Shag/Crazy Al Tiki Tones Tikis

I looked around to see if these had been discussed before. All I could find was a reference to them in a Tiki Tones thread from a couple of years ago stating that they were available through the Tiki Tones website.

I'm assuming that they were designed by Shag and that Crazy Al did the castings. Nice little mementos of the early days of the Tiki Revival.

I'd be interested to know how the collaboration worked, i.e. if Shag gave Al sketches, and Al carved the masters then cast them. (I'd also like to know why the moai is named Lono. :))

Lono was Shag's name in the Tiki Tones, and I guess the moai looked most like him.
Ku was Steve the Bass player, and he's a big husky guy, and he looked most like him.
don't know about the other 2.

best bet would be to ask Al or Shag.

Jeff(btd)

LONO was SHAG. KU was Steeve.(extra E) Lord Wahine was Ponzer the keyboard player. Koro was Dave the drummer.

When I joined (as drummer) I became KAPUNA and my cast was a Disney like Moai. (Lt. Robin Crusoe)

I also used this Disney like Moai to make a run of my own titled "VON TIKI". This was in the mid 90's.(Otto bought some to verify my wannabe old-skool Tiki heritage)I have a couple left I wear on occasion. There is a Von Tiki now I take it?

I remember the original casts being more Co Co Joes than anything special. But, that was a lot of beers, I mean years ago...

e-mail from SHAG about this.
posted by permission

"I told Crazy Al (about a year ago) that he could re-release these. The original ones were brown and looked like wood. I submitted front and side-view drawings to Al and he made the sculpts and castings. We sold a bunch of these back in the day... I think I still have one of each in storage somewhere. I also have the original drawings."

Shag

I got the Lono one from Crazy Al at a Tiki Tones show at the Surf Museum in HB, back around 98.
I always intended to get the other 3, and just kinda forgot.
when Al was going to re-make these he realized that he still had some old ones,
so I was able to buy the other 3 old wood colored ones, before the other ones started being made.

Recently JonPaul of tikiyaki, and tiki magazine showed me that he got some of the older more coco joe looking idols.
that the band had listed for sale on the back of one of their 45s.

Now I need to ask about those,
who made them, etc....

Jeff(btd)

FWIW, the organ player Lord Wahine used to wear a fez on stage and would spin his tassle while playing. So that's why his tiki counterpart has the fez.

-Randy

These are very cool. I'll have to try to get them. :)

I like this whole post great fun guys :)

i own a whole set of the original brown ones from back in the day..they look way better than the green...why green?

....perhaps because of

They could have been purple, or ORANGE, too :)

I used to see the Tiki Tones about once a month or so at the Doll Hut in Anaheim, back in the Late 90's, great times. Yeah it was Hilarious to watch Ponzer swing that Tassel around while he was playing a Organ solo.

they used to tell very off color jokes and talk about having wife swapping party's, I felt like I was at a 1950's Poobah meeting.
:wink:

I was at the Sun. afternoon show where the Tiki Tones and Ape played at the Doll Hut, and Al-ii started a conga line around the place.
too funny.

also forgot to mention above.
Crazy Al, said I was one of his very early customers to buy a tiki pendant from him in the late 90's
so much for people thinking I was a tiki newbie.
:o

Jeff(btd)

Alright, I thought I remembered these from the back of one of their 45s or LPs. And it's all straightened out from the other posts here, that the band had a couple different sets of tikis.

But now I can't figure how I had that impression too, cuz I went and looked at the records and don't see any sign of the tikis posted earlier here. I only saw mention of tikis for sale on the back of two covers, and both cases are something different from that picture above. Just for kicks, here are some scans...

From the Enchanted Tiki Tones 7"...

These are obviously the cocojoe ones.

From the Suburban Savage LP...

So I thought I remembered the tikis at the beginning of this post. But maybe I didn't. Anyway, fun to reminisce.

-Randy

Thank you Jeff, Randy and Don for answering my question so very thoroughly. All of the info is greatly appreciated.

bump for the hell of it

I would love to mold and cast these for people here on TC. Not for money, just to preserve a little modern tiki history.

Unless Al or Shag has any plans to re-relase and sell these, that is. Otherwise, I'd be happy to make 10 or 20 sets for people on TC if anyone has a full set and would entrust them to me.

Thanks for bumping the thread, man.

Also, it never occurred to me until I met Lee Joseph recently just how many Dionysus Records albums I have.

Or that so many of the bands, like the Tiki Tones, or Big Sandy, were on Dionysus. Man, if only I had been hip to tiki 6 years before I was enlightened. Mannnnnnnn.

Ramblings over...continue thread.

Took this picture at my barber shop today... He has a ton of vintage fliers in there.

Was researching my necklaces and found this old thread. Thought I’d share mine.