Earliest exposure to Exotica. That I can remember. - Tiki Music

T tikibars Tiki Socialite Aku Hall, Chicago Joined: Apr 11, 2002 Posts: 2034	T tikibars Posted posted on Sun, Feb 3, 2008 3:09 PM On 2007-12-28 08:16, bigbrotiki wrote: Jack, check out what I dug up! My MUSICASSETTE version of the above album: ...full of classic Exotica song titles like "Vengance" and "Dancing on your Grave"! Didn't Yma Sumac sing the latter, and I think that Elisabeth Waldo might have originated the former (although it might have been Gene Rains). But seriously... On 2007-12-27 14:11, bigbrotiki wrote: I wonder how many T.C.ers trace their Exotica exposure back to Throbbing Gristle. I never understood why, when they loved Martin Denny so much, they never made any music as beautiful as his! I do, and very directly: I discovered my first vintage Tiki restaurant/bar in 1991. But it wasn't until 1994 that I really go hooked on doing the research and archeology. That year, I was playing keyboards with the band Pigface, and I was literally living on a bus with Genesis P. Orridge of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV (he was a guest-star for about half of the tour). Gen played a Martin Denny cassette on the bus one day, and everyone else hated it and made him take it off. But only having heard a minute of it, and not having seen an album sleeve or not even knowing whom I was listening to, I immediately understood that this was Tiki Bar Music. I understood all of the connections innately and instantly. Of course, I quizzed Gen on the music, and he was happy that I was into it. We listened to the cassette together a few times while no one else was around! When I got home from the tour and looked at one of the Throbbing Gristle CDs, the one with the Martin Denny dedication, and when I saw the TG LP cover designed to look like a Denny LP cover, I felt a flood of enlightenment. It all fell into place. By the end of that year, I had visited the Islands in the Hanalei Hotel in San Diego (pre-renovation), the old Tiki bar that used to be in the Luxor Hotel, Trader Vic's in Chicago plus about three others... and then launched the Tiki Bar Review Pages in 1995 to document this research. So yeah, Throbbing Gristle got me into Exotica - FIRST HAND! Also (this next bit is speculation) I think that perhaps the TG fascination with Denny might have been a bit ironic or perhaps tongue in cheek. After the sonic onslaught and sheer walls of noise that TG generated, the contrast and sheer 'wrongness' of following a performance up with a Denny recording might have been exactly within TGs spirit of iconoclasm, conflict, and refusal to live up to expectations. Or it might have just been a good way to get TG's particular audience to leave! James T. http://www.tydirium.net Big Stone Head / Tiki Road Trip / Left Orbit Temple Also drink with us at: http://www.cocktailsnob.com [ Edited by: tikibars 2008-02-03 15:13 ]

On 2007-12-28 08:16, bigbrotiki wrote:
Jack, check out what I dug up! My MUSICASSETTE version of the above album:

...full of classic Exotica song titles like "Vengance" and "Dancing on your Grave"!

Didn't Yma Sumac sing the latter, and I think that Elisabeth Waldo might have originated the former (although it might have been Gene Rains).

But seriously...

On 2007-12-27 14:11, bigbrotiki wrote:
I wonder how many T.C.ers trace their Exotica exposure back to Throbbing Gristle. I never understood why, when they loved Martin Denny so much, they never made any music as beautiful as his!

I do, and very directly:

I discovered my first vintage Tiki restaurant/bar in 1991. But it wasn't until 1994 that I really go hooked on doing the research and archeology.

That year, I was playing keyboards with the band Pigface, and I was literally living on a bus with Genesis P. Orridge of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV (he was a guest-star for about half of the tour).

Gen played a Martin Denny cassette on the bus one day, and everyone else hated it and made him take it off.
But only having heard a minute of it, and not having seen an album sleeve or not even knowing whom I was listening to, I immediately understood that this was Tiki Bar Music. I understood all of the connections innately and instantly.

Of course, I quizzed Gen on the music, and he was happy that I was into it. We listened to the cassette together a few times while no one else was around!

When I got home from the tour and looked at one of the Throbbing Gristle CDs, the one with the Martin Denny dedication, and when I saw the TG LP cover designed to look like a Denny LP cover, I felt a flood of enlightenment. It all fell into place.

By the end of that year, I had visited the Islands in the Hanalei Hotel in San Diego (pre-renovation), the old Tiki bar that used to be in the Luxor Hotel, Trader Vic's in Chicago plus about three others... and then launched the Tiki Bar Review Pages in 1995 to document this research.

So yeah, Throbbing Gristle got me into Exotica - FIRST HAND!

Also (this next bit is speculation) I think that perhaps the TG fascination with Denny might have been a bit ironic or perhaps tongue in cheek. After the sonic onslaught and sheer walls of noise that TG generated, the contrast and sheer 'wrongness' of following a performance up with a Denny recording might have been exactly within TGs spirit of iconoclasm, conflict, and refusal to live up to expectations. Or it might have just been a good way to get TG's particular audience to leave!

James T.

http://www.tydirium.net
Big Stone Head / Tiki Road Trip / Left Orbit Temple

Also drink with us at: http://www.cocktailsnob.com

[ Edited by: tikibars 2008-02-03 15:13 ]

Post #358864 by tikibars on Sun, Feb 3, 2008 3:09 PM