Notes from the Dr Frankosphere
The Dr Frank Weakly Reader for 5.21.2020
Hello and welcome to yet another edition of the Dr Frank Weakly Reader, wherein I present an illustrated, expanded recap of the week in the Dr Frankosphere. If you’ve stumbled on one of these in the past, and if you’ve bothered to read the introduction, you’ll know that I do this mainly for myself, as an aid to finding things in the future, should I ever want to (because social media broke the internet by being non-searchable and censorship-happy.) That said, you may read along if you like. There’s good stuff in here. If good stuff is the sort of thing you’re interested in.
Let’s begin.
FRONT BURNER
— The Mr T Experience…. and the Women Who Love Them test pressing has arrived, and it’s a stunner. Wait’ll you hear it. I found the tape, Jessica Thompson transferred it, Justin Perkins mastered it, Clint Holley at Well Made Music cut it, United pressed it, and it sounds really, really great, the best-sounding thing we’ve done so far in this Sounds Rad enterprise. This is the first time this record has been done on vinyl (though three of the eight songs were on a 7" and “I Believe in You” was on the Mtx forever comp.) Fortunately, the sides were short enough to do it as a 45 RPM 12", which is a great format for rock and roll music. I kind of want to do all the releases like that, two vinyl discs at 45 RPM, but that would be a bit insane I know.
Anyway, can’t wait till it explodes out of your speakers like it just exploded out of mine. There were some delays due the pandemic, so we’re looking at an August release on this at this point. There was already a special private “dibs” for this a ways back, just among people who were already on the list because they’d already called dibs on previous releases, but the plan is to open it up and do another more “public” one to make sure everyone who wants one has a chance to get one. More details on that forthcoming.
— The Way It Sounds Like: And in more product news: a second “pressing” of this cassette-only release… a first in my experience.
It’s been sold out for a while, and this edition went through a sort of “quarantine” over the past four months, stranded in production and transit between various plant closures, but… they’re here. White cassette shell rather than the original blue for anyone who might want to collect the variants (and I know you’re out there — weirdoes!)
Come groove with me — here’s the link if you want one. And you can read the backstory here.
MTX IN THE ROUND
— Just another old T shirt, ca. 1996: Of course I wear my own band’s shirts. It’s a team and I’m a player.
— Succeeded in making receive fell familiar with volleyball receive, toss, and attack: Google translating Japanese posts on twitter always gives good value. This one captions a picture of Milk Milk Lemonade and Our Bodies Our Selves. Read the whole thing.
— President of the United States of Love: a guy on twitter excavated this old, quite kind, show preview/review by Zac Crain. Revenge Is Sweet era, ca. 1997.
—I do try to do my lyrics good: Sounds Rad Grand Emperor Chris Thacker clips clips out of clips he feels I should see, this one from a review of Mtx forever in Razorcake, from our old pal Rich Cocksedge. Aw shucks, Rich, but thanks a million!
— Love Is Dead was twenty years old four years ago, when I did this interview about it posted on the Underthought blog.
— Song for Odin: it was “Surfin’ Cows” this week, from an August 1988 show at Gilman:
The “minor secrets” write-up is here. And here’s the previous “Surfin’ Cows” Song for Odin write-up (from a couple of years ago.) You can find more songs from this show on this playlist. And here’s the Songs for Odin playlist.
— … and your Friday morning “Oh, Just Have Some Faith in Me”, a short film:
Covers playlist here.
FROM THE DESK OF DR FRANK
— Hell of Oakland: just something I saw on one of my rambles (inset left). Love ate his brain and left his head filled with dead leaves. I mean, obviously.
— Voting blind: on occasion, I will complain about the poorly-implemented and conceptually dubious World Congress feature of the computer game Civilization VI, and this was one of those occasions.
— All My Vinyl, part v: Some more stuff I wrote about records, incl. Funky Junction / Thin Lizzy, the Humans, Iggy Pop, Herman Brood, Dr Hook, and the Rolling Stones. It’s a post on Medium.
OTHER PEOPLE’S MUSIC
— Sparks — “Please Don’t Fuck Up My World”:
This is from a brand new Sparks record, which I’m really enjoying (to no one’s surprise, I’m sure.) It’s quite an interesting album beyond this mere enjoyment, in fact, and has, er, sparked many thoughts about composition, arrangement, lyrics, context in pop music, irony and… I guess you’d say “authorial authority…” I may try to articulate them at some point. All that aside, it’s great that these guys are still churning out the quality product and so obviously having so much fun with it. A true bright spot on an often grim horizon.
PICTURE BOOK
— Roman calendar: Saint Brendan, celebrating Easter mass on the back of a whale in the Western ocean, from an illuminated manuscript; Honoratus of Amiens; the martyrdom of Venantius; Saint Dunstan and the Devil; Alcuin of York; Antonio Campi’s Ascension (detail from Les Mystères de la Passion du Christ); Blessed John Forest in stained glass…
— Behold: butterfinger; another one from Milo Manera; loin of the surf; Hatari; bathing beauty; Vito. Me. Joe.; Candice Swanepoel, angel; Lambretta ad; Oh, get of my back you square…
— …and finally, Farah Fawcett-Majors Bean Bags:
My 1978 bedroom wall: JFK, the Pope, Willie Mays, the Clash, the Rolling Stones, Debbie Harry, a map of Middle-Earth, and this poster. (Though I didn’t have a bean bag.)
IN THE NEWS
— RIP: the great Fred Willard and Ken Osmond (who played Eddie Haskell) have set off from the Grey Havens for Valinor.
FIN
And that’s it for now, at least, that’s it for now as far as the Weakly Reader is concerned. But for those of you who have made it this far down the page, here’s more Farah:
See you next week.
