The Mr. T Experience

...And the Women Who Love Them (Special Addition) (2002)

Hey_Asshole

The Mr. T Experience is one of those bands that, like Sewer Trout and Blatz, get overlooked when set against the great Lookout! Records back catalog. While Screeching Weasel, the Queers, Operation Ivy and Green Day get all the hype, the rest of the halcyon days of the label seem to get lost.

…And the Women Who Love Them (Special Addition) is a reissue of the EP of the same title (originally released in 1994), and the "Special Addition" (yes, it IS spelled "addition" and not "edition") collects B-sides, compilation tracks, cover songs and the Alternative Is Here to Stay 7-inch.

The original EP runs through tracks 1-7. If you know old Lookout! Records, and any other stuff by MTX, you know what to expect. This is classic Ramones-influenced pop-punk. The thing that sets this apart from bands like Screeching Weasel and the Queers is the "intellectual" humor. But, you still are getting the genre-expected songs about girls and love.

"Tapin' Up My Heart" starts with Dr. Frank talking, and then it goes into your general "guy likes girl who does not like guy" territory. The next track, "My Stupid Life" is a good old-fashioned song about being bored and frustrated with how your life turned out. "Checker's Speech" and "We Hate All the Same Things" follow, and feature more of the excellence that is highly apparent when it comes to this band. Rounding out the full EP is the acoustic song "Now That You Are Gone"; if songs about being jilted by a person who really does not want you around and fakes suicide are up your alley, look no further.

Now to the added stuff. Sadly, this half of the album is not nearly as strong. As a collection of B-sides it is very disjointed. "How'd the Date End" (an acoustic joke song about the show Love Connection), "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" and "We Are the Future People of Tomorrow" are joke songs. "Unpack Your Adjectives," "Is There Something I Should Know?", "Whistle Bait," "Crash" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" are covers (of songs by Schoolhouse Rock, Duran Duran, Larry Collins, the Primitives and Elton John…respectively). They are all done in the pop-punk style.

Swimming in the second half of this record is the classic "King Dork." But, being that it is the second-to-last song, it gets lost in the shuffle. This is not to say the second half is totally pointless; the original songs are pretty solid, but the covers and joke songs kind of wreck it.

So, in closing, if pop-punk is your thing, pick this up. It is a great example of how great Lookout! Records used to be. This should still be in print, but it is listed as "temporarily out of stock" on both Lookout! Records' store, and Dr. Frank's store. It is worth it.

Overall, this record is a solid 7/10.