T-Minus Band

T-Minus Revealed
June 16, 2005

The T-Minus band will perform at The Nick on Friday, July 1, beginning at God knows what hour. Front man Troy T has previously confined most of his time to being a studio wizard, playing all the instruments and handling all the production in the comfort of his home. The results have been an amazingly accomplished mix of psychedelic pop, anthem rock, and music that recalls The Cure, The Flaming Lips, The Byrds, Foghat, and The Magnetic Fields.

Troy agreed to participate in Black & White's quiz, which is a scintillating hybrid of The Proust Questionnaire and Inside the Actor's Studio.


What is your favorite swear word ? F**k.

What is your favorite sound?

The sound of a girl saying yes. Or silence.

What is your least favorite sound?

That damn alarm clock. And Mexican music, the kind that has a sort of polka rhythm. It's awful. There are some people in my neighborhood who pump that stuff all day. Very loud. I hate it.

What television character or personality do you identify with right now?

Larry David. The stuff that gets on his nerves also gets on my nerves. I don't go around telling lies like he does, but in almost every other way we're the same person.

Describe your dream job.

Hello? Try "musician."

Why do hipsters hate sports?

It's because they are too cool for football. I mean, why do hipsters hate anything? They feel superior. But I probably can't give a definitive answer, since I'm not the voice of hipsterdom. Far from it.

A very bad music writer once said that Roger Daltrey and the microphone "were as one." What is your relationship with the microphone?

Timid at first, but now it's a full-on love affair. I think Beck said it all when he said he had two turntables and a microphone. You know, down there.That's where the party is.

Your house is on fire, and you can grab only three CDs on your way out the door. What do you rescue?

I don't accept your premise. CDs are small. You wouldn't grab three, you'd grab a box of 50 or something. I live in a different century, anyway. I don't have many CDs. CDs are the old paradigm. I have files. I'd just grab the hard drive on my computer. It has a week's worth of music, nonstop, 24-7, you never hear the same song twice.

Do you think it's fair to blame the Manson murders entirely on Beach Boy Dennis Wilson or Terry Melcher?

Dude, I don't even know who Terry Melcher is. I thought we were supposed to blame Paul McCartney.

What is the worst Beatles song?

"Get Back," maybe. It's hard to say. Something off of Let It Be. It's probably some Paul song, whatever it is.

Using one each: keyboard player, lead guitar, second guitar, drums, bass, and lead vocal, build your own supergroup.

Man, I don't know how to do that. Maybe Bonham on drums, but that might be too heavy. Two guitars, you say? How about Willie Nelson and Jerry Garcia? That would do it. That could make you cry.

What is overrated right now?

"American Idol," reality shows, getting voted off the island—and I've never even seen that show. I'm just sick of hearing about it.

What has always been overrated?

Radio. And Eric Clapton.

Is it possible for your band, as it is currently comprised, to do a Ladies-Only show?

Hell yeah. Sounds great. The estrogen level would be out of control.

What's the best music performance you have seen recently?

They surprised me, but it would have to be The Dixie Chicks at City Stages. Those girls can play their instruments, and they can sing, and they like to do it, obviously. Plus the estrogen level was high at that show, too. After one set they had another group of players come out there, and the Dixie Chicks did about 20 minutes of straight bluegrass with those guys, and it was awesome.


Is there anyone in your band who needs some "Queer Eye" assistance?

Yes, probably me.

What behavior do you dislike the most in an audience?

I hate it when the audience goes outside.

What is your favorite thing in the whole wide world right now?

Performing before an appreciative audience. It's the best feeling in the world.

Who is the best frontman in rock 'n' roll?

The first thing that comes to mind is Mick Jagger. But that's tempered by the fact that the Stones just announced another tour, and they're all old as f**k. They look like gremlins or something. They're all wrinkly.

What's the main problem with this interview?

You're asking me pop culture questions. I don't really keep up. &


© 1992-2005 Black & White - Black and White

As is Troy T (the ‘T’ stands for Thompson), a visionary in his own right who has been purveying his peculiar blend of psychedelic classic rock around these parts for quite awhile now. Maybe you’ve read or heard about him. He’s the guy who, in the past couple of years, has self-recorded and released two of the best albums you’ve never heard: Technostalgia in 2001 and Four Legs to Three in 2003.

He’s the guy who named his project T-Minus Band because his name is ‘T’ and he’s minus a band. Or was minus a band. After some bumpy rides and a long streak of band abstinence, Troy T is back fronting a live band for the first time in years.

Like that of the Asylum Street Spankers, Troy T’s music has proved difficult to categorize. It seems like everyone who hears his records — music journalists included — thinks they sound like something else. Even Troy T’s website is vague, describing his music as, “A true D.I.Y. project that defies labeling.”

Normally I scoff when musicians insist their music can’t be labeled; it’s a cliché that can usually be easily debunked. But Troy T’s music is slippery, a changeling that jumps genres from song to song.

“I’ve heard I sound like just about everyone,” Troy replies after I toss out the name Super Furry Animals. He also sounds a little bit like R.E.M.— in fact, he lived for a short while in Athens, Ga., home of the popular quartet. And speaking of bands from Athens, maybe he sounds a little bit like Olivia Tremor Control (due to their shared Beatles influence). However, he could just as easily be described as Pink Floyd by way of the Flaming Lips.

Troy T’s sound has changed since recruiting a band. I met him on a Monday afternoon at his house, where the assembled T-Minus Band was about to begin its weekly rehearsal. Looking around, I see four other grizzled and tired-looking individuals ready to practice. Troy T is not exactly minus a band anymore.

The addition of these musicians has been a long time coming, and what inspired their absence is an interesting story. It starts with Kilgore Trout, Troy T’s college band that was written up in Rolling Stone.

“It was a section they were doing on real college bands around the country. We were one of the 10,” Troy T remembers. “They called me and said, ‘Today is your lucky day.’”

I ask him if that turned out to be true.

“Well, it opened a lot of doors,” he says.

But those doors didn’t stay open long, and the band didn’t capitalize on their moment in the sun. As a consequence, the group disbanded, and Troy T went on to play in a number of equally forgettable bands. Forgettable to us, maybe, but not to Troy T.

“When those bands broke up, it fucking hurt,” he says. “After a few of those, I didn’t want to play in bands anymore, because it was so painful. But I did want to continue playing music.”

I don’t want to psychoanalyze the guy, but it seems like he has some abandonment issues, evidenced by the fact that to avoid future breakups, he went into a solipsistic exile.

After a few years, Troy T got tired of playing by himself and recruited what is quite possibly the most accomplished array of rock musicians this side of Damn Yankees. The group is currently rounded out with Ken Moore on keys, Jason Lucia on drums, Matt Patton on bass, and elder statesman Tim Boykin on guitar.

You know that expression about how successful people surround themselves with other successful people? Well, Troy T is hoping that’s true in spades.

“I’ve always dreamed of playing with people who are better than me,” he says. “I want to be the weak link. I want to be the worst person in the band.”

Troy T is currently recording a new album, this time with a crack band providing input and emotional guidance. If the rehearsal I sat in on is any indicator, the album will be another good one, featuring more musical hodgepodge from the complicated brain of Troy Thompson, a self-professed worrier, the local scene’s Woody Allen.

As disparate as their music and personalities are, Wammo and Troy-T (whose names when joined sound like a crime-fighting duo) will both no doubt continue to create great music. Sure, there are plenty other parallels between the two, but I’d rather not draw any more, because each artist deserves his own identity, without relying on phantom connections. The most important thing though is that in the end, their music comes from the same place. And where is that place? You guessed it… Turkmenistan. - The Birmingham Weekly

WBHM, the NPR station for Birmingham produces a local arts/music show called Tapestry. T-minus Band was featured on June 30, 2005 and the feature/interview can be heard here:

http://www.wbhm.org/Tapestry/bands/tminusband.html - WBHM Birmingham

Bama's T-minus Band taking its show on the road

By Ryan Hickman
Special to Tusk
March 10, 2006

You might say Troy T has come full circle. Troy, founding guitarist with the Tuscaloosa bands Kilgore Trout and The Nooners, blew back into Birmingham in 1999 following graduation from the University of Alabama, fed up with life in groups.

Kilgore Trout formed in Tuscaloosa in the early ‘90s and reached quasi-fame on the backs of songs like “Day at Night” and “Ten Years.” The band, named after a Kurt Vonnegut character, briefly hit the spotlight in 1992 when Rolling Stone named it one of the top college bands in the country.

But Kilgore Trout couldn’t build on those 15 minutes. Then came the breakup…and so on. Each one stung.

“I was pretty much done with bands,” Troy T said. “It’s like being in a relationship. You put in all this time and energy and when it ends it can be like a divorce. It hurts.”

Troy T started crafting music for himself, spurring a multi-layered, postmodern version of punk rock-style DIY. Filtering guitars, keyboards and vocals into a computer, he knit an eclectic quilt of captivating indie rock songs compared to everything from Beck to The Flaming Lips. T-minus Band, the name for Troy’s solo efforts, hatched in 2001 with the 16-track album “Technostalgia.” He followed up in 2003 with another full disc, “Four Legs to Three.”

This week, Troy will be with a full band again, taking T-minus Band on the road. Matt Patton of Tuscaloosa groups Model Citizen and The Dexateens will be on loan on bass. Ken Moore (keyboards) and Jason Lucia (drums) are both members in the band Bleeding Hearts Choir, as well as other side projects. Along with Thompson, Trey Tidwell will handle guitars and general navigation, because of his touring experience with Atlanta-based rockers The Forty-Fives.

The South by Southwest festival (SXSW) in Austin, Tex. is the band’s destination. T-minus Band's cross-pollinated dream pop and psychedelia caught the attention of SXSW, the largest and arguably most important collection of indie talent in the country. More than 1,300 bands and artists will cover the stages of every bar and auditorium in Austin starting Thursday and running through March 19.

The scope runs from unsigned gems like T-minus Band up to multi-million-selling bands like Dashboard Confessional, in genres stretching from intellectual hip-hopper Talib Kweli to alt-country sage Lyle Lovett.

Thursday at 8 p.m. in Austin’s Karma Lounge, T-minus Band, the only Alabama band at SXSW, will perform a 40-minute set.

“The reason I do have a live band is that I like to play live,” Troy said. “…if I’m just sitting at home recording CDs, that might be cool, but they aren’t going to invite me to come play.”

Pondering the past puts a grin on his face, with tales of Tuscaloosa musical lore: long nights and wild gigs at Egan’s, the old Ivory Tusk and the legendary Chukker.
The Tuscaloosa references are as blatant as the couplet “When I walk the streets of T-town/Thinking back to all those times” in “Longing for October” and the nod to Bear Bryant in “Legacy,” to the more subtle with the allusions in “Cold Winter’s Day” and “Voices Fallen.”

“I tend to be nostalgic,” Troy T said. “I romanticize the past more than I enjoy the present.”

But having landed in SXSW, with the hope of T-minus Band becoming a popular live act, Troy T’s present is starting to look a lot like his past. - Tuscaloosa News

T-Minus Band
Their resumes and various involvements with numerous bands possibly make these fellows the hardest working men in local show business, but together these guys form the T-Minus Band, performing at The Nick on Thanksgiving Night.

After the holiday dinner, spectacular family disputes at the table, and then leftovers later that afternoon, Birmingham residents may find an evening of post-Cure, Lennon-esque, vaguely Roger McGuinnish psychedelic pop-rock quite restorative. After all, it’s not like there are any decent ball games that night. Seated from left to right, Matt Patton (also of Model Citizen and currently playing with Taylor Hollingsworth); Tim Boykin, local guitar god and former member of “insert band name here”; Troy T., front man and multi-instrument subgenius behind The T-Minus Band; drummer Jason Lucia, also of Bleeding Hearts Choir and 13 Ghosts; keyboard player Ken Moore, also of 13 Ghosts and Ferocious Bubbles. (The Nick, Thursday, November 24.) —David Pelfrey - Black and White

Technostalgia's opening/title track features a drum loop, a moaning wind keyboard and vocal samples; they're setting the stage for an album's worth of electronic head trips, right? Wrong. Instead, Alabama's Troy T., the sole member of the "band", launches into "Take the Ride", a righteous dose of ‘70s rock reminiscent of Foghat's "Free Ride". Call me a sucker, but this song is fantastic, from its chugging verse to its falsetto vocals to its cornball guitar solo. "Take the Ride" alone would make Technostalgia worthwhile, but the rest reads like a primer on classic psychedelic rock and roll. "2084" feels like an updated Wings track, with sweet McCartney-style lead vocals giving way to noisy guitars that wind themselves into a frenzied crescendo. "Mountaintop" also recalls McCartney's work; here, multi-tracked vocals and droning guitars evoke the trance of "Within You Without You" from the unforgettable Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Elsewhere, the heart-wrenching, sighing harmonies of "Longing for October" evoke the acid-washed pleasures of Magical Mystery Tour. However, these are not rip-offs; much like Oasis, the T-minus Band tips its hat to undeniable influences while imprinting these songs with their own sound.

What is equally impressive is that these very organic songs are the work of one person behind a keyboard. I find it fascinating that someone can use a batch of wires and chips to create tunes like the blustery "D.O.I.", which -- if I didn't know better -- I would swear was taped from a classic station. Electronic mimicry is nothing new to music, but Troy T. makes it all sound impressively authentic.

In the end, I cannot deny that many of the pleasures I take from Technostalgia well from the history Mr. T. draws upon. To deny the songs their influences, however, works against both their intent and the evolution of music. Thus, just for an hour, I have no problem dropping my critical pretensions and reveling in Technostalgia. — Ron Davies

- Splendidezine.com

The following is a transcription of my thought processes.
All right, the latest package from DOA's editor-in-chief. Let’s see what we got here. [thumbs through] The latest CD from T-Minus Band. Hmm, let’s see, the mag reviewed their last one, calling it “a little bit of everything.” Hmm, I guess that could be right. The cover looks like some kind of techno band with that obviously computer-generated weird airplane wing thing. Let’s look at the back; a big spiky silver ball. Oh yeah, I got it nailed: it’s gotta be techno. Let’s pop this sucker in…

I admit it: I occasionally buy CD’s based on their cover art. Shallow? Yes. Most of the time I get burned, which is probably what I deserve. It makes me wonder, though: if I bought this CD because it had cool-looking cover art, how many genuine gems am I missing just because they have terrible cover art? I’ve heard the maxim a zillion times in my life (and probably said it just as many times), so let’s all repeat it with me: “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” In this case, my biases would have made me miss out on a good CD.

When I popped in the CD and heard “Molt,” I almost stuck it back in the pile to review later. “Molt” is built on thick keyboard ambience and a creepy voice sample, over which some dark guitar work is thrown. The track segues straight into “Under the Radar Screen,” which continues the minor chord keyboard chords for the next five seconds before bursting into a sunny pop tune that’s completely unrelated to it’s predecessors. A definite surprise, but in the best kind of way.

From there, the album continues to churn out upbeat pop songs with a slight slacker vibe to them, mainly contributed by the vocals of Troy T., the brains behind the whole operation. “Two Bit” is a great little song that features some great honky-tonk piano work behind the swinging rhythm section. “Fort” is a tribute to being young, talking about the joys of playing with your friends. The track features Troy talking over the rhythm section and guitar work, an approach used by Pavement on “Conduit for Sale!” The chorus of this song contains a great lyric perfect for anyone who ever feels picked on or put down, whether by bigger kids or by life itself: “We can defend ourselves… Why can’t you see that we’ll take you down with our sticks and stones?” “Between the Lines” and “Way to Go” continue the sunny pop tradition, the former with its Beach Boys-slathered-in-echo vocals and the latter with it’s snappy major-key guitar work. “Invisimel” is another great song, all jangly guitars and tight drumming with some sparse keyboards.

There’s really not a bad song on this CD, and it’s fun and very playful: many songs start out darker-sounding, only to jump right into ear-pleasing pop melodies and good-natured strumming. Nice work here. -- Rick Arnow


- adequacy.net

T-minus Band is known for three things: 1) that it’s a true DIY project if ever there were one; 2) that it’s all done by one guy in Alabama named Troy T.; and 3) that nobody’s actually heard of T-minus Band. The only reason we know about T-minus Band is because Troy sent us his CD when the first album came out, we loved it, and now he’s followed it up with a new one, Four Legs to Three. The smart record reviewer would call it a ‘sophomore effort.’ The not-so-smart reviewer would go straight for the jugular and call it a ‘new one.’

So what’s this elusive T-minus Band sound like? Good question. The most obvious influence people would have attributed to his first album, Technostalgia, might have been: ‘Oh, I really don’t know.’ And they would have been right, since it was a totally bizarre pastiche of styles and genres that even attempting to qualify the album in any defined way was an exercise in pointlessnessitude. That is, the album defined a genre in itself; it was a neologism set to music. In fact, that album looked over the history of pop records, took what it liked, dropped what it didn’t, and deemed it an album. Was it a ‘concept’ album? Maybe. Didn’t say one way or the other in the liner notes, but still…you don’t need a blue satin sergeant-major’s outfit to be a concept album.

Now, almost two years later, Troy T. introduces the new sound of T-minus Band. Ask those same people we did before what influence this album picks up on, and you’ll most likely hear: ‘This sounds like Brian Wilson.’ A-ha! Now we’ve got something to go on, a real cornerstone to describing an album. Otherwise we’d be talking about key changes, lyrics, and arrangements. Nope, not us, because NOW we’ve got license to employ the tried-and-true THIS SOUNDS LIKE THIS method of describing a record. You know it:

‘sounds like a Cuban Chuck D’

‘sounds like Beck’s creepy cousin’

‘sounds like Mercury Rev and Spiritualized’

So, to sum: Four Legs to Three sounds like Brian Wilson.

Which is to say that, when you hear this, you might think there’s a big hit of Brian Wilson swirling around, way high no doubt, in the center of every song. Which is also to say that this album is a lot more focused than Technostalgia, eschewing the rampant genre-hopping for a core sound upon which all the songs express different takes. Ahh, yes, Brian Wilson: That’s it.

But then, why one of the songs, ‘Invisimel,’ sounds like a culling of a bunch of sickeningly catchy and lovable ‘80s TV theme songs, while making the whole of it just totally listenable and GREAT is just totally inexplicable. Maybe that’s just the genius of Troy T. at work again.

Ahh, yes, Troy T.: THAT’S it.

Andrew Womack - themorningnews.org

This open, anything-goes new millennium cries out for anything-goes, jack-of-all-trade rock bands like T-Minus Band. All over the place yet in touch with rock history, T Minus Band (really mostly one person, Troy T) takes an otherworldly approach to classic, pump-your-fist rock grooves. The first proper track, "Take the Ride," has the guitars and rock-anthem melody of genuine 70s rock radio but also a certain haziness hinting at the stylistic changes to come later in the album. T Minus Band plays straight-on rock on one level, but tempers it with beats, vocal effects and other weird but fascinating touches. The band name sounds like it indicates a countdown of some sort, but is it a countdown to destruction? No, it feels more like the start of some kind of reverse apocalypse, a rebirth of rock history, but this around everything's been warped somehow, made weirder. All sorts of points in rock's life span are touched on here. There's a glam-rock feel here, dirty-punk touches there, plus 1960s-ish harmonies and some doses of psychedelia and blues-rock. But it all has a spacey atmosphere to it, an unreality that makes it feel like the work of an explorer and experimenter more than a revisionist. "I look for you almost every day/you are elusive in every way," Troy T sings over atmospheric synth on the lovely trip "Elusive." Technostalgia is equally elusive, but that's what's so delightful about it. Everything seems familiar but also new. As a listener you feel both anchored and floating, and it's a wonderful feeling. — Dave Heaton

- erasingclouds.com

T-minus Band has released two very accomplished CD's that blend AM gold, psychedelia, and Roger McGuinn-era country-rock, all of which somehow winds up sounding like the Magnetic Fields. Or Jeff Lynn. Or Foghat. Or the Flaming Lips. If such a thing as pop radio still existed, then Troy T., the studio wiz behind all these clever tunes, would already be up and down the Billboard charts, bullets and all. Some of his recent efforts stroll into Americana-ish territory, as though Troy T were attempting to sound "real" as opposed to real clever. Yet with such a note-perfect ear for clever, artificial pop-rock, Troy will, one hopes, soon depart reality and get back into the studio wonderland. Meanwhile, here's a chance to see a pop genius in person. - Black and White