Sounds Rad (2020)
In case you missed it, The Mr. T Experience and Sounds Rad have been reissuing albums over the past few years. Rumor has it that this will continue for the foreseeable future until every album has been reissued. This is a project that I have been following pretty closely and even though I have original pressings of most of these releases, I'm keen to see what's next.
Something I didn't see coming was a reissue of the Alternative is Here to Stay 7". I had figured (and hoped) that the Mr. T Experience singles would eventually be compiled onto an LP to go along with the two volumes of Shards compilations that have already been released. I think that might still be a plan of theirs, but I guess we might see more of the individual 7"s as well.
You'd be hard pressed to start with a better one than this. I believe that this was the first 'new' MTX record that came out after I discovered them back in the 90s. I likely only had a few of their records to my name at the time, but this one knocked my socks off. Anyone with a partial pulse in 1995 could tell you how much we heard the word 'alternative' on an hourly basis. To see it sent up as a 60s inspired pop punk ditty extolling its virtues, well that was next level funny to me.
The B side is "New Girlfriend." One of those classic Dr. Frank relationship songs casting a wry eye at things. It's fast, it's catchy and there's some talking about breasts. Just the sort of thing that made me chuckle when I was eighteen years old. And it still makes me chuckle today, to be honest, as it's not done in a mean spirited or cruel way. It's just a fun, well written and silly song and that's more than you can say for a lot of things these days.
The CD version from back in 1995 also had a third song called "You Today" (and an 'alternative' version fo "Alternative is Here to Stay" that I honestly have zero memory of). "You Today" isn't on either of the Shards LPs. Surely this means they'll still have to do a singles comp, right? Right?
The Mr. T Experience - "Alternative is Here to Stay":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHP5BgVvWmo&ab_channel=Dr.Frank
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