Hawaii's Underground : Local Music | Art | Tattoos | Independent Businesses
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Issue 8 Articles
Lu'au Au Go Go Mod Weekender and Scooter Rally
rRed Elephant Cafe: Raising the Bar(ista)
CD Review - Magnum Carnage
Lu'au Au Go Go Mod Weekender and Scooter Rally
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article by Joe Agogo
Hosted By: Joe Agogo
Starts: Friday Oct 13, 2006
at 7:00 PM
Where: Anna Bananas & Thirtyninehotel
39 N. Hotel Street
Honolulu, HI 96817
US
Description:
Weekend-long party!
Click Here To View Event
2 years ago, I was a regular at the Hideaway. I watched my 5 year relationship fall into shambles, as I struggled with substances & alcoholism. I was all about riding my Vespa, going to punk shows & getting smashed with my friends. They were fun times but it was all a fallacy. I was drowning myself everyday in self destruction. One day, it all collapsed. I found myself at the rock bottom of my sham. So I did what thousands of hawaiians have done, I moved to the "city of sin" Las Vegas. The cost of living is about half of Hawaii standards. Now I have twice as much in my pocket & enough spare change for an annual event.
When I was living in Hawaii, I'd often "fly the friendly skies". I'd check out many other stateside cities & hang about their underground. I went to many shows, clubs, parties & scooter rallys. The mainland music scenes are unlike Hawaii's, they're thriving & progressive. Massive festivals are created in conjunction with certain genre related scenes, like weekenders. So I'd be at these events, having loads of fun, networking & broadening my horizons. However, it always seemed like there was something missing. When I finally moved away, I realized it was "aloha spirit". So I decided to throw my own shindig "hawaiian style". I named it, "Lu'au-au-go-go".
What is a weekender? It's a mod thing. It's a weekend long party that leaves you weak at the end. It's especially common in England & Europe. There's usually lots of events coinciding, like a scooter rally, an allnighter (night-long till the break of dawn party), live bands & etc. It started out in the 60's with the mods (the first teenage subculture) & has been going on out there until today. The "Isle of Wight" in England is known to draw tens of thousands, but the largest in the US is the "High Rollers" & usually has an attendance of about a thousand.
What is a mod? A modernist who bases their lifestyle around an unconventional counterculture that developed in England between the late 50's & early 60's. Their interest in "race music" (R&B/Soul, Ska & Jazz) gave them a unique identity & brought in the basic fundamentals of rock & roll. They obsessed with italian & french movies for their fashion in both clothing (fitted suits, boots & dresses) & transportation (mainly scooters). At the time, during this post war era, it was still unheard of for youth popculture to have any of these influences. It gave birth to the "teenager".
What is "Lu-au-au-go-go"? A hawaiian style mod weekender high lighting the millenium mod culture of arts, music & performance. It will have lots of media coverage & promotions. Visitors from all around the world will be joining us, as we are welcoming everyone. So check it out! It's all ages. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact me over the phone. No worries. *Rally route itinerary will be available at the meet & greet.
October 13th-15th, 2006
Friday:
7pm - Meet & greet at the Hideaway Bar
9pm-2am - Anna Bananas. Live mainland bands! The Power Chords from San Diego, The Stateside Saints from Los Angeles, & the Dolls Till Daylight from Honolulu. Special appearances DJs spinning skinhead reggae & mod soul (12:30-2am). All Ages!
Saturday:
9:30am - South Shore Rally, starts at Like-Like Drive Inn & around the south shore.
3-7pm - Modern lu'au on Cycle City's roof top, with DJs spinning ska & rocksteady reggae, a raffle will be held there for scootering items & possibly a VESPA!
9pm-2am - Detox Lounge (1182 Alakea St). Live mainland bands! World reknowned Oi! band - the Templars from NYC, the Stateside Saints for LA, Extra Stout from Honolulu & again international DJs till 2am. All ages!
Sunday:
9:30am - North Shore Rally, starts at Cycle City & passes north shore.
4pm-7pm - BBQ/bonfire at Mokuleia.
9pm - Mod Nighter held at ThirtyNineHotel downtown (mod, soul, garage, britpop, indie, powerpop, & new wave). Featuring DJ Frank Popp (from the Frank Popp Ensemble - Germany), Shing-A-Ling (NYC), Phil Templar (NYC), Kevin Jones (Emerald City Soul Club - Seattle) & Shane Vagina (Honolulu). All ages!
For more 411 contact:
Joe Agogo
cellular: (808)990-MODS
email: smashagogo@yahoo.com
http://www.myspace.com/smashagogo
rRed Elephant Cafe: Raising the Bar(ista)
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article by Katie Whitman
About a year ago, an intriguing new coffee shop opened in Chinatown on Bethel St. Word began spreading that there was more to this café than just java. Soon thereafter, bands began playing, slam poets began performing, and fashion models began strutting down the amazing stage that is the real centerpiece of rRed Elephant Café.
Now known to house the best stage, soundwise, on all of Oahu, rRed Elephant boasts a 16-foot by 24-foot center stage with a JBL concert sound system and full theatrical lighting. But wait, there’s more. This setup doubles as a full recording studio with individual stage monitors for each performer, 32 available recording inputs, and the pro-tools HD suite.
Why such an elaborate set up? The owners, Paul Kreiling and Joey Wolpert actually own a record label called Elepani Productions. Their first love is music, and both have long histories in the recording industry. For example, the two used to own a recording studio in L.A. and Kreiling used to write orchestra arrangements for Don Ho while Wolpert has worked on albums for such artists as Bette Midler, Natalie Cole, and others.
Wolpert and Kreiling are very interested in promoting Hawaii’s talented musicians, particularly younger ones who show exceptional promise. They are looking for artists to sign to their record label, but will be very selective with whom they choose to work. However, rRed Elephant does openly invite all types of musicians to play on their acoustic stage located in the coffee shop. Here, acts such as Swampa Z.Z., a constant rotating lineup of seasoned jazz musicians, sixteen year old piano player Chase Livingston, and many more have delighted caffeinated beverage sipping audiences over the past months.
Many visiting and local performers have played on rRed Elephant’s full stage, dubbed “Live @ rRed Elephant.” Live has hosted everything from local punk, rock, and hip-hop to traditional Irish music to Italian percussion performances. On Sunday nights, you can catch a treat called “A Dark Night at rRed Elephant” which has been described as an avante-garde talk show. Or, if you’re more of a fan of the cinema, check out Trailer Trash Tuesdays, a movie night where you can catch short films by local filmmakers.
Since their opening, rRed Elephant has been making great strides in supporting the local music, art, and film scenes. If you would like to contact rRed Elephant about watching a show or perhaps putting one on yourself, call 808 -545-2468 or head down to 1144 Bethel Street between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Grab a cup of their 5 star Kona blend then sit down, relax, and take in all that talent.
Magnum Carnage
review by Katie Whitman
Listening to Magnum Carnage’s CD, Evil Never Dies, reminds one of being trapped on a psychotic carnival ride burgeoning with angry carnies and an occasional Killer Klown from Outer Space (gawd, that movie scared me! I was 12, ok?).
MC’s black metal is filled with busy, layered guitar solos, industrial sounds, and a variety of instrumental and choral elements. The way in which many of the songs are placed on the CD with no breaks between them gives the listener the impression of multiple movements within a single musical piece, arranged almost like a black metal symphony.
Some of the vocals are “sung” in a high, raspy voice and are simply an additional sound admist the instrumental soundscape. Creating a soundscape is one of the things that Magnum Carnage does best. When listening to this CD, you can tell that lead singer and recording artist, Kai Laigo, is obviously very interested in creating an all-encompassing musical experience for the listener, taking into account both atmosphere and emotional response.
Listening to the song “Angels, Ghosts, Demons, Witchcraft, & UFO’s,” I realized that the band is actually respresenting each of those entities musically as the song progresses. It is their use of industrial sounds, organs, pianos, strings, choral elements and other synthesized sound to provoke mental images in the listener that I liked the best about this album. In fact, on their myspace site, myspace.com/magnumcarnage, they write, semi-tongue-in-cheek, “WARNING: This music may cause depraved fantasies.”
If you find the idea of creating your own reality via music as interesting as I do, give Magnum Carnage a listen.
