Luau at the Lake

I'm getting into this tiki vibe - last weekend I attended the Luau at the Lake, the best excuse I've come across yet to wear Hawaiian shirts and throw a two day long party. While there, I saw several bands and listened to music I don't normally hear. Exotica and surf guitar, vibraphones and ukuleles, you-name-it-I-heard-it. Frankly, it was great. Check out a few of these bands, maybe your hula girl (or fire dancer) will pay you a visit.

The Cocktail Preachers

The 9th Wave

Fisherman

Waitiki 7

The dogs are barking......

The Yalloppin' Hounds were one of my favorite swing bands when I first discovered them. They do blends of classic swing jazz with some occasional hip-hop and rap built in, and catered to swing dancers in New York city (note a previous album, Lindy Hop Deluxe. In addition, here is a grainy you-tube video of them playing at the now destroyed Windows on the World that was at the top of the World Trade Center- link). Just as I was discovering them and looking for concerts to attend, they disappeared........No shows, no albums, and nothing new on the website. I was greatly disappointed and feared the band had dissolved. Unknown to me, the band spent several years working on their newest album, The Great Recession, which seemed to appear out of nowhere a few months ago and the music is tearing up the jazz scene. Both classic and new, traditional and fresh, the music is bold and engrossing and I am listening to this constantly now. Along with the aforementioned Miss Smith to You, I consider this a must-purchase for any bachelor pad, jazz aficionado or dancer.

Band Website
Amazon.com album link

PCU Soundtrack

As the movie Animal House was to colleges of the 50's and early 60's, PCU is to colleges of the 90's. I graduated from college in 1991, and I recognized, all to clearly, all to foibles and fun of my college experience in this movie. The story itself is quite thin, a prospective students visits PCU, a college in the throes of political correctness run amok, and he ends up hanging out with the comic slacker who is hated by the administration for failing to follow along. Of course, this is a great excuse to have a monster party. Who needs anything more in a movie?

The album has some great tunes, but I bought it almost exclusively for the two George Clinton songs that are unavailable anywhere else (that's George Clinton of the Parliament Funkadelic), entitled Stomp and Erotic City. Stomp is the classic party tune, with a great beat and lots of references to hazardous booty. Erotic City is a cover of the Prince song, and it's just as fun and dirty as the original. See the movie, buy the soundtrack, turn it up loud.......

No more waiting, Lavay Smith and her boyfriend, Chris Siebert have finally released their new album, Miss Smith to you! They have been talking about this for the last several years, and it's finally done. The album is a bit of a divergence from their past albums, and is a bit more bluesy. I'm still listening to it so I don't have a review yet, but check it out! They don't do bad music, and you won't be disappointed.


Update 9/12/09 - I now have the album, and I must say it's wonderful. Lavay's voice is distinctive and strong, but she purrs like a kitten when she wants and it's hard not to be entranced. My wife and I saw Lavay and the band play a few weeks ago at Enrico's in San Francisco (they play there almost every Monday night), and it happened to be the birthday of one of their trumpet players, Allen Smith. Allen has played with Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and many of the heavy hitters, and is a true icon. In addition to the normal trio and Lavay (drums, upright bass, piano), they added a saxophone, a trombone, and bongos player as the night went on, and we spent the night watching several swing dancers in their 20's beautifully and skillfully tear up the floor with some 8-count dancing. Buy the album, it deserves a place on your hi-fi.

Lavay Smith Link
Amazon.com album link

Shorts

I'm a big fan of film director Robert Rodriguez, who did the El Mariachi movie series, Planet Terror, and the Spy Kids Trilogy. His movies are straightforward and fun (if a bit gory at times), and I like that he handles his career mostly on his own terms. I especially like that he does both adult thriller and kid-focused movies, and I watch both with equal enthusiasm. He has a new movie coming out soon called SHORTS, which I hope to see, I encourage you to also.

SHORT link

For some real fun, rent his DVDs and watch some of the special features. Different movies have different features, but he includes things like a 10-minute film school and 10-minute cooking school.

In terms of music, I recently downloaded the soundtrack to the movie Oceans 11. My favorite song, 160$ million Chinese Man.

Cheers everyone,

Dan

Forgive me - confession

I know, I know, I'm a bad, bad blogger and haven't kept up with my posts. Well, it's time to get back on track, and I hope to do better next time.

That being said, I have LOTS of ideas for new posts. My goal is to do at least 2 a month, maybe even on a week on average. I'll post when I can, and will do my best to keep up with everything. Now on to the good stuff.

Remember Todd Murray? Who I showcased in a previous post? Well, I just had the opportunity to see him sing. It's a long story, but Todd is from a small town and I'm from a small town close to his, so when he made a pilgrimage home to sing I heard about it and attended. I think most of the town was there. He's a wonderful singer and a charming person, after signing a CD for my daughters they spent the rest of the evening enamored with him and we've been listening to him ever since. Please do check out his website and buy a CD, you won't be disappointed. I own both, but am particularly fond of Stardust and Swing.

Todd Murray

By the way, I DID actually complete the tiki bar. Check it out here and all the rest of the forum while you're at it.

tiki bar
tiki bar build it yourself link

Cheers everyone, more music coming in the future.

Dan

Tiki Day

I have decided that today is Tiki day.

I came to Tiki in an odd way.  Remember when I talked about podcasting?  During my obsession with swing jazz, I went searching for podcasts that played swing and neo-swing, which led me to The Bachelor Pad Radio Show (and Bachelor Pad Magazine) and the Cocktail Nation podcast.  Somehow, this led me to Tiki Magazine.

I recently subscribed to the magazine and ordered a couple of back issues that had articles on Shag (artist Josh Agle) and Tiki Bar TV (discussed in a recent blog post). Shag is incredible, I love his artwork,  which is sexy, stylish, and evocative of a 50's, 60's, and 70's mentality.  I may do a post on him in the future

Check out Tiki Magazine Here,

I'm starting to listen more to "tiki" and exotica music.  It's kid of best described as a cool version of easy listening.  I think it's generally perfect for an afternoon and evening in a beach bungalow with your significant other.  

There are several bands that seem to be favored by tikiphiles.  Remember, this is a new genre I'm experimenting with.  I'm sure there are many other great bands I'm neglecting.  Several names pop up over and over again, and these are two groups that seem to be popular.  I'm particularly fond of the Don Tiki website, where you can play a game called Virgin Sacrifice.

Don Tiki website here

Martini Kings website here

My goal over the next week is to build a tiki bar.  We'll see how it goes.........

Cheers - Dan