Post #662154 by tiki mick on Fri, Dec 21, 2012 9:01 PM

On 2012-12-21 19:26, telescopes wrote:

On 2012-12-21 18:25, TheClamsCasino wrote:

On 2012-12-21 16:28, lucas vigor wrote:
Maybe, but it was in response to the last line of the preceding post, which was uncalled for, and patently untrue. .

Sorry, I'll take enthusiasm and spontaneity over "musicians of the very highest caliber" any day of the week. Nothing went over my head, pal. Believe me.

[ Edited by: TheClamsCasino 2012-12-21 18:26 ]

Okay, you pulled me out of my rabbit hole where I've been quietly hibernating.

And now, I have to agree with Lucas to boot.

He's right!

Don Tiki is the real thing. This is mid-century escapism in all of its Les, Arty, Denny fake Hollywood, Don the Beachcomber authenticity and it doesn't get any better than this.

I was there, 3rd row, seat 151.

If anything was wrong, it was the venue - Don Tiki simply isn't about big concert halls - the music as presented is simply too intimate and the performance too personal not to get somewhat lost in the expanse of the Disney Concert Hall. That said, Don Tiki stayed true to who they are and didn't change their act to fill the hall. What you saw was the real McCoy.

The playfulness, the silliness, the goofiness, the not taking themselves serious are all part of some of the elements of exotica. Seriously - listen to the stuff and tell me you don't get a good unintended laugh from it at it from time to time.

Nothing, and I mean nothing out there compares to what Don Tiki is doing. They are a one only type act.

Serious criticisms can be made of what we saw last night - i.e. a big concert hall versus seeing Don Tiki on a beach as you would a Luau. Perhaps you do need a drink in your hand JOHN> I had lunch with a Mai Tai and a Navy Grog at Don the Beachcombers (They were closed but served me anyway), a Navy Grog at Trader Vics followed by a coffee grog and a Everyone Hates Fruitcake with a long smoke from my pipe at Cana all before the concert began - so perhaps I was better prepped to have a great time.

I am going to now write something and if you don't agree with it after you read it, then ..........

On a forum such as this, Don Tiki should be available for criticism. But remember this, they were tiki before this forum was really up and running and they have been living it for real. In terms of computer programing, they are about as close to experiencing the source code as we can get in this age. They aren't holy, they aren't sacred, and they aren't the finest in the world, but in terms of Les, Arty, and Denny, this is about as close as we can get to experiencing them in a live venue. I don't know, at this point, I turn to you Lucus. I readily admit you will be better able to make the argument about just why this group is an important part of what is going on in this genre.

I;ll be glad to elaborate. But actually, you said something very important. This band was around, doing their own thing independent of tiki central. As much as I dig this forum, it is not the be-all end-all of tiki. There are a lot of people who are REALLY into tiki who don't post here.
Then there is the question of musician ship. Our friend, Clams Casino makes a statement here that I am sure 80% of tiki central agrees with, when he says "I'll take enthusiasm and spontaneity over "musicians of the very highest caliber" any day of the week."

This is something I will never agree with. You see, music is something that SHOULD be hard to do. If every yahoo out there can get famous just by being a hack, what do you end up with? Computers. Pro Tools. Pitch correction auto-tune. Justin Beiber. Music just becomes another form of kareoke.

I get immense pleasure from knowing a musician took years to learn something, worked hard at it, paid his dues, and tackled an instrument that is hard to play. Then, with all that experience and knowledge, manages to make music that sounds deceptively simple. Thats the beauty of it, the art of it.

Like in modern painting....I could get a 3 year old to create an abstract, expressionist piece of art...and then have a master painter do the same thing....the average public won't be able to tell the difference....unless they look a little deeper. Unless they know about the feeling and emotion and experience that went into it. That, combined with the technical mastery.

I want to ask Clams Casino what exactly is so spontaneous about musicians who create all their stuff on a computer, and then hire ringers to perform it? If that's the case, can't ANYBODY do it? What then, makes it special?

Don Tiki is a real, and actually organic band. They (for the most part) use real instruments. Beyond that, every musician who has played with them is excellent.

And being excellent should count for something. Martin Denny, Lyman, Baxter, were serious musicians. They were not garage musicians, or even garage musicians that got slightly better over time. They were jazz and classical trained people making the music this forum supposedly holds very dear. That is evident in the tiki bands that try to emulate them. Most fail, in my opinion.

As a musician, if you are basically a rock dude at heart who suddenly decides to be a tiki artist, unless you have that level of expertise, you will fall short....because you are trying to play a style of music that is by it's very nature, hard to play and very advanced. Does anyone here really think a 3-chord punk band wearing fezzes is in the same league same as the orchestral genius of Les Baxter? Apparently, there are too many here who do.

There is a good reason most bands don't sound like Les Baxter...because they CAN'T sound like Les baxter...but there are those here who can, and Don Tiki is just one of them.

I like to use a sports analogy here: Would U.S. Sports be as good if all the athletes playing were amateurs? Weekend warriors? Or do you pay extra to see someone like Kobe Bryant, who does something you can't easily do yourself? Should we love those amateur athletes just because they are "enthusiastic and spontaneous"?
I pay money to see someone do something special, and magical. And to do that, you need talent, not just deep pockets and a lot of loyal friends willing to hype the crap out of you.

Having said that, it's perfectly ok to play simplistic, enthusiastic and spontaneous crapola....if it makes you happy, go for it...but don't let anyone tell you it's better then what a master craftsman can accomplish. Don't make statements like "far better" unless what you are talking about truly is "far better". Or, if you are going to insist on saying it, be prepared to hear different views from people like me.

On a side note, I have a problem when, for example, the top executives of coca cola corporation are moonlighting with another company making a very similar product. That's bad form, and a few people here might know what I mean when I say that. Go do your OWN thing. Go do something different. Don't copy something that already exists and try to tell me that it is equal, or better.

Don tiki. This is more then just some guy tapping out nursery rhymes on a casio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Gy_4NXGq8

[ Edited by: lucas vigor 2012-12-21 21:08 ]