If you don't know Duminie DePorres, you've not spent enough time checking out Detroit music. Equal parts teddy bear and badass, the imposing "Dooms" has had a foot in Detroit's rock, funk, hip-hop and techno scenes for years. His ferocious, tripped-out guitar playing — a perfect modern synthesis of Hendrix and (Eddie) Hazel — has accompanied the likes of house legend Theo Parish, Public Enemy, Last Poets' Umar Bin Hassan, garage-rock legend Tom Potter's Detroit City Council and, of course, hero George Clinton. (He's also the guitar player in En Vogue's "Free Your Mind" video!)
These days Duminie works as director of A&R for legendary Detroit techno/ghetto-tech labels Submerge Recordings and Electrofunk Record and plays guitar with Blak Presidents and Soul Clique. Both bands are an innovative melding of full-on rock (think Living Colour, Bad Brains, Hendrix and P-Funk) with Detroit DJ culture — Blak Presidents features the input of Underground Resistance mastermind Mike Banks and legendary ghetto-tech producer Ade Mainor while Soul Clique features DJ The Blackman (also known as the producer of Kid Rock's debut album Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast).
DePorres rolls in a black-as-his-rock-n-roll Ford 2006 F-150 pickup. It helps to have a rugged truck to haul his gear over Motor City streets they haven't gotten around to fixing yet. It's bit of guzzler too. "It's thirstier than I am!" DePorres quips. "It's the only thing I met that could drink me under the table."
See Soul Clique's tenth anniversary show at the Concert of Colors, Saturday, July 19, at 10:15 p.m. and Friday, Aug. 22, at the Detroit Institute of Arts at 7 and 8:30 p.m.
