Here’s a great little article on the southeast asian Jaguar and Jazzmaster forgeries of the 60s.

A View from the Back of the Rack
Of Forgeries and War!
By Michael Wright, The Different Strummer
One of my favorite ‘student anecdotes’ involves a young lady who dated World War I to around 5 Million BC on a test because ‘it was, like, the first one, right?!’ I hope she got an A for effort! Anyhow, as wars recede their meanings change with each succeeding generation. Ask a young person today about the Viet Nam War and you might be lucky if he’d ever heard of it. For some older folks among us it seems to have happened only yesterday, transforming their lives so much that they live with it every day. For others of us, it has just become a murky bad dream that we’re only reminded of when a guitar like this ca. 1965 ‘Pinoy Jazzmaster’ forgery comes around! …

Even today some people try to sell them as Fenders on eBay, but I am sure they must have their own place being made of very different woods.

Legendary Surfers made me aware of the Wax Cylinder Preservation Project, which features many a hawaiian recording from back in the days.

Hawaiian Guitar cylinders

Ukulele cylinders

Xylophone cylinders

Marimba cylinders

Hawaii topic cylinders

while we’re at it:

Japanese cylinders

German cylinders

Guitar cylinders

And they sent this article right along, which describes the dawn of modern surfing in the islands, in the 1910s.

I read the Spectro Pop site is recommending this highly. And the author, Stephen J. McParland, has been a prolific historian of the subject of Surf-, hotrod-, Skateboard-, Motorbike and related early to mid 60s musical styles since 1979, when he started his California Music magazine, from Australia.
read more about this book here.

Check out CMusic books while we’re at it!

stolen telecaster style guitar, photo by Chuck Kelley

A guitar belonging to David Nowlen was stolen from his son’s apartment in Los Angeles on July 29. The guitar is a Jonathan Rose Tele with serial #57 stamped on the neckplate and “Rose” on the headstock. It’s been signed by James Burton, Duane Eddy and many others.

Nowlen, pictured here with the guitar, is a longtime friend of Brian Wilson and was a member of “The Survivors”  – a group produced by Brian consisting of himself, his roommate Bob Norberg, their next door neighbor Nowlen, and  Rich Alarian. Their single “Pamela Jean/After The Game” was released by Capitol Records in January of 1964.

The person suspected of taking the guitar lives in Alabama, so the hot guitar is probably somewhere between here (L.A.) and there. If you have a message for Dave about the whereabouts of the guitar, email me at chuck@luxuriamusic.com and I’ll forward your message to him.

Atomic Cocktail At 40: Fit, Trim & Brimming With Bossness!

Time has certainly crept up on Atomic Cocktail. The popular online radio show celebrates its 40th episode this Wednesday, August 6, with a plethora of pop, soul and rock ’n’ roll. The all-live extravaganza gets under way at 6 p.m. California time at Luxuriamusic. Join resident mixologist Vic Tripp as he counts down the Frostbite 5000 (“the coolest records ever made”), reads your personal dedications and spins more songs about love, dancing, protest and pro wrestling. Re-rebroadcast Saturday, August 9, from 2 to 3 p.m. Forty: It’s the new twenty.

from LuxuriaMusic

From Tiki Events mailing list:

Will The Thrill and Monica Tiki Goddess to Host

World’s Largest B-Movie Beach Party

The town of Franklin approved using an entire parking lot for my show with THE MOON-RAYS that Saturday night – they will fill it with sand, put up a screen and we’ll have a Drive-In Beach Party smack in the middle of Indiana!

And get the double thrill-bill I chose: Elvis’s 1965 romp Girl Happy and Roger Corman’s 1957 creature feature Attack of The Crab Monsters! What links these 2 films, besides the obvious VD inference? They’re both set on the beach! Monica and I will finally be able to dance to the “Thrillville” theme as performed live by the Moon-Rays, too! Complete details below…cheers, Will

Franklin Indiana will be hosting the Second Annual B Movie Celebration September 26th thru 28th, 2008. We are asking for your help to get the word out. The Celebration will feature screenings of over 50 classic B movies, 20 Educational seminars and the World’s Largest Beach Party, featuring the music of The Moon-Rays. And we really need your help getting the word out.

visit bmoviecelebration.com

Darrell Brogdon writes:

To celebrate the 500th broadcast of The Retro Cocktail Hour, Kansas Public Radio presents Waitiki, the Boston-based tiki-tainment band, in concert at Lawrence’s Liberty Hall.

It’ll be an exotic, once-in-a-lifetime South Pacific sound adventure like no other, featuring classic music by Martin Denny, Les Baxter, Robert Drasnin, Augie Colon, Gene Rains and others, plus original tunes by the band. Besides the unforgettable music, there’ll be a full service Tiki bar and a dance floor, so come early and party all night!

go to the Retro Cocktail Hour website here

DSCF3951, originally uploaded by virani.

…from Virani

Mahalo!!!