Tiki Music Defined - Tiki Music

E emspace Member Vancouver Joined: Jan 05, 2003 Posts: 879	E emspace Posted posted on Thu, Oct 13, 2011 9:13 PM On 2011-10-13 18:33, bigtikidude wrote: I say if you live life in mothballs, you get a sour taste in your mouth. Jeff(btd) "Mothballs" - Jeff, I am trying to be as diplomatic as I can...maybe not worth the effort though. You're saying the scene MUST change and pile influence upon influence until it's no longer in any way recognizable? Fine, you work on that. It's called neophilia, the disease that makes our culture a grotesque laughingstock - the desperate endless search for the new. Because new MUST be better - right? When you say "needs picking up", I hear "pummelled with adolescent noise". There is a lot - A LOT - of classic Hawaiian lounge music out there that is uptempo and big fun. Maybe your collection is kinda small though? In that other thread (thanks hiltiki), Lucas provides solid proof that he GETS it, with a clear statement of hapa-haole as the real deal central to the Tiki scene and slack key not being part of it. Absolutely spot on; slack key is folk music and was never, ever associated with the Tiki scene. It's what native Hawaiian families played at their backyard parties. Most haoles outside Hawaii never even heard of it until George Winston founded Dancing Cat Records, although some bands like the Sons of Hawaii forged a whole new sound by combining slack key with 'ukulele and steel. Oh hey, and there's Sabu bringing up the label too - I'm reading the thread as I type... And I think people are mistaking "hapa-haole" as being only the old Tin Pan Alley influenced 78s, the way they go on about it being "pre-Tiki". Hapa-haole SONGS are what matters here, and they are all STILL being played by real Hawaiian musicians and their admirers today. Blah, blah...don't think I can make it through 12 more pages of this...it has been so done to death to, plainly, no effect. Basically I think the scene was bound from the get-go to be turned into crap by the self-centeredness of your modern kiddie hipster with his/her need to expand the definition of a scene until it encompasses everything THEY think is cool. When I rejoined TC I was stunned to not only notice a lot of familiar longtime members gone, but to immediately find a thread suggesting Hawaiiana doesn't belong in the Tiki scene. As for me, today I bought digital downloads of Alfred Apaka and Atta Isaacs (not Tiki, just beautiful is all) from Cord International - music I'll be listening to until I die. I wouldn't walk across the street to see the Creepy Creeps play for free - in fact I'd call in a noise complaint - but YMMV. Enjoy. And nuff said. I've been asked to stay but we'll have to see. Got to practice steel, too, in the hope that one day I'll form a band that aspires to what the Smokin' Menehunes have been doing for years. Everything takes time, and time is precious - it needs to be spent wisely. [ Edited by: emspace 2011-10-13 21:16 ]

On 2011-10-13 18:33, bigtikidude wrote:

I say if you live life in mothballs,
you get a sour taste in your mouth.

Jeff(btd)

"Mothballs" - Jeff, I am trying to be as diplomatic as I can...maybe not worth the effort though. You're saying the scene MUST change and pile influence upon influence until it's no longer in any way recognizable? Fine, you work on that. It's called neophilia, the disease that makes our culture a grotesque laughingstock - the desperate endless search for the new. Because new MUST be better - right? When you say "needs picking up", I hear "pummelled with adolescent noise". There is a lot - A LOT - of classic Hawaiian lounge music out there that is uptempo and big fun. Maybe your collection is kinda small though?

In that other thread (thanks hiltiki), Lucas provides solid proof that he GETS it, with a clear statement of hapa-haole as the real deal central to the Tiki scene and slack key not being part of it. Absolutely spot on; slack key is folk music and was never, ever associated with the Tiki scene. It's what native Hawaiian families played at their backyard parties. Most haoles outside Hawaii never even heard of it until George Winston founded Dancing Cat Records, although some bands like the Sons of Hawaii forged a whole new sound by combining slack key with 'ukulele and steel. Oh hey, and there's Sabu bringing up the label too - I'm reading the thread as I type...

And I think people are mistaking "hapa-haole" as being only the old Tin Pan Alley influenced 78s, the way they go on about it being "pre-Tiki". Hapa-haole SONGS are what matters here, and they are all STILL being played by real Hawaiian musicians and their admirers today. Blah, blah...don't think I can make it through 12 more pages of this...it has been so done to death to, plainly, no effect.

Basically I think the scene was bound from the get-go to be turned into crap by the self-centeredness of your modern kiddie hipster with his/her need to expand the definition of a scene until it encompasses everything THEY think is cool. When I rejoined TC I was stunned to not only notice a lot of familiar longtime members gone, but to immediately find a thread suggesting Hawaiiana doesn't belong in the Tiki scene. As for me, today I bought digital downloads of Alfred Apaka and Atta Isaacs (not Tiki, just beautiful is all) from Cord International - music I'll be listening to until I die. I wouldn't walk across the street to see the Creepy Creeps play for free - in fact I'd call in a noise complaint - but YMMV. Enjoy. And nuff said. I've been asked to stay but we'll have to see. Got to practice steel, too, in the hope that one day I'll form a band that aspires to what the Smokin' Menehunes have been doing for years. Everything takes time, and time is precious - it needs to be spent wisely.

[ Edited by: emspace 2011-10-13 21:16 ]

Post #610152 by emspace on Thu, Oct 13, 2011 9:13 PM