The first time I ever heard MTX was in high school on the Short Music For Short People comp. With their song only being about 15 seconds long and basically just being them harmonizing the word fuck I wasn’t overly impressed. When I got more into Geekscape I’d hear host Jonathan London mention them repeatedly as one of the best punk bands of all time. But I still did not check out the T. It wasn’t until 2007 when Alternative Press released a list of the 10 best albums released in 1997. I owned 9 of the 10 but their #1 album Mr. T Experience: Revenge is Sweet and So Are You I did not own. So I bought a copy on Amazon that night.
What I always assumed was the band played fast-foul mouthed like the song from Short Music, however it turned out to be an album packed with wonderfully crafted loved songs. Mr. T Experience have been around for years (although vocalist/guitarist Dr. Frank is the only consistent member). Revenge is Sweet and So Are You was released around the time when the band was at their popularity peak with their previous albums Our Bodies, Our Selves and Love is Dead having songs used in the college comedy Glory Daze.
I’ve picked up quite a few other MTX albums (although Jonathan will always find an album by them I don’t own yet to yell at me about it) and while I strongly agree with London about how great and under-appreciated they were. Revenge is Sweet, And So Are You still remains their best work in my eyes.
Songs like Your Brains and My Looks, The Weather is Here (wish you were beautiful) and Who Needs Happiness (I’d rather have you) all have a humorous element of sweetness to them despite their sarcastic and bitter titles. However my favorite track is ‘And I Will Be With You” which much like the best Ramones songs has elements of 50’s rock in it’s dancey punk styling.
Truly a band that deserved much more success. Since disbanding Dr. Frank has managed to have a pretty successful career as a writer. I highly recommend his book King Dork. It’s one of the best young adult books of all time.
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