Post #510971 by tiki mick on Sat, Feb 13, 2010 1:51 PM

Believe me, Jeff, I am not confusing genres. And I agree with Jim that labels can be limiting. The reason I like labels at all is simply that when you walked into a record store in the past, you knew in what sections to look for what. Walk the plank is clearly an exotic surf band, but Tikiyaki I believe is harder to categorize. Doesn't matter, of course because the end result is a sound that works exceedingly well, as does this new group, WTP. However, the first thing Martin Denny and Lyman did was to throw out the uke and the steel. Sure, they wanted to be about Hawaii, but not "sound" like Hawaii. One of my own bands, the HGs, really is not playing Hawaiian music either, though the lyrics making many references to the islands. At it's core, it is rockabilly, and if we still had record shops that would be the section I would want our album placed in. Likewise, WTP would be awesome at one of your surf band festivals, but might be out of place at say, lounge-a-palooza. However, if you could bring Martin Denny back, he would fit right in with other lounge bands, his version of exotica having many sophisticated jazz pop elements lacking in most surf bands. It's really a question of the chord sequences being used, Jeff.