Boston-based exotica band WAITIKI only 50 years behind the "in" crowd with their new album. 12" comes complete with dust on the cover and Mai-Tai stains on the back!
BOSTON, MA - The world's only performers and drinkers of exotic tiki-tainment from Polynesia and beyond will release their second full-length in May of 2007. The new album, Rendezvous in Okonkuluku, features 14 tracks of Polynesian Pop and tiki-drink-accompaniment, and was produced by the inimitable Brother Cleve of Combustible Edison and Del Fuegos fame.
WAITIKI has been whisking their listeners to their self-created imaginary world of Okonkuluku since 2003. The band is one of only two bands in the world performing the original style of lounge and Polynesian pop known as exotica (or tiki music). Charred Mammal Flesh: Exotic Music for BBQ, their debut release from 2005, won a Hawai'i Music Award for "Best Album: Exotica" - a category that the band re-introduced to this awards ceremony. WAITIKI, which is led by Hawai'i native and bassist Randy Wong (Professor Humming Flower), has performed in the US and internationally. Their signature tiki-tainment has been presented at the 2005 Hawai'i International Jazz Festival; at the 2006 Festival de Mexico with their 21-pc "Orchestrotica" who plays the world's only transcriptions of Juan Garcia Esquivel; and twice at The Hukilau tiki Festival (the world's largest tiki event held annually in "America's Vacation Land," Ft. Lauderdale, FL).
Rendezvous in Okonkuluku (R.I.O.) is subtitled "a fresh retrospective of classic Exotica," and brings to mind the classic albums of Martin Denny, Les Baxter, and Arthur Lyman (three of the band's major influences which can be heard on their Denny covers of "Tiki" and "Voodoo Love"). A bonus cover tune ("Akaka Falls") appear on the vinyl release. As with their debut album, R.I.O was tracked and mixed by Ducky Carlisle at Ice Station Zebra in Medford, MA. "R.I.O. is dedicated to record collectors and tikiphiles; anyone who still values the long play and the hunt for gems in the dustiest of record bins. We hope our fans will value the attention to detail we have given to everything on RIO - even the artwork and production should make your home tiki cocktails taste better," says Mr. Ho (Brian O'Neill), the band's vibraphonist and percussionist. "We have brought you the finest available recorded sound, so that you can reduce it to compressed mpeg files and listen to it with little earbuds while you're sipping a Rum Barrel on some faraway beach?or even Minneapolis, " adds producer Br. Cleve.
The band releases the CD on May 23, 2007 at the Milky Way Lounge and Lanes in Jamaica Plain, MA. More information, including videos about the new school they are opening (Okonkuluku University), is available at waitiki.com
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