started messing around with the Plus Ones...." I know that you think I'm an asswipe right now, but what I've said is just common perception.

um....yeah...okay.....sure...... I was just wondering if you could play that obscure song from "Making Things With Light" that was about a microcosm of Akron, when you come to Cleveland? "What's In The Cukoo(sp?)Clock". Anyway, being from Berkley and all, how did you ever come to write a song about Akron?

BuggerB, I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to accomplish by harrassing and denigrating my band, but there are a great many inaccuracies and misapprehensions in your comment. I'm not going to enumerate them except to say that when I say "the band doesn't know that one" I'm including myself in "the band." Because I am in it. You have to learn to play them as a band, and it's not easy to learn 200+ songs. There are many songs that previous versions of the band could "play" after a fashion that the current band haven't tried yet; but there are a great many more that said previous versions of the band would not have had a prayer of even approaching. And there are many of the older songs that we do now that were way too hard for us back when they were originally recorded (as you might be able to tell by listening to the recordings and "whatnaught.")

Bobby's a great guy and a great, great bass player; we couldn't have made the album without him. Ditto Ted. Ditto Jim. That's what a band is, dude. So cut it out.

One more thing: I'm pretty sure they all do have a lot better things to do, and I'm totally lucky that they've decided to play with me instead of doing them.

BuggerB...Even though it's really not necessary for me to comment because Dr. Frank already has, I just can't resist this one. The attitude you have is the exact attitude I despise of people who listen to bands. You're the type that says, "That band used to be my favorite, but they're new stuff sucks. They should go back to how they used to play." What you need to realize is that a band is a hard thing to keep up. You have 4 or 5 different people who are all trying to express their own ideas. Sometimes people decide what was once a good thing isn't as satisfying anymore. For a band like MTX to last as long as it has, it needs to continue to grow musically and creativly. That means that sometimes members will come and go along the way. You should be thankful that all of the old and current members realize that enough to not force us to hear the same record with every release.

You guys oughten waste your breath on this Tool.
There's always going to be idiots who assert that one guy is the band just because he is the main creative force. But it's called "band" for a reason because it is one. The main creative force behind the whole band has the power obviously to 'take over', but a great bandleader never would do that. He knows he's nowhere without the solidarity of the other 4 or 5 or however many people and their input. Otherwise just be Neil Sedaka and call it a day.

There always has to be one "rotten apple" in the bunch....anyway ignore that garbage and keep fighting the "good" fight and keep cranking out music that I can embarrass myself with by bobbing my head and singing in the car :)

Unless one person believing it, makes it a "common perception", I'm pretty sure it's not.

BuggerB, you're really onto something. When I was in the band I had to live in the closet in Frank's hallway, and was only allowed out occasionally to play a show or get Frank a hotdog from the hotdog and donut store down the street. Frank's closet was a fairly unpleasant place too, filled with empty beer bottles, pizza boxes, and the most disgusting sort of pornography. Frank used to tell us what to play and what to wear, and getting a note wrong was a hanging by the thumbs offense. Back then, Frank was sort of the David Koresh of rock. Well, actually, I guess David Koresh was the David Koresh of rock, but you get the idea.

OMG Aaron that was so funny I nearly pissed myself.

Looky, for I have gotten the screen name changed. Sorry Dr. Frank!! no hard feelings I hope, I meant nothin' bad. or nothing at all, actually.

Also, I had no idea back in 1999 when signing up to be a mindless Freeper-drone under a pseudonym which was the pseudonym of some guy in heart-shaped sunglasses on a CD case that it would spark a chain of events which would ultimately result, some four or five years later, in every single non-Dr. Frank MTX member throughout history getting slammed on Dr. Frank's semi pro-war "blog". Had I known this my head probably would've exploded. Or, at least, I'd have chosen a different screen name, like perhaps "Go Keyes Go". O what horror hath I unleashed?

So anyway, whoever's dissing non-Dr. F MTXers for like no apparent substantive reason that I can perceive, uh, cut it out. Dey all right.

I totally miss Joel's harmonizing backing vocals for starters. Also I read somewhere that girls think he's cute. Why'd he leave dammit! How is MTX gonna conquer MTV now.

--the fraudulent Dr. Frank (seriously)

Damn, I hope the stuff about thumb-hanging and Oompa-loompa porn makes it into DF's book.

At least Frank has humans living in his closet. There's an Evil Monkey in mine.

i too was once in the band. I don't recall the thumb hangings or the closet torture, but i do remember like it was yesterday (rules) how DF would insist that instead of the syncronized guitar swaying on certain songs, he'd rather me do a full on ricky martin dance routine, followed by the entire michael jackson's thriller choreographed dance, all the while shouting "cause this is thriller!"

i still haven't recovered.

anyways.. the entire MTX rocks!