Dr. Frank
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dr. Frank is the stage name of Frank Portman, the lead singer/songwriter for (and only original member of) The Mr. T Experience, a band that has been around in various formations since the mid-1980s. Portman has become better known in recent months as the bestselling author of the young adult novel, King Dork.
[edit] Musical Career
Dr. Frank was a part of the punk rock scene that produced the Gilman Street Project and led to the creation of independent music labels such as Lookout! Records. As a student, he hosted a U.C. Berkeley radio show that prominently featured local punk rock music. His own musical career began with the Bent Nails, a short-lived band that contributed a politically inspired track ("No More Riots") to the seminal punk compilation Not So Quiet on the Western Front.
His mainstay, however, has been The Mr. T Experience, known casually as MTX, and he has fronted or co-fronted the band in all of its many incarnations as guitarist and vocalist. Since the mid-1990s, he has been the sole songwriter for the group. His compositions cover a variety of topics but are concerned primarily with personal relationships; he is well known for introducing much of his material with the throwaway line "This is a song about a girl." In later years his musical interests have pushed the band to explore many styles, branching out from the East Bay pop-punk sound which he helped define.
Over the years he has been involved in several side projects, touring with Sweet Baby in their heyday in the mid '80s and later re-teaming with long-time friend Dallas Denery in the band The Bomb Bassets. In 1999, after playing several acoustic shows, he released his first solo album, Show Business is My Life. In 2003 he self-produced Eight Little Songs, many of which were re-recorded with MTX for the 2004 release Yesterday Rules, and he continues to tour occasionally as a solo artist.
[edit] Writing Career
In recent years Frank has maintained a fairly popular blog, Dr. Frank's What's-It. His young adult novel, King Dork, was published in April 2006 and immediately became a bestselling young adult novel, ranking consistently among the top ten teen novels on Amazon.com during its first month in publication. Frank Portman is at the present time working on his second novel, and he has announced on his blog that there will eventually be a sequel to King Dork.
[edit] External links
- Interview with Tony DuShane - Drinks with Tony
