7/31/2007

Mingering Mike


Mingering Mike: The Amazing Career of an Imaginary Soul Superstar, by Dori Hadar (2007 Princeton Architectural Press)
I can't add much to the copious amounts of press that the work of Mingering Mike has generated since Dori Hadar and Frank Beylotte dug up his life's work at a Washington, D.C., flea market. So instead I decided to imagine what types of real-life soul and funk stompers might have inspired Mike's record sleeves and filled the cardboard grooves if they were real wax. (Without getting too obvious with it, that is ... his biggest touchstones seem to be James Brown, Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield.) So pick up this incredible book, cue up a soundtrack and be sure to visit the mysterious magnificent Mingering at his myspace(!)



The Big "D" & Mingering Mike, Boogie Down at the White House

When I first read about this stuff in Wax Poetics magazine in 2004, this sleeve was on the cover ...

The Show Stoppers - "Ain't Nothin' But a House Party"



Joseph War, Ghetto Prince

MFSB - "Freddie's Dead"



Audio Andre, Tuxedo Styled

Timmy Thomas - "Why Can't We Live Together?"



The Big "D" & Mingering Mike, Fractured Soul and Other Wise

Bull and the Matadors - "Funky Judge"



The Big "D" & Mingering Mike, Let's Get "Nasty"

Wayne McGhie and the Sounds of Joy - "Dirty Funk"