05/30/2007
Two hundred albums by a soul artist nobody's ever heard - until now
Heard of Mingering Mike?
"One cold December morning, Dori Hadar—DJ by night, criminal investigator by day—was digging through crates of records at a flea market in Washington, D.C. There he stumbled into the elaborate world of Mingering Mike—a soul superstar of the 1960s and '70s who released an astonishing 50 albums and at least as many singles in just 10 years. But Hadar had never heard of him, and he realized why on closer inspection: every album in the crates was made of cardboard. Each package was intricately crafted, complete with gatefold interiors, extensive liner notes, and grooves drawn onto the "vinyl." Some albums were even covered in shrinkwrap, as if purchased at actual record stores.
"The crates contained nearly 200 LPs and 45s by Mingering Mike, as well as other artists like Joseph War, the Big "D," and Rambling Ralph, on labels such as Sex Records, Decision, and Ming/War. There were also soundtracks to imaginary films, a benefit album for sickle cell anemia, and a tribute to Bruce Lee."
The Mingering Mike story's been told in Wax Poetics and dozens of other places; there's a great coffee table book on the story put out by Princeton Architectural Press (the first link above).
But radio producer Derek John produced an audio essay with Dori Hadar, the man who unearthed the trove of homemade albums, and Mingering Mike himself. Mike turns out to be thoughtful, articulate, talented, and a reminder of the loonier qualities that lurk below the surface of the normal-seeming record collector (if there really is such an animal).
Listen to the Mingering Mike story as told by the artist himself; scroll down to "Mingering Mike".