Damn. We’re already on episode 8. This go round we have a guest mix by a good friend of mine DJ Mentos. The incredibly talented DJ / Producer / graphic designer / wizard!! I’ve known him for quite sometime, in fact he helped me put my first website. Over the years he’s done some many dope mixes and projects including teaming up with Noah-O to from the group Analog Suspects.
This vinyl mix contains a selection of rock breaks, outer space jazz and psychedelic show tunes hand-picked and arranged by dj mentos. But the mix is much more than just the sum of its parts. This mix brings to light the love, heartache and passion of hundreds of songwriters, musicians and producers who contributed to the individual songs. Mentos weaves these seemingly disconnected songs into a new form – a tapestry – for you, the Just Records Podcast listener. This mix connects the musicians who dreamt up and created this music with you, the listener. Enjoy your trip and thank you for traveling with The Just Records Podcast.
Tracklist:
- Ben Sidran – Puttin in Time on Planet Earth
- Howard Wales – Karnaval
- Bakery / Bruce Devenish Jazz Ensemble – The Great Thanksgiving
- Free – Mr Big
- Affinity – Night Flight
- Thee Image – Temptation
- Galt Macdermot’s First Natural Hair Band -Ripped Open By Metal Explosions
- The Electric Prunes – Holy Are You
- Michael White – Go With The Flow *Actual Copy from J-Dilla’s collection!
- Chevrolet – Building a Better Way Promo Record
- Focus – Anonymous
- Curtis Mayfield – Do Do Wap is Strong in Here
- Grover Washington – Masterpiece (part 1)
- Barbara and Ernie – For You
- McDonald and giles – Tomorrow’s People
- The Aquarian Age – Let the Sunshine In
- The Galaxy Generation – Hair
INTERVIEW
Favorite dollar bin record find.
I found an original pressing of David Axelrod’s Song of Innocence in a dollar bin. It’s one of my favorite albums and probably my best pull of all time. I feel like that one find was the reward for countless hours of digging for many years.
What’s your current holy grail record?
I think an OG Skull Snaps would be my holy grail. It’s a great album musically, the artwork is beautiful, plus the sample history and the scarcity make it really tough to find.
Any strange or funny diggin stories you could share?
I used to work for ABC News in New York City around the year 2000. My friend and I would explore the endless hallways in the huge ABC building and one day discovered their music library. It was a collection of essentially every single vinyl record EVER released on a major label. “Major label” including all of their subsidiaries! ABC got them for free as promos from the labels to be used… not for the music, but for the artwork. So if some random guy was involved in a news story and he played bass on a prog record from 1971 they could go and pull the record out and show it on the news. So essentially they had every record you could dream of in mint condition organized by label. So I hit Capitol and grabbed a bunch of OG Axelrod and Cannonball Adderley records to check out. After a few weeks I went back to check our more and they took mine back and shut me down. They were super protective of the records and wouldn’t let me take any more. 20 years later I’m still wondering what happened to that collection.
Oh, and I inherited a 1-of-1 pressing of a Nat King Cole record that he wrote and recorded as a gift to my Grandfather to celebrate my Dad’s birth! It was unknown until I shared it. Full story on NBC.
What are you currently working on?
I live in Richmond Virginia and I’m active in the hip hop scene here. I have released several albums with Noah-O and we have more music coming. I will be releasing an album with my beats/production over a variety of my favorite rappers. I also host a regular all-vinyl dance party and look forward to starting back up after the quarantine. It’s called Wax Buildup.
Where can people find you?
Almost all of my music – dj mixes, remixes, beats, instrumentals, hip hop productions, podcasts, etc. are archived on my website.
I’m active on Twitter and IG and can be contacted at info@djmentos.com
