Empire by Mentone

Dre as well (inspired by their favorite funk masters like Parliment, funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield, etc.) The music contains space, movement, energy, and a power that attracts even the casual listener. Lyrically the music explores the fun of love, desire, and experimentation, as well as the dark side of life where social inequality, injustice, disadvantage and intolerance exist. Though each member can classify at least half of his ethnicity as white, the other halves are interesting and diverse. Together, individually, and as a whole this group reveals a rich and boundless fountain of culture and imagination representing a profile of mixed 1st generation and older American cultural heritage. Mentone believes that only through the act of creation and dissemination can they become full and complete, and able to do battle with the BIGOTS of the world. And only after careful and sustained derangement of the senses can they understand how to exersise this creative power for themselves. This music should not be seen as a reflection of society, a critique, or a praise of it. The goal is for the music to seduce us into the struggle against repression. By nature we seek pleasure and wish to avoid pain, but reality forces human beings to renounce pleasures. Therefore reality frustrates desire. Our frustrated desire causes repression. We need a way to escape reality and free our desires. That is what good art does for us. The band formed in March of 2004 while five of the members were cruising through their undergraduate degrees in ethnomusicology at UCLA. And what is ethnomusicology? The study of music in culture, to put it briefly.

As students we were exposed to a great wealth of musical inspiration. Everything from performance training, to sound technology manipulation, to the philosophy and sociology of music. We are interested in art as phenomenology and social protest, and in how music functions in life and for life. We find ourselves nested within a society that values the physical over the spiritual; the material over the experiential. But, we don't necessarily believe that he who dies with the most toys wins. If you're lucky to have some really enlightening experiences that kicks more ass to us.

We embrace a fundamentaly existentialist philosophy that emphasizes action, freedom, and decision as fundamental to human existence. We argue against definitions of human beings either as primarliy rational, knowing beings who relate to reality primarliy as an object of knowledge or whose action can or ought to be regulated by rational principles, or as beings who can be defined in terms of their behavior as it looks to or is studied by others. Choice is the ultimate evaluator. We are engaged in a battle to keep the right to make choice. We love America, but we are aware of its flaws. Therefore, we believe in defiance and in questioning it regualrly. We believe in the eventual liberation of the American people and to a day when we will account for all of our bad choices, and commit to building a more positive and enriching world.

The name Mentone comes from the street name where one of our legendary house parties took place. The sounds of squealing young women, heart pounding African beats, indulgence, and sudden and sincere epiphanies occurred all around us, and we were intoxicated with the spirit of creation. The music sounds like roots reggae from the 60's and 70's written by guys that listen to and play a lot of other kinds of music, like psychedelic rock, and funk. The bands sound revolves around a solid groove with vocals, bass, drums, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, organ, clav, and wurlitzer piano working together to weave a solid foundation. Samples, turntables, three part harmonies and horns are added for texture and dynamics. They remain free, (especially in live performance) to improvise and experiment with our songs.

You can expect Mentone’s live performance to include, catchy originals and classics by all kinds of awesome artists like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, The Gladiators, Michael Jackson, Sublime, and The Meters performed in their own style, which borrows from the rich tradition of African, Latin American and North American popular dance and rock genres. All kinds of people will be gettin' down and dancing like there is no tomorrow.

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