The Hell Caminos Take Hawaii - Psychobilly Style

by Katie Whitman, Photograph by  Malia Leinau

The Hell Caminos.  A pervasive presence in Hawaii’s local music scene.  Performers.  Organizers.  Role models for the younger bands and kids in the crowd at their all ages shows.  Nice guys. Talented.  And they ROCK YOUR FREAKING SOCKS OFF!

Drawing from influences like The Stray Cats, Elvis Presley, Link Wray, or, as they like to put it, “Caffeine, Women, and Sleep Deprivation,” their psychobilly sound cleanses the palate of Hawaii’s music scene, so latent with reggae and modern rock.  Their swinging jive is mixed (shaken, not stirred) with punk rebellion, making you feel like you’re at a sock hop in a black leather poodle skirt, fishnets, and knee high boots.  

The Hell Caminos are cute-as-Hell guitarist Nick Danger, striking, slender, tattooed upright-bassist Michael Camino, and drummer Handsome Jack (the name says it all).  Live, these boys put on quite a show – Handsome Jack stands, Stray Cats style, while playing his minimal drum set; Nick, well, like I said, looks hella cute while he sings; Michael sings and twirls that bass in the air, over his head, spinning around, trying not to strike audience members with his big instrument.  See.  I told you they were nice boys.

Their new CD, Through the Day and Through the Night, will be released on May 13^th at Detox and it’s about damn time!  Now fans like me can enjoy all The Hell Camino goodness while doing laundry, surfing MySpace, or big pimpin’ in my ride.  The album starts out with a fast, angry song (This Town) punctuated by quick surf guitar, a driving drum beat, and Nick snarling the chorus “Kill ‘em all!  Leave ‘em layin’ in the mud!”  This Town was inspired after a group of iceheads broke into Nick’s car and stole all of his belongings.  The angry lyrics incorporate social commentary about drug addiction and how we’re empathetic until we get caught in the crossfire.  The second song, My Baby, keeps the upbeat rockabilly tempo going.  Echoing screams, laughter, and melodramatic cries of “Oh my sweet, sweet baby” make you smile while you jump up and down in your makeshift mosh-pit of siblings or friends.  The Hell Caminos bring things down a notch in Terminal, with a slow swing and walking bassline that compliment the emo-ish sentiment “Don’t bother me.  I gotta go slit my wrists while I watch TV… ‘Cause you don’t know how this feels…”   The CD progresses through the more epic sounding Through the Day and Through the Night with its distortion-filled rock chorus, on to the classic blues-swing style of Gutterpunk, to the more ambient sounding Riding Solo with synthetic rain, thunder, and digital effects on Nick’s voice.  Listening to the CD, I get the impression that The Hell Caminos are starting with their psychobilly-rockabilly core, then musically exploring the genre out to all of its boundaries.      

The CD is great.  A must for any fan of swing, psychobilly, rockabilly, creative music, or The Hell Caminos.  But somehow, it just can’t capture the greatness of The Hell Caminos when they perform live.  This band is my favorite on the island right now and it is because of their excellent stage presence and performance.  They have this knack of appearing understated while bringing all of their energy together into one hell of a show.  Whether it’s the repoire and familiarity between the band members, their unique style, or their love of the music they play, the crowd goes crazy when Nick poses on Mike’s upright bass or Mike climbs up on it himself.

            If you haven’t seen The Hell Caminos live yet, then git!  That’s right. Go!  Git!  Get out to a show.  Until then, www.MySpace.com/TheHellCaminos will have to do. 

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by Fletchdaddy

It's now 0204 AM on the 23rd of April of this foul year of our lord 2006. The rum has been flowing like a riptide since about 9 and only the die hard regulars had the privledge of sharing this experience....
When I heard about the Vertical Charles breakup, I was shattered (11 March 06) ... I've not yet discoverd a band with as much presence and energy as VC however (comma), I dont belive that I've been looking in the right places.
I was at the local watering hole, Bikini Cantina, (highly recommended... good company, fantastic vibes, and an ensamble of poisins that is sure to push that ulser as far as it can go) when I came upon a group of 6 guys setting up for what was percieved as an all night set. The name of the band is The Golfcart Rebellion. I was under the illusive impression that Ska as we know it was deceased as far as Oahu was concerned. Lord help me.... I was wrong.
After what seemed to be an eternity of set up and sound checks, the band was underway... bringing forth a sound that was defening to the ear at first, but soon wrapped you in a fusion of brass and electricity that I personally have not seen since Buck-0-Nine in 1997. I was awstruck .. helpless at the mercy of nylon picks scratching down frets, much like that of Social D. It was an absolute shame to find out that The Golfcart Rebellion had only come to perform one set of there musical genious ensamble. The band was opening for Black Square, a band that my wingman and I had walked out on at Boardriders in Kailua a few months back, due to the undulating fact that they were astray from their ska/punk roots and were entirely too reggae. Happily, they have changed a bit since then.
My faith in this genre was reassured when I was informed by Kaz and Brian (uber guitar gurus) that The Golfcart Rebellion was to play again on May 6th with another band that I absolutely love by the name of Go Jimmy Go @ the Detox Lounge. During this time of incoherent explination, Brian handed me a CD of their recorded songs, and some stickers to put on unsuspecting cars parked on my street in Aiea.
In closing, I highly stress to those fans of Pimpbot and Black Square to come on out and bask in the sounds of these musical genuises. You will not be dissapointed.
www.myspace.com/thegolfcartrebellion
Check 'em out.
This rum is entirely to potent...
untill next time..
Latex n' Razorblades,
Fletchdaddy

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Photos and Review by Katie Whitman

The name Shoko Kono seems like it should be someone or mean something.  If you go to the band’s myspace page (www.MySpace.com/ShokoKono), you can read some [extremely creative] nonsense about the name’s genealogy written in Bible format.  That’s sort of what this band is like overall – extremely creative nonsense.  Or at least that’s how it seems at first. 

I had been out at Detox a month or so ago with no intentions of reviewing any bands.  When Shoko Kono started to play, my mouth dropped open, my heart started beating faster, my brain took off – I HAD to pull out a notebook and write something about them.  They were so INTENSE.  So chaotic.  One singer, Alex, punched the other singer, Adam, right in the jaw in the middle of the first song.  The guitarists and bassists were making all this fast moving melodic yet dissonant noise underneath the sometimes plaintive sometimes incensed yelling and singing.  But as I listened, order arose out of the chaos.  These kids were playing complicated musical lines woven together with an adeptness I would not have expected from a band with their median age. 

It’s like everything they do is on the edge.  They thrive there.  They don’t even know how to step back.  Or want to.  You can just hear the tortured artist screaming beneath.  Who do they sound like?  Hell if I know.  But they’re raw, fast, skilled, catchy and offensive, sort of like Sour Patch Kids - making you wince, pucker up, shake it off and reach for more.

If you crave anger, motion, euphoria, fervor, step into Shoko Kono’s Seven Minutes of Heaven for an auditory make-out session you won’t forget.

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