The Musicians

Los Kahunas
The Kilaueas
Dave Wronski
John Blair
The Neptunes
Paul Johnson
The Beloved Invaders
The Outerwave
The Thurston Lava Tube

The Know-How

My Writings (among reviews of my music)
PAL Studio documentary movie
Amazon knowledge site on Surf
Gary Usher book
Hang Nine online magazine
Offset guitar forum (think Fender Jaguar, Jazzmaster asf.)
Jan Berry, the musical genius behind Jan & Dean
Legendary Surfer’s on Surf Music
Reverb Central
Surfguitar 101
German article on Surf

If you can think of more interesting Surf related links, please use the comment feature to add them. Thanks!

The place is called Frankie’s Tiki Room. On Otto von Stroheim’s Tiki Events mailing list I read it’s an authenticly styled bar with lots of bamboo, tapa and contemporary Tiki art. Reportedly the drinks are very good!

Here’s a quote from the newsletter:

Frankie’s Tiki Room, the only authentic tiki bar in Las Vegas, invites guests to experience the one-of-a-kind tiki environment complemented by traditional carvings, original Polynesian art, a full bar and gaming.

Frankie’s Tiki Room is a unique combination of South Seas exotica and modern primitivism, with just a hint of Las Vegas kitsch.  Frankie’s was founded by P Moss, the creator of the infamous Double Down Saloon, located in Las Vegas and New York City.  One hundred percent original and deeply rooted in tiki tradition, Frankie’s is the place where guests can escape to the fantasy any hour of the day or night.  Whether it’s ordering from the menu of exotic rum drinks and traditional cocktails in the tiki lounge, gambling at the bar, admiring the carvings or enjoying the music, Frankie’s Tiki Room does it in classic Las Vegas style.

The interior of Frankie’s was built by Bamboo Ben, the world’s foremost tiki bar designer and grandson of Eli Hedley, who created the décor for the legendary Aku Aku at the Stardust.  Frankie’s link to Las Vegas’ tiki past also includes original carvings by Tiki Bosko, who created exotic works of art not only at the Tropicana, but also the short lived but greatly missed Taboo Cove at the Venetian.  Frankie’s signature tiki is a monstrous island warrior by Crazy Al Evans, surrounded by extraordinary carvings by Tiki Ray and the much revered godfather of all tiki carvers, Leroy Schmaltz.

For additional information, visit www.frankiestikiroom.com

Frankie’s Tiki Room
1712 W. Charleston Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89102

Waitiki live in Berlin, 2008

Check out the videos Waitiki put up on the web. Some from this summer’s Wassermusik, which took place in Berlin. I was there, and it was very special and otherwordly and beautiful.
The following is quoting professahhummingflowah / Randy from the opening post in a Waitiki video thread on Tiki Central.

As you may know, this summer Waitiki launched a new project that has been christened The Waitiki All-Star Exotica Septet. In other words, a 7 member ensemble dedicated to the preservation and performance of classic and modern exotica.

The group is comprised of: Abe Lagrimas & Randy Wong (Waitiki co-founders; drums and bass, respectively), Tim Mayer (‘The Mayor of Exotica’ – sax/flutes), Jim Benoit (Berklee vibraphone wunderkind, of the Phil WIlson Rainbow Big Band), Helen Liu (dazzling violinist, a.k.a. “Ms. Helenini”), Zaccai Curtis (Latin jazz pianist with Paquito D’Rivera, Christian Scott, Wallace Roney), and Lopaka Colon (percussion and birdcalls; son of original Martin Denny percussionist and birdcaller, Augie Colon).

For your listening & viewing pleasure, here are some selected videos from our two recent performances—The Wassermusik Festival (Berlin, Germany) and the Retro Cocktail Hour’s 500th Broadcast Anniversary (Lawrence, Kansas). We will be mixing and mastering audio from the Retro Cocktail Hour show, as well as recent studio and other live performances, for an upcoming commercial release. Stay tuned.

In the meantime:

From our European debut – videography by Jochen Hirschfield of Armchair Travelling and ‘The DVD of Tiki’

Coronation, shot in Berlin. Featuring Lopaka Colon (son of original Martin Denny percussionist, Augie Colon), bongos & birdcalls.

Primativa, shot in Berlin. Featuring Tim Mayer (Waitiki’s Mayor of Exotica), saxophone.

Tiki, shot in Berlin. Featuring TIm Mayer (sax) and Zaccai Curtis (piano).

From our American debut

Sweet Pikake Serenade, shot in Lawrence. A composition by Randy Wong, in the style of Arthur Lyman’s great exotica ballads. Featuring Lopaka Colon (birdcalls/percussion), Jim Benoit (vibraphone), and Zaccai Curtis (piano).

Left Arm of Buddha, shot in Lawrence. Arrangement by Tim Mayer, of Martin Denny’s classic. Featuring Tim on alto flute and Jim Benoit.

L’Ours Chinois (‘The Chinese Bear’), shot in Lawrence. A composition by Randy Wong, in the style of Fritz Kreisler, Martin Denny, and Maurice Ravel. Featuring Helen Liu (Ms. Helenini) as violin soloist.

Firecrackers, shot in Lawrence; the encore to our show. Arrangement by Abe Lagrimas Jr. and Jim Benoit. Features Abe on drums and Jim on vibes.

Hope you like the videos. Sorry that some of the audio isn’t completely synced to the video; I’m still learning how to use Final Cut Express!! Let us know what you think of the group!!

– Randy & The Waitiki All-Star Exotica Septet

Tiki Central Forums – Topic: The Waitiki All-Star Exotica Septet: videos from our European and American debuts.

I forward this from the Tiki Events mailing list:

Paul Johnson (The Belairs, new Surfaris, etc) will play in an All-Star band featuring George Tomsco of The Fireballs in a benefit concert for the late Jerry Coleother notables that will join in are Preston Epps (if you go, tell him I say Hi!), Jewel Atkins, Hal Blaine and Don Randi of the Wrecking Crew, John Blair, etc.

at
The Baked Potato
3787 Cahuenga Blvd West. Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 980-1615
noon to 4:30 p.m
$10

LA Weekly

—
Otto von Stroheim

When I was asked to DJ Exotica music on a boat recently I had to burn some vinyl of mine to CD. So I could see the sound waves and made two screenshots of the perfectly mastered Arthur Lyman album Bahia.

The reason I chose this one was that the loudest and first track I ripped peaked at 0dB without the limiter catching it. I just left the dials to their own devices and hoped I can capture the entire album with this “magic” setting. It was just plain luck. So I ripped this particular vinyl record without any additional limiting or compression, peaking at 0dB and all the music of that album perfectly relative to that peak.

When you see the soundwaves you will recogn that each one has got its own shape. This means that the creativity of the musicians is reflected in the volume at any given point in time, allowing for drama, surprises and expression. Sure there was some kind of processing going on even in those days, but it was to get a good, hi-fi sound at the end-consumer, with the goal being a natural room impression – heavy compression doesn’t allow that. See that one very quiet track – it’s meant to be that way. How they made it? They played their instruments softer. You have to be quiet yourself to clearly hear it, you start interacting with the music.

It all made me realize on a new level, what beautiful works of art music masters can be.

Here are two Heavy Metal soundfiles for comparison. It’s the same track, the upper, more dynamic one was given to a game company, the lower one is from the CD album. Wether this was a mistake or the less dynamic sound was considered more desireable I don’t know.

related posts:
Turn Me Up! | Bringing Dynamics Back To Music
Loudness Wars Explained
Article on Metallica‘s new album at Wired.

Now you can cover your boring Apple iPhones and Motorola Razr V3 cell-phones with wild low-brow Tiki art by MySpace friend Big Toe. If it wouldn’t have been for his bulletin this would ’ve completely passed me by.

Visit Big Toe at Ding Life and MySpace

As a farewell to yet another summer I gathered 12 beautiful French videos on YouTube for my readers to enjoy!

Click here for Beach and Poolside Yeye

Video On Demand from Amazon

…the first two minutes of videos automatically play at no charge to customers when they visit the product detail page. At any time during this 2-minute viewing period, customers can choose to purchase or rent the title to watch it in its entirety…

The Bruce Brown movies prior to The Endless Summer are now available for download from Amazon. Personally speaking: You got to have them all.

For reasons unknown to me Barefoot Adventure is not available.

The exhibition I wrote about in the early days of this blog is now partially online. I like that!

visit Power & Taboo: Sacred Objects from the Pacific

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!