The Mr T Experience - "Alternative Is Here to Stay" (live)

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Itching Powder Records... what might have been Another Wednesday has rolled along, and it's time for a Song for Odin, which today is "Alternative Is Here to Stay," live at Emo's in Austin, November 1995 on one of our several short tours with the Dickies. https://youtu.be/HVFTYlvv7vE You can read more about the context and background of these shows in previous write-ups of songs in the set if you like. (See notes below.) As you may have noticed, Sounds Radical is re-issuing the old "Alternative Is Here to Stay" / "New Girlfriend" single, remastered, as a very limited edition seven inch, on red and black smoke vinyl. (RAD-014-7) Release date: 11/12/20. The "dibs" link is live as of noon EDT: https://www.soundsradical.com/alternative.html Once again, Justin Perkins did a great job resuscitating what was left of this source material, and Well Made Records did some stellar cutting as well. The sound will knock you out. As has become customary, Chris Appelgren has recreated and tweaked his original design. It's like the intervening twenty-five years didn't even happen. This seven inch was an important turning point in the MTX plotline, and was and is loved by a great many people, including me. It was the first release from the Doctor-Jim-Joel trio line-up, from a small batch of songs recorded at Sound and Vision in San Francisco in 1994, self-funded because we just weren't "feeling the love" from Lookout and I couldn't face the prospect of asking for yet another tiny but begrudged recording budget at that weird time. It was my intention to release it myself, more as a "fuck you" to the world than any kind of real business enterprise, like so much of what I did in those days. It was to be a 12" e.p.: "Alternative...", "New Girlfriend," "Unpack Your Adjectives", and "Semi-OK." ("You Today" was recorded later, as a bonus track for the eventual CD single.) Itching Powder Records -- what might have been... However, in the meantime, Green Day exploded and East Bay "pop punk" was suddenly viable and even almost sort of hip, and many of the disgruntled Lookout bands were at least edging toward contemplating the option of jumping ship for the seemingly better ships that were, theoretically, suddenly available to be jumped to. This in turn sparked a Lookout program of, I guess you'd call it "outreach," sending emissaries out to various bands to appease them, make them feel gruntled enough to stay aboard, which in our case meant Larry Livermore flying out to our show in Seattle with Sicko and being all nice and such. I'd announced the A side song as "our new single," still more an aspiration than a reality as no concrete plans had been made. Larry talked me into doing it as a single on Lookout instead of starting my own competing shambles of a label with it; and even I wasn't dumb enough to refuse that offer, considering my own limitations, of which I was well aware. So the die, as they say, was cast. If die means what I think it does. We stayed on Lookout, if only just barely. Like I said, weird times. As for the song itself, "Alternative..." was a Song for Odin once before (in May, 2019), the write-up of which dealt with the paradox of enduring obsolescence among other things. (Link in notes below.) Here's a snip: "And it is a funny joke, still. (So I like to think.) I love: "we'll alternate all night long," and "Alternative is something more than number 1, 2, 3, and 4, it's 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, Alternative is doing fine..." The bit about Tom Cruise and Anne Rice is a bit ungainly but is based on an actual conversation with a girl who was so bitter about the betrayal of Tom Cruise being cast in the film of her beloved Interview with the Vampire that she actually started weeping and punching the wall as she was telling me about it. Now, *that's* alternative." True story. Anyway, I'm really glad we were able to rescue and re-issue these recordings and that it came out so well. Stay tuned for more, because there's more to come. notes: -- studio recording: https://youtu.be/D1SworlqSYA -- re-issue "dibs" link again: https://www.soundsradical.com/alternative.html -- previous "Alternative..." write-up: https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/980491309329526784?referrer=frankportman -- more on that Emo's show and Dickies' tours: https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1107362505987612672?referrer=frankportman -- songs from that Emo's set posted so far: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLommF46BbnARv40gigYhsYsgcpj4q081v -- Songs for Odin playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLommF46BbnATopffORs0YkspebJHka2o_ #music #songs #video #product #minds

The Mr T Experience - "Alternative Is Here to Stay" (live)

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More from Dr Frank

Speaking of the "Alternative Is Here to Stay" single, here's more from the effective "old notes" series, from 2011 when I first started listening to the old stuff and trying to assess its worth and decide what, if anything should be done with it. Further, from comments: I was originally planning to release this by myself with money saved from the job I had just left (the last job I ever had) till Larry popped up at this Sicko show in Seattle and talked me into going back to Lookout. It was "New Girlfriend" and "God Bless America" that taught me the best method for getting Kevin Army to turn the guitars too loud, like how they're supposed to be: politically incorrect lyrics (because he'd try to drown them out.) Worked like a charm. Last recording we ever did at Sound & Vision in SF. We also did "Unpack your Adjectives" and the original version of "Semi-OK" in the same batch. All of the records were kind of this way, but more than any others, this one was recorded with an attitude of "fuck you guys," "you guys" meaning just about everyone. Like, we're going to record this stuff anyway whether you like it or not. Like, crazy hostility. And finally, from bass player Joel: "Man, as these were my first ever recordings with the band I don't think my outlook could have been more different from yours! I really had no idea that you thought these songs might have been the end of the line; in my youthful exuberance I always felt convinced we were heading straight to the top of something or another." https://www.facebook.com/frankportman/posts/10150279484466597 #music #product #punkrock #minds

34 views · Oct 14th, 2020

MTX ALTERNATIVE

Get hip to the brand new sound that is taking the world by storm --call dibs on The Mr. T Experience "Alternative is Here to Stay" 7" on limited red and black smoke vinyl. By calling early dibs you...

soundsradical.com

Important message from Sounds Radical, Dept. of Resuscitations Get hip to the brand new sound that is taking the world by storm --call dibs on The Mr. T Experience "Alternative is Here to Stay" 7" on limited red and black smoke vinyl. This classic MTX 7-inch was carefully remastered by Justin Perkins of Mystery Room Mastering from the original transfers from Jessica Thompson and precisely cut by Clint at Well-Made. This little beauty has never sounded better! So enjoy rock and roll as it should be played, at 45 RPMS! https://www.soundsradical.com/alternative.html #music #product #vinyl #minds

1.04k views · Oct 14th, 2020

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