Frank DeLima & Na Kolohe - Don't Sneeze When You Eat Saimin - Live @ the Noodle Shop!

Name: Frank DeLima & Na Kolohe
Album: Don't Sneeze When You Eat Saimin
Year: 1981
Style: Comedy
Similar Bands: Juvinile Comedy
"One-Word" Review: Localized-Hawaiian-Meh-Humor
Based Out Of: Honolulu, Hawaii (The Noodle Shop Waikiki Sand Vila Hotel)
Label: Pocholinga Productions

Don't Sneeze...cover
Don't Sneeze...back

Don't Sneeze When You Eat Saimin (1981)

1. The Meanist Paniolo Palolo Ever Had 3:54
2. The Lexography of Non-Local Locution 6:38
3. Sashimi Street 6:24
4. Don't Sneeze When You Eat Saimin 2:42/
5. Lucille 4:58
6. Island Airwaves 3:48
7. Pakes 1:36
8. Babooze 5:46
9. The Japanese 0:40
10. The King of the Jungle 1:00

Album Rating (1-10):
2.0

Members & Other Bands:
Frank DeLima - Writer, Producer, Ukulele
Partick Downes - Writer, Music & Lyrics, Cover Design, Graphics, Recording & General Editing, Snapshots
Dean Shimabukuro - Writer, Guitar
Dean Lum - Writer, Bass, Recorded
John Chang - Touch-Up & Final Editing
Ray Tanaka - Cover Photo

Unknown-ness: I had seen this record at the thrift shop where I volunteer time organizing their records. And I re-shelved the album many times into 1982, not giving it much thought. Eventually I picked it up and looked at it. From the title and front picture it seemed very silly, but it might be a interesting record from the early 80's. I figured "Live @ The Noodle Shop" would mean it was a live record, so it would have a good energy. The image on the back is a collage of different clippings and pictures, adding more to the chaotic feel of good 80's albums.

Album Review: Little did I know or anticipate that this would be a comedy record from Hawaii. So it will be a little different to review an album that is not music. The album starts off with a dated and localized jokes. The first track is a joke-song is a tale of a Portuguese tough guy from Palolo. The joke is that he’s not tough at all. All his toughness examples are either on a small scale or sound like they should be tough, but are pleasant. The second track is an audience participation sing song joke, making fun of local dialect & jargon. Some of the audience response is unintelligible, but the jokes are lost on outsiders anyway. These are inside jokes, where Hawaii is on the inside. The bit ends with a joke about why your ass crack (or the local word for it) is the direction it is: if you slip down the steps, you don’t go (lip-flapping sound). The audience seemed to like it. The sections are broken up with fade-ins and fade-outs, making each joke seem prepared, and staged, rather than a non-stop live performance. After speaking in Japanese for a bit, the next joke is introduced as an educational program translating numbers in Japanese. He invites Animal from the Muppet Show on stage to assist in the joke, only to be greeted by a poorly parodied Kermit first. Animal is obviously fooled naively, as he only knows English: one = itchy, two = knee, three = sun, four = she, five = go, and it falls apart from there as it is supposed to. The next is one of Frank De Lima’s most famous bits, “Don’t Sneeze When you Eat Saimin.” As you can guess, it tells what will if you sneeze while eating noodles. It delves into other dishes too. It is very juvenile in its sense of humor. “Lucille” is another song-parody about a girl leaving our narrator. After one stanza, it is announced that the song was written by Kenny Rodgers, written about a couple he saw in Hawaii. So Frank re-writes the story, as it must have originally occurred in Hawaii, before Kenny transcribed it for mainlanders to understand. “Island Airwaves” is a sample mockery of the radio stations they have in Hawaii. It has little musical examples and talk sections with all their idiosyncrasies explored. “Pakes” is an informational comedic explanation of racial slurs in Hawaii. But the jokes are still comical and tame in their tone. “Babooze” is about being a Portagee: “Hawaiian term for Portuguese.” Basically, they are just stupid jokes, with the Portagee input as the idiot, intermixed with a drinking melody reciting of Ba-Ba-Ba-Babooze. Again, the crowd seems to take to these jokes very well. “Japanese” is a very short information giving lessons explaining more Japanese words and stereotypes. “King of the Jungle” is just a joke recited without music. Basically these are all just acoustic silly songs, revolving around Hawaiian humor and Hawaiian stereotypes. It is nothing to really write home about, so I’ll just stop there.

Stand Out Track:
Don't Sneeze When You Eat Saimin

Links:
Frank DeLima - allmusic
Frank DeLima - myspace
Frank DeLima - Wikipedia
Frank DeLima - website
Frank DeLima - interview Hawaii 411
Frank DeLima - Honolulu Star Bulletin song
Frank DeLima - Honolulu Star Bulletin 25th Anniv
Frank DeLima - Short Bio
Frank DeLima - Buy Hawaiian Music
Frank DeLima - 2004 Interview acidlogic
Frank DeLima - Bio Booklines Hawaii
Frank DeLima - Making a Difference
Frank DeLima - Best Na Hoku HanoHano Comedy Album 1982

Dambuilders - Ruby Red

Name: Dambuilders
Album: Ruby Red
Year: 1995
Style: Alternative
Similar Bands: Fig Dish, Fretblanket, Smashing Pumpkins, Dramarama
"One Word" Review: My High School Music Style
Based Out Of: Boston/Hawaii
Label: Eastwest Records

Ruby Red - Cover

Ruby Red - My Cover

Ruby Red (1995)

1. Smooth Control 2:32 (sample)
2. Special Ed 4:06 (sample)
3. Teenage Loser Anthem 3:14 (sample) (video)
4. Drive-By Kiss 4:23 (sample)
5. Lazy Eye 4:23 (sample)
6. Bending Machine 3:52 (sample)/
7. Velocidad 3:23 (sample)
8. Rocket to the Moon 3:05 (sample)
9. Cosmonaut 3:29 (sample)
10. St. Tamarindo 4:46 (sample)
11. Down 5:13 (sample)
12. I Forget Myself 6:26 (sample)

Album Rating (1-10):

6.5

Memberd & Other Bands:

Dave Derby - Bass & Lead Vox (The Collective , Exactones, Dave Derby and the Norfolk Downs )

Eric Masunaga - Guitar (Exactones)

Kevin March - Drums (Mind Science of the Mind, Hot One)

Joan Wasser - Violin (Joan as Police Woman, Mind Science of the Mind)

Unknown-ness: This is another album I bought back in 1995-1996, in a discounted/used tape bin at a local record store in Quakertown, which only experienced a short life, called The Raven’s Nest. My best memory of the place is that I got Faith No More’s “King For A Day…” album the first day it came out from there after school, before tennis practice. Anyway, about Dambuilders, I do not recall if I knew any of the songs when I bought the tape…none of the songs look familiar today. Perhaps I heard about them somewhere (CMJ Music Magazine, Rock Video Monthly, 120 Minutes, Post Modern PST) and then bought the tape as it was very cheap, and the car I used (and still currently use) has a tape deck. I cannot say much for the artwork, as it is a promotional copy. But I did look up the cover on-line, and posted a picture of it. Bring on the fuzz-infused alternative music! (I think…)

Album Review: Ruby Red starts off with “Smooth Control.” With an electric slide guitar, and Dismemberment Plan drum beat, the song takes off quickly. The vocals range from quiet whispering in the verse to controlled shouting in the chorus. There is a certain amount of fuzz and distortion, but not so much that the music is sacrificed. It is a great first song to an album. “Special Ed” follows with a basic drum beat, low fuzzy bass, and Dramarama style vocals. It is hard to define the music as anything but Alternative. The guitars chords introduce the melody of each line of vocals that follow during the chorus. “Teenage Loser Anthem” says it all about 90’s slacker rock in title and music. The vocals sound like Fig Dish, and the music is similar to Smashing Pumpkins. It is a solid driving song, with catchy guitar licks that back up the chorus and we finally hear the violin here. “Drive By Kiss” is a slower, shoe-gazing song, and the violin sooths on this track. The guitar croons more than the vocals do. During the long ending, there are quiet, spoken vocals over the music. “Lazy Eye” is a droning, stomp, with slide guitar, and a thick sludgey sound. The chorus is Nirvana shouting vocals over the only portion of the song that comes together and picks up in speed and makes the most musical sense. “Bending Machine” picks right up seamlessly with a fade-in after Lazy Eye’s fade-out. It is more quiet, calculated singing, over jangley guitars, but the over all tone is dark. The guitars quickly change to a more rocking and electrified sound. The violin and female back-up vocals in the chorus are featured nicely here. His vocals are back to that of Dramarama’s style.

“Velocidad” begins side 2, with drums, and a quick ticking time bomb pace. The guitars seem to represent that of pop-punk rhythm guitars. But the tone of the song in the verse is mysterious like a Mission Impossible scenario theme song. The rest is just fast pop. Slow methodical drumming begins the deep, chanting “Rocket to the Moon.” The song pulses along on a chorus of “ooo-oooos.” Lots of emotion is fed into the short burst of chorus: “rocket to the moon, set fire.” As if to follow up the space theme, “Cosmonaut” begins with Russian space dialogue, bag pipe sounding violin, and a very catchy, driving, almost metal musical base. There are two main sections to the song, the first one mentioned, and the second section. It slows and strips the music down, almost leaving you feel like you are drifting weightlessly aboard a ship. “St. Tamarindo” continues the echo chamber, drifting feeling from the previous song in tempo and construction. It is a slow, methodical song that never really gets to a point. The song fades out with a twinkling guitar and a shrieking violin, and some angelic oo-we-oo’s. “Down” trembles into existence, with shaky drums, violin and bass and swooping vocals. It picks up for just a second with focused guitar chords, but falls back into the quiet, stuttering musical style. His vocals sound somewhat like Gruff Rhys of SFA mixed with the Walkmen on this track. The music gains confidence for a little bit and then reverts back to the same style when the vocals are added. This is a well crafted song, gliding easily from style to style and all cemented with a calm, relaxing musical tempo. The violin is added as a melody guide to finish out the song. Finally, “I Forget Myself” comes on as a polite, slow shoe-gazing number. The violin is a buzzing bee sound. The drums and tempo pick up for a short few measures, giving a glimpse at what this could sound like as a pop song. This structure repeats a few times, giving way to more rocking out sections as the song progresses. There is a lot of instrumental time on the end of the song, and it becomes very precise in its musical arrangement.

Over all, this is a good, solid album. The songs are not annoyingly produced, and there is lots of room for the actual music, rather than coating it in a distortion-glaze. The influences of the music at the time are clearly heard throughout the album, but they really make it their own for the most part. i think if I would have listened to this during my High School years, this could have been a real favorite. Now, it is just pretty good.

Stand Out Track:

Teenage Loser Anthem

Links:

Dambuilders - Allmusic

Dambuilders - wikipedia

Dambuilders Blog article

Dambuilders on Rate Your Music

Dambuilders review 1997

Dambuilders - Lost In the 90's/Pop Dose

Dave Derby article - 8/07

Dave Derby - myspace

Dambuilders - Epitonic

Joan Wasser - article

Joan as Police Woman - myspace

Cecilio & Kapono - S/T

Name: Cecilio & Kapono
Album: s/t
Year: 1974
Style: Lite-Pop, Beach-Lounge
Similar Bands: Jimmy Buffet, James Taylor, Ween (Bananas & Blow), Air Supply
"One-Word" Review: Jammy-Beach-Jams
Based Out Of: Hawaii
Label: Columbia, CBS

Cecilio & Kapono Cover
Cecilio & Kapono Back

Cecilio & Kapono (1974)

Feeling Just the Way I Do (Over You) 3:21 (Sample)

Lifetime Party 3:23 (Sample)

Sunflower 4:27 (Sample)

Lovin In Your Eyes 2:46 (Sample)

All In Love Is Fair 4:15 (Sample)/

Gotta Get Away 3:09 (Sample)

Song for Someone 4:08 (Sample)

Friends 2:51 (Sample)

Sunshine Love 5:41 (Sample)

Album Rating (1-10):

6.0

Members & Other Bands:
Michael Stewart - Producer, Arrangements
Bill Thompson - Executive Producer, Artist Development
Craig Doerge - Keyboards
David Paich - Keyboards
Russ Kunkle - Drums
Leland Skylar - Bass
Wilton Felder - Bass
Bobbye Hall - Percussion
Cecilio - Guitar, Sitar, Arrangements
Kapono - Guitar, Arrangements
Jim Horn - Sax, Flute
Larry McNeely - Banjo
Gary Coleman - Marimba
J.D. Maness - Steel Guitar
Sid & the Boys - Strings
Jimmie Haskell - String Arrangement
Tom Sellers - Arrangements
Ron Malo - Sound
Al Schmitt - Re-mixing
David Willardson - Illustration
Frederick Ivan Gilbert III - Photography
Ron Coro - Art Direction

Unknown-ness: I had never heard of these guys. But from the album cover alone, I am assuming the music is laid back, light 70's jam rock. The Hawaiian shirt with their names on it (as well as the picture of them on the back) could possibly make the music lean toward reggae.

Album Review: It is kinda funny: the idea that someone won't like something until you know what it is. This applies to this record. I was not able to get into it until I was able to equate it to something that I already like. And once I was able to compare this album to Banana's And Blow by Ween, I could then extract the parts of the record, enjoy them, and like it as a whole.

That said and Ween aside, the album is pretty good: A chilled, laid back relaxing rest in a shaded hammock. Of course with a glass of lemonade. Track one starts off with bongos, and a bouncy happy beat. It is very folky and there are even strings in the background. I don't know much about the Dead, but I imagine "Feeling Just the Way I Do" could be from their catalogue. "Lifetime Party" is more oceanic, and has a very deep, slow groove to it. It is a very pleasant song. The dual vocals echo eachother during the second verse, like when your voice bounces back to you from rocky cliffs across the beach. I could easily hear Ween covering this song. There is even a Mickey-ish electric guitar solo around 2 minutes into the song and the keyboards could be pulled directly from their Mollusk album. "Sunflower" is a slow and dreamy love ballad, sounding like Air Supply in both music and lyrical metaphor. Lines like "If this world were a flower garden, and your smiling face a flower..." (and others) remind me of lyrics from Air Supply: "The beating of my heart is a drum, and its lost, and its looking for a rhythm like you" (and many others). "Lovin' In Your Eyes" continues with the light musical tempo, but is a little faster. Knowing they are from Hawaii helps to define their musical imagery. Although the bongo and mood seem to be associated with Caribbean music, it also has a place in Hawaii, summarizing the genre as a whole as island music. There is a sadder, solemn mood on "All In Love Is Fair." Again, perfect for an Air Supply song, this has the sad expressive singing from dual vocals that many 'Supply songs have (not to mention, it passes the prerequisite of having 'Love' in the title). It ends with a loud burst of emotion before quieting to a fade. I should also add, that this song reminds me of the "Flight Of The Conchords" song "I'm Not Crying"

Side two, starting with "Gotta Get Away" is a quick-paced island groove, with a country steel, slide guitar coupled with a wha-wha echo guitar, and funky percussion in maracas, drums and bongos. The next song, "Song to Someone," is a quiet lament. You can almost see the composer sitting at his piano looking out his apartment window through a sheet of rain onto an empty New York City street. A sad sax boosts the confused, depressed mood of the singing. "Friends" is back to the upbeat, relaxed rhythmic islander style. Both vocalists play back and forth, as well as combined, mimicking how good friends work together. Finally, "Sunshine Love" plays with more urgency then the rest of the album; with an oldies rock and roll piano, and a quicker, bouncy beat. But it comes off as a more produced version of the themes, thus representing the entire album, as if it were a Cliff's Notes to the the album. The title summarizes the love and sunshine themes, and the music takes a turn from quickness and slows down to recall the quieter moments of lament and reflection. Not to hang there too long, the song picks back up to the quickened pace and repetitive hook "don't take my sunshine away." The vocal break at the end could only be imagined as the closing song of a live performance, beckoning the crowd to come in and sing along with the last lines of the evening. It is a great climactic ending to an easy-spirited night.

Although not reggae, the album seems to hold to the same "no worries, we are one" attitude. The care-free, yet naive nature of the music showcases a society, with no thoughts of problems or evils. This is how many of us think of the everlasting vacation which must be island life.

Stand Out Track:
Lifetime Party

Links:C & K - Myspace
C & K - Wikipedia
Cecilio's Website
Kapono's Website
C & K Allmusic
C & K Hui Music
C & K Hawaiian Music Island
C & K - fansite
C & K - Hawaiian Music Net