The Mr. T Experience (sometimes abbreviated MTX) is an American punk rock band formed in 1985 in Berkeley, California, United States. They have released eleven full-length albums along with numerous EPs and singles and have toured internationally. Their music is best classified as pop punk and is intentionally playful, comical, and satirical, often dealing with issues of love and relationships. The band's name is taken from actor and television personality Mr. T.

The Mr. T Experience serves mainly as the creative outlet for singer/guitarist Frank Portman, the primary songwriter and sole continuous member throughout multiple lineup changes. The band is closely associated with the Berkeley and greater San Francisco Bay Area punk rock movement of the late 1980s and the 1990s, revolving around the 924 Gilman Street venue and the Lookout! Records label, through which they have released all of their albums since 1990.

MTX are contemporaries of numerous other groups who emerged from this same scene, including Green Day, Operation Ivy, Rancid, Jawbreaker, the Donnas, Tilt, and NOFX. They also share stylistic similarities with other bands not native to the Bay area but closely associated with this movement, including the Queers, Screeching Weasel, and the Groovie Ghoulies. Over the years the Mr. T Experience has performed, toured, and shared a record label with many of these bands.

Band history

1985-1989: Formation

Prior to forming the Mr. T Experience, members Frank Portman and Byron Stamatatos had played together in a band called the Bent Nails while in high school in Millbrae, California. The two kept in touch after Portman moved to Berkeley to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he met Jon Von Zelowitz who was a fellow DJ at the university's radio station KALX. He was also introduced to Alex Laipeneiks, who had been a high school friend of Portman's younger brother. In the summer of 1985 the four formed the Mr. T Experience with Portman on guitar and vocals (under the pseudonym Dr. Frank), Zelowitz on guitar and vocals, Stamatatos on bass, and Laipeneiks on drums.

The band's name was chosen on a whim, "a kinda accidental thing", Portman recalled in a 1995 interview:

<blockquote>

There was kind of a concept behind it because [in 1985] Mr. T...had all these products. There was like Mr. T air fresheners, socks, cereal, deodorant, and whatever. We thought we'd be the punk rock band, just another in the long line of products. OK, not a great concept but hey... One of our records, the title was 'Too Late to Change the Name.'

Reader left the band after Alcatraz and joined the Plus Ones. He was replaced by Gabe Meline, who had contributed to the recording of Alcatraz. This lineup recorded the EP The Miracle of Shame in 2000, which also included organ and keyboardist Erik Noyes. Noyes was a semi-official band member who had contributed to Revenge is Sweet, and So Are You and Alcatraz and joined them officially for touring in the summer of 1999, but did not remain with them long. The band toured sporadically until 2002, when Meline left the group.

2003-present: Recent activity

The band's lineup once again changed in 2003, with bassist "Bobby J" Jordan replacing Meline. Guitarist Ted Angel also joined, making the band a four-piece again for the first time in ten years. This lineup released the 2004 album Yesterday Rules. Limited touring followed, while Portman continued to perform occasionally as a solo artist and also in The Bomb Bassets, formed by brothers Dallas Denery of Sweet Baby and John Denery of The Hi-Fives, and producer Kevin Army on bass and Jim Pittman. Bass player Joel Reader later joined the band for their 1997 full-length record, making the entire Mr T. Experience members of the band at that point. In 1995 the band released two separately titled EP:s through Lookout Records. Please Don't Die included four songs and was released only as a vinyl 7-inch while the CD-EP Dress Rehearsal had a cover of similar style, included the same four songs and three bonus tracks not found on the vinyl. On July 29, 1997, the band released their first and only album Take a Trip with the Bomb Bassets.

The Mr. T Experience had been relatively inactive since 2005. Portman has instead focused on his writing career. He published his first novel, King Dork, in 2006. A second, Andromeda Klein, followed in 2009. King Dork Approximately, a sequel to Portman's first novel, was released in December 2014. On October 24, 2016, the Mr. T Experience released their eleventh studio album, King Dork Approximately: The Album, based on the two "King Dork" books. The album is currently only available by purchasing the latest repressing of Portman's book, King Dork Approximately, which contains a weblink to the book's official website and a digital download code for the album.

Musical style

Starting in the era in which hardcore punk and speed metal dominated the underground punk rock musical scene, MTX eschewed these harder-edged trends in favor of a melodic pop-oriented approach reminiscent of the first wave of British punk — with the band likening its sound to such groups as The Damned, Buzzcocks, and Wire and such seminal American bands as the Ramones and The Dickies in a 1988 Flipside interview. Similarly, heavy political and philosophical lyrical topics were cast aside in favor of light-hearted fare, with Dr. Frank declaring:

<blockquote>

I think deep meaning and content doesn't belong in rock'n'roll music. It just confuses things and the things that I think about, a lot of people think are very stupid, maybe.... [I]f I write a song it's going to be about the Brady Bunch or Velveeta rather than something pretentious. I think it's pretty silly when bands get big heads and big egos.)

  • Aaron Rubin – bass guitar (1989–1995)
  • Joel Reader – bass guitar (1995–1999)
  • Jim "Jym" Pittman – drums (1994-2013)
  • Gabe Meline – bass guitar (1999–2002)
  • J Phillips – guitar (1998–1999)
  • Erik Noyes – Hammond organ (1999–2000)
  • Noyes had acted as a studio musician with the band for several years, playing piano and organ on Revenge is Sweet, and So Are You, Alcatraz, and The Miracle of Shame. He joined the band officially for touring in the summer of 1999 but did not stay with the group long.

Timeline

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Discography

;Studio albums

  • Everybody's Entitled to Their Own Opinion (1986)
  • Night Shift at the Thrill Factory (1988)
  • Making Things with Light (1990)
  • Milk Milk Lemonade (1992)
  • Our Bodies Our Selves (1993)
  • Love Is Dead (1996)
  • Revenge Is Sweet, and So Are You (1997)
  • Road to Ruin (1998)
  • Alcatraz (1999)
  • Yesterday Rules (2004)
  • King Dork Approximately, The Album (2016)
  • Shards Vol. 1 (2016)
  • Shards Vol. 2 (2017)
  • Shards Vol. 3 (2021)

References

  • Lookout! Records Mr. T Experience posts
  • official MySpace profile