Issue 2 Articles April 3, 2006

by Alexander Nicholas Kaiser, photos by Keisha

Let us dance together, children. Because I know how it feels to be young - I lived it once before. 6 years ago I remember falling off a bus, on my way to a show, drunk in the middle of the daytime, outside radio free hawaii. At fourteen years old it was still understood at that tender age I was living in the heyday of my youth, and that was the most entertaining thing we could come up with. Leather jackets marked our allegiance to revelry, music, to the loud and the fast. Operation Ivy, Rancid, The Casualties, The Clash - of these bands I became socialized to all of them subverted my mind permanently, some more than others. Now, though I have calmed my revelry some and I don’t honestly listen to the Casualties anymore, I still have a connection specifically to the naive and rebellious heyday of my early teenage years when I listen to this type of “punk” music. When I heard Smitz on myspace (a substitute for the long lost mp3.com for young artists, and a very powerful tool) looked at their pictures and read their lyrics I almost felt as if I were looking in a mirror of myself around the turn of the millennium. I heard Op Ivy influence all over what is perhaps my favorite of of the four tracks, Pollute Boy, and I was a fan. This is one of those songs that can’t help sounding like it was recorded in a garage - though LowBrow studios manages produce the track clearly while keeping the raw inflection. The chorus of Pollute Boy (Pollute Boy, Pollute Boy/You get what you want) is spat like a political endightment upon somebody, but the song itself is indescript about exactly what sort of social injustice, if any, has taken place. The song really finds it’s strength during the verse with a strong vocal melody in time with a simple three chord ska hook, along with a slightly stuttered scream of “Sally K!/Sally K!” the song turns into a powerful anthem. An anthem about something, you’re not sure exactly what. But if you let down your pretensions and listen to Smitz you will be impressed by the dedicated passion with which these 15 or 16 year old kids create something that successfully replicates the passion and sound of bands like Reagan Youth, Operation Ivy, Citizen Fish. There are many bands in Hawaii competing for the same genre, Black Square, Upstanding Youth and 86 List to name a few; these are some of the most celebrated bands in the 808 scene, and rightfully so. These bands all recreate the same genre of music as Smitz, with even better musicianship, more calculated song writing, years (often decades) of experience and a large following that they have generated over these years. All all of those bands, through their professionalism and engineering of the genre to radio-friendly perfection, have lost a sense of that dirty, garage-made by a 15 year-old authenticity that can only be created by dirty 15 year olds in a garage - Smitz have this X-facor in spades. For me I feel nostalgic when I listen to Smitz, but I’m overwhelmed with optimism for the future when I think of all the young punks going to their shows, defining their formative years to positive, energetic punk music. This may very well be Smitz at their prime, and I could be wrong, but you still wanna pay attention to them now before they get famous or break up.
Go to www.myspace.com/smitz to get hip.

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QUICK TIP: Check out 808 Talk, Hawaii’s premiere podcast.

What is a podcast? 808 Talk’s host, V. Brown, defines it as: a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made availbale on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player.

808 Talk is the #8 podcast in the nation and 1st in Hawaii. It has gained a lot of popularity in Japan and V. Brown was even recognized by shoppers in an Apple Store on a recent trip there. 808 Talk promotes Hawaii’s local musical artists. Visit 808talk.com or myspace/vsbrown.

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CD Review: Harrison's Possibilities

By Katie Whitman and Sarah Jaeggli

Harrison has released its first CD, Possibilities - a thirteen song album whose musical style can best be described as indie alterna-soft rock.  For a first album (paid for completely out-of-pocket by Harrison), the recording quality and musicianship are excellent.

If I had to describe the album with one word, “pleasant” would be it.  The entire album is filled with clean sounding vocals and natural sounding instruments playing catchy, finger-tapping hooks that are, well, uplifting.  I have listened to this album maybe fifty times in the last couple weeks and I am still enjoying it.  I can’t tell you how many times a Harrison song would come up on my iTunes and I would think – “Wow, who is that?  Did I download some new music that I forgot about?”  Yes, they sound that good. 

The songs are filled with ostinato (repetition).  The musical parts tend to linger amongst the higher pitches, only occasionally bringing in lower and heavier power chords for short “rock” breaks.   The instrumental and vocal parts are constantly moving, layered one on top of the other, combining together in complimentary structures.  During the song, Star, the vocalists sing in counter-point, a nice touch that raises the complexity above your standard local band.

A few things caught my attention when I first popped this album into my computer.  I particularly like the lyrics in the song We are Free:

And you found some things to be beautiful/ And you found some things depraved/ And you learned to be cynical/ But you also learned how to be brave

The album is full of positive stories about love, hanging on when life gets tough, and the power of music.

Musically, my favorite song on Possibilities is entitled Thomas’s Lament, a down-tempo ballad with the first (and only) sign of minor chords.  Here we find a song with some edge.  A sparse, sad, vocally-centered verse leads into a distortion-filled chorus that proclaims victory over sadness with the words: The days go by so slowly/ The nights are never long enough/ Take all of your regrets/ Put them away to deal with later.

If I have any criticism, it is that Possibilities is, for the most part, lacking any edge (with the exception of Thomas’s Lament).  When you listen to the CD for the first time, you begin to feel like one song is running into the other.  It is almost exciting when you come across power-chords just because they break up the sound.  For the first half of the album, Harrison tends to stay within its musical comfort zone.  The band begins to reach out towards their boundaries during the second half – playing more complicated musical parts, showing off the drummer’s real abilities, drifting away from merely pleasant and starting to rock out.     

In the end, I am impressed with this album and will continue to listen to it over and over, happily singing along with the compelling lyrics.  I look forward to Harrison’s next album and hope that they will stretch their wings and show us what they’ve got.   I believe that they are a band headed for greatness, so go out and see them live and buy their CD before you can’t even get tickets to their shows.  For more information on Harrison, visit www.MySpace.com/Harrisonmusic or www.harrisonsound.com. 

CD Review: White Rose's War Machine

By Katie Whitman

White Rose’s first CD, War Machine, is an album with a message, with a mission.  The lyrics are latent with the themes – be aware, question authority, beware of the loss of your freedoms, you are the answer, go out and do something.  There is criticism of self-righteous government officials that view other countries as faceless enemies and make greed-based decisions from the comfort of their offices.  They warn us not to be distracted by the meaningless frills thrown at us by corporations and governments every day.  I am immediately reminded of Orwell’s Big Brother society in 1984 and the theme that “the answer lies in the proles” (i.e. us regular people).

White Rose’s succinct messages are integrated with equally hard-hitting punk rock guitar riffs, precise drumming, and intense scream-singing (or sing-screaming, depending on the song).  The album begins with the self-titled song, White Rose, driven by quick-moving, progressive power chords and an equally driving cry to the listener to “Open your eyes. Wake up! Wake up!”  Now that they’ve got your attention, the rest of the album delivers its message through tempo-changing punk, slower heavy-metalish rock, and some almost poppy-hooky punk complete with hand-clapping.

A couple of songs stand out on this album.  No Flags, No Masters is a potent mix of words and music, beginning with a driving verse shouting “No Flags, No Masters, what are we fighting for?” that melts into a swanky chorus asserting “Colors of hate – destroy/ God is not a flag – Unite.”  The longest song on the album is the punk epic, Who Would Jesus Bomb?, calling out the government for (erroneously) using Christian principles as justification of war: “We are sick of the scandals and the buck is gonna stop with you!/(Criminal, Criminal, You should be on TRIAL!)/ Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s me and all the good people say/ Who would Jesus Bomb?”  Resist Despair is a heavy, yet propulsive song that defies stereotyping-based-on-image proclaiming “I am ‘not nothing’ at all/ I am not who you say I am/ I am more than all of this.”  The uplifting song feels like it’s about to break free at any moment, just like the people it represents.

 White Rose’s War Machine will be available soon.  It is engineered by Eric Helmkamp, cover art by Winston Smith, and filled with intelligent music by White Rose.  What more do you need?  www.MySpace.com/whiterosepunk to get yours.            

Click here to check out the lyrics from War Machine.

Pimpbot’s 5^th Anniversary Show:

Linus, Missing Dave, and Pimpbot @ The Wave Waikiki, March 10, 2006

by Katie Whitman

With the call “I’m a big kid now!”, Pimpbot graduated from Huggies pull-ups to full-on Spiderman underoos at their Five Year Anniversary Party on March 10^th, 2006.  Linus and Missing Dave joined them on the playground for a couple of games of tag – “You’re it!  Now drink the celebratory Jaeger Bomb.”

Linus was the first to entertain the merry crowd.  Happy alternative rock spouted forth as they stood on stage with an air of unaffected cool.  The singer’s voice has that quality of so many alternative rock singers that have come before – not too smooth, not too strident, slightly jaded but taking it all in stride.  Their songs tended to consist of catchy melodic hooks with heavier rock fills and played with polished musicianship.  Definitely music to bop to.  They reminded me of Phantom Planet, Weezer, and a cheerful version of The Strokes without all the processing.

 Missing Dave followed Linus, climbing onto the stage in a wave of jokes and confusion and comparisons of their handmade Pimpbot ties.  Lead singer, Daena, wore a belt buckle that actually scrolled the message “Happy Birthday Pimpbot” on red LEDs.  Missing Dave was great as usual -  their energy amped up even higher than the other shows I’ve attended.

 Their set that night consisted of lots of happy rock originals and covers.  Musically, Missing Dave falls squat in the middle of rock territory, though they often venture in the direction of metal or pop.   I always enjoy the creativity of lead guitarist Keith’s solos, filled with fast moving finger picking, delicate harmonics, creative uses of various pedals (especially the one generating the “wa wa” sound), and just rocking out.  One reason Missing Dave is great is because they have been together for six years.  Their performance is musically very tight and their stage presence is dynamic with lots of interaction between the band members.  They ended their set by serenading Pimpbot with an MD rendition of Journey’s “Faithfully”.

The band of the hour, Pimpbot, finished off the night with vast amounts of happiness, energy, crowd interaction, stage diving, worshipping of coconuts, shirtlessness, pantsing, and sweat.  Pimpbot is a band about rock and brass and showmanship.  Pimpbot always makes an entrance, whether it be a grandiose introduction by Malenko or walking onto the stage in darkness and fog, ushered forth by a Dr. Who-esque audio track.  Fernando the Love Machine fronts the band, making wacky expressions while singing and goading the audience until the dance floor is filled. 

If you were to imagine a musical fusion between rock, ska, reggae, hip-hop, metal, and stand-up comedy, you would get Pimpbot.  As far as I can tell, they play only originals.  I recognized a number of songs from their CD, Vertical Lobster:  40 Patrol – a heavy song overlaid with rock-rap.  Fat Boy – “You can never kill a fat boy.  It’s mental not physical.”  Nuff said.  And Ragamuffin – an epic about orgasmically delicious "space" muffins.

For the grand finale, Pimpbot called all the bands in the house on stage to sing the last song.  MD, Linus, Black Square, MVA, The Crud, and probably others that I lost amidst the pandemonium finished off Pimpbot’s 5^th Anniversary with a merrily raucous bang. 

People in the audience who took my little notebook from me wrote:

“The crowd seemed into it.  The music was great & they played some fucking good music.”

“Without music life would suck, but right now life is fucking great.”

“You may lose, you may win, but you will never be here again! – Eagles”

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