The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 13, 1996 - 9 Mint Condition sweats By Jesska Slnons For the Daily "After seven years in the music indus- Zty and releasing three albums, some "mtisic listeners still don't know what Mint Condition is all about. On their current album "Definition Of A Band," the °nembers of Mint ndition have set PR tout to clarify what heir music is all Mil about. "i think N're definitely with Keith Eing to let a lot of 'itlks know that We're a band, you know. This is our ,Ihtrd. album and a lot of people don't "thow that we're a band. We just try to Tet them know the different flavors we , said keyboard player and percus- nist Keri Lewis in a recent telephone interview with The Michigan Daily. Mint Condition, a six-member band, consists of Lewis, guitar player O'Dell, bass player Ricky Kinchen, keyboards / sxophone player Jeffery Allen, key- boards player Lawrence Waddell and , d vocalist / percussion player Stokley. With the exception of Ricky Kinchen, :tiese St. Paul natives first came togeth- in high school. "Most of the group, verybody except for Ricky, went to the same high school, St. Paul Central. And a lot of us kind of hooked up there and they had a recording studio there also. We kind of met each other through music in the high E Swe school;" Keri said. "In about '86 we got together and decided to put together Mint Condition. After that, Mint Condition went through a couple differ- ent little things. This cord came together in '89. In '89, we went after a recording contract" O'Dell added. Mint Condition , is a self-contained V I EW entity. The band t Condition plays all of its own instruments, writes Saturday at 8 p.m. its own music and Fox Theatre, Detroit eat and Deborah Cox sings all lead and backup vocals. Another trait that sets Mint Condition apart is the unique and diverse sound expressed in the band's music. Mint Condition mixes R&B, jazz, rock, funk, Caribbean and African rhythms in a style the band refers to as "gumbo.' "Everybody just comes from a differ- ent background," Kinchen said. "Jeff, you know, his dad had a jazz collection. Everybody just grew up listening to dif- ferent types of music. Keri was into more of, or probably started out listen- ing to, the Luther and Stevie and the Teddy Riley and Babyface and L.A. and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. I'm from a family of brothers who listen to every- thing like Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Hendrix, Band of Gypsies, the Rolling Stones, Parliament and Funkadelic. Everybody grew up listening to all the bands of the '70s, so all of them are basically our influences. "You hear some of our influences on our album, but you also hear Mint Condition too," Kinchen continued. with Cox "You don't just hear us, you know, copying everybody's tunes. You hear some of the flavor, but you know, I think we also just naturally put that together, being six people in a group. "If someone comes with a different style, we don't say, 'Nahw, we don't want to include that,' whereas another R&B group might just say 'we just want to sound like what's on the radio right now,"' Lewis added. Mint Condition has also begun to spread its musical wealth to other artists and groups around the music industry. "Well, we're starting off our new pro- duction company, Mint Factory Productions, and we've just really dab- bled into the outside production so far," Lewis said. "The group Sultry, we did a couple songs for them. Jesse Powelle, we did a song for him. Co-wrote some stuff for Karyn White and stuff for our- selves on soundtracks. This summer, we just really got the production company started. Once we get stabilized with the new album, then we're gonna start doing a lot more production. Also, with the success of the new album, we start- ed to get a lot of calls from artists, in the business, that wanted songs from us." The band members attribute the con- tinued success of their music to the refreshing sense the music provides to their listeners. "People want to hear something different. Some people don't want to hear five songs in a row that sound the same. They feel happy to hear something different,' Lewis said. "I guess one of the other things peo- ple like is that they're basically getting us - our feelings, our thoughts," Kinchen said. "They're not getting a bunch of producers who put together a package for some group or artist. They're basically getting everything that we go through." In parting, O'Dell added, "I waskind of raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I want to send out some love to big my family and people in Michigan in dthe inood:' I Space Jam' Contest Hey all you sports fans out there! It's time to celebrate the opening weekend of "Space Jam," starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny - two of the greatest basketball players of all time. Once again we've got prizes galore for you ... but only, of course, if you can answer our big question. What Is Michael Jordan's jersey number? Come on folks ... you should know this one. If you do, stop by the Daily Arts office, located on the second floor of the Student Publications Building (420 Maynard St.) after 1 p.m. today. If you hurry and answer this question correctly, you will become the new proud owners of "Space Jam" posters, hats or T-shirts. Don't we treat you well? Get here. NOWT Remember ... supplies are limited. All Warner Brothers and Daily employees are not eligible to win. Preparred For The .M.CAT? The Berkeley Review specializes in MCAT preparation only. We provide an intense yet structured program that will motivate you from start to finish in your preparation for this exam. 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Combine that with the concept of every song's narrator being a robot and you've got an album named "No Room For Humans." As you might expect, the general tone of the album is hostile towards us Homo sapiens. Lines pop up like "Serve us or die," "Match metal to man the machine lives" and "Today is your birthday, weare going to kill you."Hey, as long as we don't have a robotic rebel- lion, it's all pretty much fun. Then there's the ode to the syndicat- ed show "Small Wonder" titled "I Am Not A (Voice Activated Child Identicon)." Anyone who remembers the cheaply produced sci-fi show from the '80s will appreciate lines like "Harriet terminated Harriet shall die never to find out what is inside." The words slip by quickly in more or less flat robot inflections and are very entertaining. The music will shake your internal organs with Jetsons Armageddon party style. 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