joshthevegan

We are deep in the heart of summer here in the northern hemisphere, and although I'm a fan of brainy pop punk all year 'round, the warm weather basically demands a steady stream of upbeat, fun songs about love and life's other disasters.

This particular summer, I have found myself turning to some of the classic releases from the hey-day of Lookout! Records. This is the label that brought Green Day and Operation Ivy (which would eventually morph into Rancid) to the world initially, as well as some other smaller act like The Queers, Screeching Weasel (who have a newish album out) and The Mr. T Experience.

The Mr. T Experience (or MTX for short) are considered to be the first punk band in the "Bay Area" punk scene of Southern California's East Bay. They built their following around gigs at the 924 Gilman Street punk club, where such punk heavyweights as NoFX and Bad Religion also performed back in the 1980's.

MTX's first few albums are a blend of pop punk that is heavily influenced by The Ramones, via Descendents and 1960's-style surf rock. While these first releases are rather enjoyable, it wasn't until their sixth album, and after all of the original members (aside from frontman "Dr." Frank Porter) had quit the band, that MTX started releasing their most memorable and enduring works.

Their first full-length during this peak era is Love is Dead, and it also happens to be the first album they offered after their former label-mates Green Day exploded into the mainstream with Dookie. Love is Dead is a masterpiece of peppy sunshine pop, which pairs perfectly with Dr. Frank's offbeat lyrics about love. Whether it is unrequited love ("I'm Like Yeah, But She's All No"), or love in the blossoming stages ("I Just Wanna Do It With You" which isn't nearly as dirty as it sounds), or simply love of playing music just for the fun of it, even though some of your peers are cashing in ("Dumb Little Band"), the full spectrum of love's possibilities are explored, and although love might be "dead", it sure is fun.

Love Is Dead - 8 out of 10

Punk bands were just starting to delve fully into the world of the music video in the mid '90's, and MTX put together a pretty excellent one for one of the songs from this album, "Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba":