Album Notes

Mentone is Aki Ehara (Bass), Stefan Litrownik (drums), Ronen Navah (guitar and vocals), Jason Rosenstein (guitar and vocals), Joey Cappello (turntables), and Paul Terry, Jr (piano, organ, wurli and vocals).

Mentone is about a place and a time. A street, a house, midnight jam sessions that disturbed some neighbors and endeared others, wild parties, but mostly just 'good times'. Tight grooves, catchy hooks, polyrhythms, and lyrics that touch a universal nerve spanning from the humorous to the serious.

All musicians grew up loving a wide array of music. You couldn't really look at these guys and pick out any genre allegiance. Everything they soaked up seemed to explode out, and even while crafting songs in a reggae style, many subtle influences can be detected by the careful listener. You hear it in the studio material, and even more in the live shows that feature excellent improvisation. The band formed in March of 2004 while five of the members were studying ethnomusicology at UCLA. The study of music in culture was the perfect degree for this group, and an ideal setting to absorb a nice palette of world music.

Mentone sounds like roots reggae written by guys that listen to, and play a lot of other types of music, like psychedelic rock, hip hop, and funk. The bands sound revolves around a locked tight groove in the bass and drums, and balanced out with the right proportions of vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, organ, and wurlitzer piano. Samples, turntables, three part harmonies and horns are added for texture and dynamics. Improvisation and experimentation are the highlights of live shows.

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.