Dr. Frank's What's-it

You played really well in Detroit last night.

I saw the Mr. T Experience twice before: once in November 1998 and again in the fall of 1999. Last night's show is my favorite to date. The new line-up really is impressive.

Only thing missing from that photo of my most favoritest triumvirate of tunewriters is Blake Schwarzenbach.

(Nothing Photoshop can't fix... hell, then I could make it a foursome and pretend *I* was there as well.)

i agree. while i haven't seen every mtx line-up, it would be really hard to beat your current one. ben's right. i think he was spot-on with the background vocals, as well.

nice photo, by the way.

Ben has that Henry Rollins thing going on. And I mean that as a compliment.

Hi.

I just wanted to say that I went to the show in Detroit last night. It was the first time for me ever seeing or hearing your band (heard of, yes; listened to previously, no), and I LOVED it.

Thank you for making my night so pleasurable, especially since I was supposed to be at work. Oops....

I look forward to buying some cds when I actually have money. I guess you have to go to work for that, eh?

<3,
Merrie

OT: another nice review of Yesterday Rules here
http://www.splendidezine.com/review.html?reviewid=107520221376

I will be in Rochester saturday night at The Bug Jar to critique this new line-up. Only after I've watched and judged this new collection of musicians will anyone be able to draw any definitive conclusions.

I would like to say that I, for one, am relieved Joel is out of the band. What with his boyish good-looks and charming smile I always felt like my repressed homosexuality was going to climb out of my sphincter whenever I listened to Love Is Dead.

Frank, I don't know if you remember this or not but you promised me once upon a time that I could come up on stage and sing backing vocals to Velveeta if I ever came to another MTX show. I don't know if you still do that song or not, but if you do I'm collecting. And if you don't do Velveeta anymore, I'll settle for a lead vocals on Big, Strange, Beautiful Hammer. I've been practicing in the shower for a few weeks now and I'm getting pretty good.

What is the hammer anyway? a metaphor for death?

holy shit! i just read ben weasel's blog thing and it said you've been playing "book of revelation" - that's all i need frank, no backing vocals, no lead vocals, no backrub... just promise me you'll bust out some revelation. that song, along with "cotton eyed joe" and "ice ice baby", trigger some kind of crazy synapse in my brain that makes me jump up from wherever i've been sitting and start flailing my arms around. you can almost call it dancing, but my limbs are on auto-pilot and the song completely takes over.

MY FOUNDATIONS EVER UNSHAKEN!

holy shit i'm more excited than all of the pointer sisters put together!

Well Frank, I think alcatraz is a good record... so fuck em'!

I agree with Paul on the Rollins thing, I also agree with Ryan about Alcatraz although it did take a bit to grow on me. Naomi should've been a hit, kind of reminded me of J.Giles Band. I also loved "Emily", it was weird becaus I remember saying "hey, this is cool it really reminds of something that the Cure would do", I later found out from a friend who really digs Robert Smith, that Robert's wife's name is Emily...what a coinkidink eh?

1)the chicago show rocked incredibly
2)Alcatraz was an awesome album
3)the new lineup is perfect.

no complaints

damn chicago...city has everything...grumble grumble....

i did my yesterday rules review on the MTX mb, which is actually more of an alcatraz review...if anyone cares.
nick

mr. afternoon: yeah, death/rebirth metaphor.

Ben looks exactly like my 5th grade teacher. I always thought it was kind of creepy.

"I don't want the MTX to be my little secret. I don't want to see them play in a "cozy" setting. I want to see them playing the big venues for big money while their records receive heavy airplay on the alternative stations, and sports video games and Hollywood producers license their songs, and MTV makes you sick with the constant rotation of their videos."

Amen.

I kinda think Ben has a passing resemblance to Robert Deniro (young). Especially that face he's making there. Oh, that's a smile..heheh.

I love the picture, its of two of my favorite musicians ever.

Please play book of revelation in brooklyn. I will be happy.

From the review Hulka posted a link to above: "few people can verbalize emotions as well as the Doctor". I think this really hits it on the head.

As I was trying to come up with a description for the country-sounding parts of Yesterday Rules to describe to a friend, but without discounting the level of lyrical construction that goes into an MTX album, I came up with "Ogden Nashville" ("Fucked Up On Life" particularly qualifies for this, with the uneven a cappella stanzas). What do you think, can we coin a term?

I think Alcatraz is a great album, and i dont care what anyone else thinks, Yesterday Rules is great too! The show in Chicago was awesome! Hope to see you in Oklahoma!

Alcatraz is still my favorite MTX album. I think it's incredible. Every song is consistently solid. I have a friend who was turned off by Alcatraz. Now that dumb screamo bands have taken over the scene Alcatraz is a breath of fresh air for the poor guy. But I'm preaching to the choir here!

I completely concure with Jody!! the Chicago show was insanely swell. And the new line up of better than toast! I think it sounds better then then other combinations...Alcatrez is a wonderous album - don't let anyone tell you differntly! hahaha Even tho my favorite is Revenge Is Sweet... Alcatrez comes in a very close second.

Frank,
Jason from South Bay Bessie here. We met last night in Detroit. The show was great. I picked up "8 Little Songs" and it's really cool. Have fun on the rest of the tour. Take care.

Alcatraz is golden.
This MTX Lineup Is platinum.

Word on the street is that Joel is also doing acoustic sets now. Shalalala That's what People Say. I will now go vomit.

info from messageboards @ plusones.com

i may in fact look like opie, but ben weasel looks like deniro, rollins and the Joker ikn that photo. ( Put them all together and you get disheveled Taxi driver runs over batman while wearing speedo shorts with a mic cord tied around his fist 58 times, if you care to envision such a thing)... either way, one likening does well, one does not. You be the judge*its me, the opie-looking one*

JB - how do you know that the hammer is the hammer of death/rebirth? is this inside information?

mtx lyrics are one of the few things in life i take seriously. not having the words to "dustbin of history" and "what's in the cuckoo clock" makes me very nervous and disgruntled.

here is what i want to know, and hopefully Dr Frank can address this or someone can clue me in: does this man believe in God? I'm surprised that he is telling me through song that rebirth awaits me, and i don't see how someone can believe in the spirit world/reincarnation/non-secular shit without believing in god.

"i believe in god/you know/youre still my angel andi love you so" - Frank Portman, 1995, "Deep Deep Down"

im interested in this because i really want to believe in god and an afterlife but most of the smart people i know or listen to reject that notion. and the whole notion of an invisible wizard in the sky who loves me no matter how much of a dick i am is kind of hard to swallow. it would be OUTSTANDING to hear someone as intellectual and (prolly) familiar with anti-religious sentiment give reasons why he thinks there is a god.

and finally, i don't know what version of Alcatraz all of you people have - but the one I have most definitely sucks. I only listened to the whole thing once so maybe I didn't give it time to "grow on me" - but c'mon now. compared to some of the other stuff they've released, can you really put Alcatraz in the same category?

Mr. Afternoon, as it happens, I do believe in God. But I'm not totally sure that the narrator of "Deep Deep Down" really and truly does, even though he says so. His theology is a little muddled, anyway.

As for Alcatraz, everybody's entitled to their own opinion, dude.

Just another long -time MTX fan here who felt compelled to defend "Alcatraz", but it looks like I've been well and truly beaten to it. I do honestly believe that "Alcatraz" is MTX's finest album but hey, I'm one of the weirdos who likes "Wiggle" as well. Frank, have you ever considered bringing MTX down here to Australia? The Groovie Ghoulies came down a few months back and we had a blast, The Smugglers came down and we also had a blast. I think it would be the best thing ever. Just a thought.

And to the last guy, I wouldn't actually want to speak for Frank but I seem to remember him saying he was Catholic in an interview I read a few years back. Also, I do believe the song "Deep, deep down" is not auto-biographical and those sentiments expressed are to be attributed to the songs protagonist rather than to Mr Dr Frank.

Here's another vote for "Book Of Revelation" at the Brooklyn show- that's the first MTX song I ever heard, and it still rocks my socks.

And Alcatraz is a fantastic album.

...and if it's not glaringly obvious, by the "last guy" I meant mrafternoon and not Dr. Frank who appears to have answered your question for you anyway.

Dr. Frank,
Thanks alot for the phone interveiw on 2/15. It aired on wednesday 2/18 at 10 pm. I gave away the new cd "yesterday rules" as a prize on my show. I had a bunch of callers who called in and said they will be at the show tonight in pittsburgh. I am looking forward to the show tonight. Club Laga has an awesome bar, so I look forward to drinking quite a bit of "newcastle, brown ale" tonight, and enjoying the show.

well, i feel kind of bad - like i hurt frank's feelings or something - for disrespecting Alcatraz. "sucks" is such a strong word, i can take that back. but i still say it is their *worst* offering and i might even write the requested dissertation on why i feel that way.

so much gets mixed up en route from the stereo to the mind, it's hard to truly judge a piece of music. when you are really into a band (it's mtx, duran duran, and the monkees for me)and you listen to their poop alot, your personal life gets tangled up in your enjoyment (or lack there of) of said music.

i might very well have been in the bowels of a dark depression when i bought Alcatraz and gave it a listen. i just didn't like something about it - the artwork even bothered me. the absence of lyrics in the CD booklet bothered me. All of these factors and my mental state could very well factor into why i don't like Alcatraz.

or maybe it just isn't a good album and i'm smarter than the rest of you.

and JP or PJ or whoever - you did a commendable job of filling in for frank's voice. thanks. i know frank is busy rehearsing the extended dance mix version of book of revelation for my (and the city of rochester's) benefit. i wouldn't want him to take any time away from that to convince me of God's existance.

Being a catholic is about as punk as you can get nowadays. if i was gonna choose a religion (and i probably will before i die) i would pick that one because it makes the most sense.

I couldn't resist, so sorry if this pisses anybody off. Mr. Afternoon, Frank was 100% correct in saying everybody's entitled to their own opinion, but I was wondering how Catholicism makes the "most sense" to you. Myself, I find religion to be very confusing and quite often contradictory. God is the almighty, but the Bible focuses more on the story of Jesus, who some Bibles say is the true son of God, while others say that he himself was God who decided to come to Earth in human form through being "born" through the Virgin Mary. For a long time, the Christians hated Jews. Jesus was a Jew/Hebrew and was annointed "King of the Jews". The Jews however, did not believe that Jesus was God or the son of God and they are still awaiting his arrival on Earth.So, did Jesus not believe in himself? No, the people who followed him started CHRISTianity. The Muslims believe that their God Allah and the Christian God are one and the same and that Jesus was one of his prophets, like Mohammed....talk about confusing... Also, Christianity as a whole is pretty infantile in the history of religion. Wicca, the Greek and Roman Gods and others are much older...oh well, I'm by no means an authority on religion, but I just got a little chuckle when you said that Catholicism made the most sense, when to me none of it makes sense.

besides, the lyrics are in the alcatraz booklet. at least in the version that i have?

i have to say the catholism makes the most sense
made me chuckle as well,not that i really know
enough about it,I don't even want to get started on that kind of tangent. I do know even if you
had all the proof in the world that one ideal
had more truth than another,it doesn't do a bit of good if that person doesn't have some sort of spiritual witness of it themselves. By seeing the light or whatever cliche seems most appropriate. So I think why debate these things usually.

Not that anybody really is debating...and I had a
non-religious point...I forget what it is though..

though not golden,alcatraz is just fine:)

beth

debate about it usually,and I had a non-reli

I am a Christian and find it very amusing when ridiculed for having blind faith. (This being that there is an omnipresent God that has always been, that the bible is true, yada yada..) Anyone who has an opinion or belief on how mankind was created goes on blind faith. Did Georges Lemaitre not have faith in his big bang theory? Was he actually there taking notes 20 billion years ago as the cosmic explosion of a subatomic ball hurled matter into existence? Where did the elements come from that created the explosion? Big bang theory supporters are fueled by the same blind faith Christians have. However Christians are considered by many who support the big bang as blind sheep who base their lives on preposterous theories. These people do not bother me though. I love healthy arguments about such things and feel that both parties leave the argument enlightened to some degree. This is the way I see things.... If I were a God and had the ability to create my own little world of people, would I create them with the capability to obtain the knowledge and understand that I had? No. I think that is why pondering over such things is so unfathomable. When I just sit and try to imagine how God has just always been, I go crazy. How can anyone have just always been? My human brain tells me that everything must have a beginning and end. Well, it's just that, a human brain. I think that we were purposefully made incapable of fathoming such things in order to rely on faith. Instead of trusting in what our human minds tell us are possible, we just believe. But I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything; this is just a ridiculously long way of trying to prove that all people believe in some form of blind faith. You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.

Here is a new can of worms..

was Jesus the first punk?

now that I think of it, artist's depictions of him look disturbingly familiar to Joey Ramone.

-luke---

One more thing, I noticed that someone made a comment about most of the smart people they know don’t believe in God. I’ve also found this occasionally among the “smart” people. I think that many times this is arrogance preventing them from believing in something so unfounded. It is almost as if their intelligence exceeds everyone else’s to such a degree that they can’t allow themselves to believe in something so simple. However, let me explain something. Most of the “smart people” I’ve met that didn’t believe in God were your book smart people. This would be your average run of the mill scientist-to-be type person who is a scientific genius. I don’t really consider these people smart. I mean, obviously they are very smart, possibly geniuses, just not what I consider smart. I know that this is a blatant stereotype, but usually these “book smart” people aren’t very imaginative. They see things in black and white, numbers and equations. Everything in their world adds up perfectly. When they are faced with something like religion, they are forced to believe in something that they can’t prove to be correct. So, to make things easy, they label such things as wives tales and move on to their next scientific endeavor. The people that I place up on the smart pedestal are those such as J.D. Salinger, Frank Portman, Larry David, Jason Lytle, Kurt Cobain, Andy Kauffman, my dad and tons of no names that I interact with on a daily basis. I think that the term “smart” has been raped and twisted throughout the years and basically lost it’s meaning. Agnosticism and similar beliefs also seem to be pretty popular in anti-establishment subcultures such as punk rock. I totally agree with the whole “question everything” philosophy, but there are some questions that hold no answers. Rebelling and rejecting just for the sake of being punk or anything else is nothing more than ignorance.
lukeblack

I'd consider Cobain pretty stupid because I'm in the Ted Nugent camp on the fact that if he was so goddamn great then why was he always strung out on heroin, lithium or whatever narcotic he could get his hands on and then took the cowards way out of his problems by blowing his brains out. "Fuck Cobain" (1. Ted Nugent). I don't see Andy Kauffman as particularly "smart" either. Funny, yes but "smart" never. I guess in 20 years maybe people will think Chris Fraley was smart. How flattering is it to be put in the same class as Salinger, Frank? I bet Frank would score pretty high on the IQ chart ;)

Hi everybody, I love MTX and think Dr. Frank is super smart and cool, and by the way, "Alcatraz" was just fine with me; why don't you compare it to a Kelly Clarkson record if you don't like it, since you obviously need perspective. But I'm not writing today to tell you all that. Just putting it out there that you can ask me whatever you want about the Bible and about God; I've read the whole Bible and I'm at aczechorosky@hotmail.com for anyone who's interested. From what I can see, lukeblack's got it pretty close, even if he does give a little too much stature to certain celebrities (no offense, dude)....

Yes, I am aware that it is totally "uncool" to admit an admiration for Kurt Cobain with the punk rock crowd, but I don't care. When I was 13 nirvana helped open me up to a completely different world of music. Love him, hate him, who cares. I think he was great whether it's punk rock or not. Also, before anyone sets their Kurt-suicide theory in stone, I recommend checking out "Who Killed Kurt Cobain" by Halperin Wallace. There are some very frightening theories backed up by stone cold factual evidence. I'm not going to get into that right now though. El duche' anyone? Also, I wasn't ranking Frank's intelligence in accordance to the names listed in my rant. I am well aware of Frank's genius. Frank is a rare case that has a vast combination of intellectual skills. All I ever needed was a copy of Revenge Is Sweet And So Are You to understand that the brain behind the heartache is superb. This assumption was confirmed after reading his work and having several conversations with him. Also if my memory serves me correctly, Frank is a national merit scholar and holds a masters or doctrite in medieval history, or something along those lines. We discussed such topics under a chandelier in a smoke-filled bar called the creepy crawl in st. louis. This was during the Alcatraz tour (amazing record by the way) so my facts may be a bit distorted. Nonetheless, no one has to twist my arm to convince me that Dr. Frank is, shall we say, smart. I'm not afraid to say that Dr. Frank is my hero. He has my total respect due to his loyalty, sincerity, friendliness and just Dr. Frankness. Frank has dan treacy and the tvp's along with joey ramone and I've got him. And on top of being such a cool, smart, punk rock genius, he's accessible. Every time I have seen The Mr. T Experience, Dr. Frank has made a conscious effort to thank me for coming to the show! Not many people's heroes thank them for being in their presence. In addition to a humble thank you, an interesting conversation always follows. He sat with me at a picnic table outside of Emos in Austin talking for over an hour about everything from Billie Joe Armstrong to the Soft Boys. He's not locked away in a million dollar tour bus surrounded by armed guards while sipping martinis. He's nursing a beer in a smoky bar talking politics with his fans. These are the reasons that MTX fans are so loyal. We don't go far above and beyond the call of fandom for no reason. It’s the least we can do.

Hail MTX

Frank, what are the odds of mtx covering Part Time Punks at the OKC show? When I lost you at least…please.

luke black

Wow this thread blew the fuck up! Now let Mr. Afternoon settle this debate and all of it's tangents - god, intelligence, kurt cobain and kelly clarkson will all be covered in my lesson today.

GOD/RELIGION/CHRISTIANTIY - If there is a god, we lack the ability to comprehend it fully, if at all. Does it infitness make any sense to me? Sure, going forward it seems pretty normal. But infinite in reverse? That's fucking crazy, uncomprehendable nonsense to me. But that doesn't mean it's not reality. A dog looks at a television and has no idea how he sees people in a little box that REALLY AREN'T THERE. A dog's brain can't comprehend cable. And humans apparently can't comprehend the bookends of time. Why do we think humans are so smart that everything that is fact can be understood? Once upon time our very species didn't understand fire.

As far as Catholism making sense, I'm comparing mostly to Earth's other dominant religion, Islam. It's a violent religion, (some of)the followers believe they will be rewarded in the afterlife for killing infidels. Women aren't valued as human beings (well, that's not too weird I guess)... what I'm saying is if a religion isn't promoting peace and goodwill it doesn't make much sense to me.

I know the catholic church has been responsible for many deaths and all that jazz, but those are humans abusing the power religion has over people. When you step back from all of the history and the weird words in the bible, the basic tenant is similiar to that of Rufus' philosophy in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure: BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER. love thy neighbor. turn the other cheek. don't kill, lie or steal. It just makes sense to me as a moral code to live by, that's what I mean by it making the most sense. And if you fuck up, you just gotta feel sorry about it and you are forgiven. Sounds good to me!

INTELLIGENCE - there are many different forms of intellect and arguing over who is and who isn't smart is, in itself, not very smart.
I know someone who is pretty much an idiot and probably has an IQ in the 80's, but is such a great athelete that it seems like he posseses some sort of "physical intelligence" - how are you gonna measure that? His body is smart, and his brain is part of his body and causes it to move quickly and swiftly with perfect coordination in any situation.

KURT COBAIN - Ted Nugent is a fucking idiot. I love him for being such a loon, but he's an idiot. It might be a dumb choice to stick a needle in your vein, but the person making that decision isn't nessa-celery dumb. Some really smart people have a hard time dealing with the brutal reality of life and weakly turn to substances for comfort. I understand addiction because I'm very much addicted to alcohol and pot. The alcohol I don't mind because it's fun and I keep it in check, but I'm very ashamed by my pot addiction. I think it's a gross drug, it makes you tired and hungry and annoying, etc. but I can't stop smoking the stuff. It's an addictive personality that some people have - that's why I'm currently hooked on this blog page.

i always thought nirvana was pretty punk, i mean compared to blink 182 or some of these other bands with expensive clothes and fancy dye jobs, they are a lot more punk. along the lines of black flag, flipper, and the descendants. too bad punk is always defined nowadays by loud, fast, funny hair and leather jackets. that's a cliche.

i think nirvana was about as punk as "the biggest band in the world" could hope to be. and blowing your head off with a shotgun is pretty punk, too.

Mike Ness agrees.