It’ll be up soon, but here’s my article on AWMusic.ca
I should admit, I didn’t find the Sweet Hollywaiians. They found me. Anyone who uses twitter knows that sometimes you can say something like “my god I love raspberry jam” and about ten minutes later you’ll have a jam reviewer following you. It’s the way ads work there, I suppose. Anyways, I was talking about hula music in one of my “tweets” when all of a sudden these guys started following me. I went to their myspace page, learned about them and heard just the most…INCREDIBLE music. And thus began my love affair with the Osaka based Sweet Hollywaiians. What must have been a month or so later, I received a package with four of their albums including the latest, Ticklin’ The Strings (which I am listening to while writing this).
I love this group because they really seem to inherit the spirit of Hot String music and manage to sound authentic. They’re right on par with the original groups of the time such as Ray Noble and His Hawaiians or other revivalist groups like R. Crumb & The Cheap Suit Serenaders and The House Rent Serenaders. Listening to them is like being transported to a 1920s kitchen jam or a small club. They’re just amazing.
What’s more amazing, it seems, is that the Hollywaiians are from Osaka, Japan. A place that sounds so unlikely for this music to thrive enough to form a band as talented as the Hollywaiians. But I suppose that it is further proof that the power of music knows no borders, regardless of genre. The Hollywaiians have played with members of the Cheap Suit Serenaders Robert Armstrong and Tony Marcus. They have received praise from Robert Crumb himself as well as legendary filmmaker Terry Zwigoff who has said that they “have probably the best feel for this 20′s music of any string band working today”.
Here’s a small e-mail interview I did with Nobumasa Takada (aka Mario) of The Sweet Hollywaiians.
The most common reaction from people regarding the Sweet Hollywaiians is surprise that you come from Japan. How did your interest in this kind of music spring up?
In our young days,we were collecting Yazoo Records.Because we were interested in album jackets which were illustrated by Robert Crumb and Robert Armstrong.The music were based on 1920′s,30′s blues,jazz and hawaiian.
What appeals to you most about this type of music?
We can feel nostalgic and sound is comfortable and soft to the ear.
How big is Hot String music in Japan? Is there a community based around it?
Very small.There is a community but very small.Majority of people don’t know about this type of music.
I understand that you all were pursuing solo careers and through an accident you formed the band. What was the accident?
All of our member were at the intersection crossroad.We were all crossing from different directions to each other and all of us crushed at the center of the intersection.It sounds like fake story but It’s true story.
You guys have a European tour coming up, right? Will this be your first time in Europe?
Yes but I have been there so many times in my imagination,Ha!
How did it feel to get high praise from the likes of Robert Crumb and Terry Zwigoff?
We are very glad and so proud of ourself.Because we respect them so much and it’s our pleasure to accept such comments from them.
After the tour, what’s next for the Sweet Hollywaiians?
We’ll come see you.Can we?
And there you have it. A great band with a great sound just doing what they love. That’s the musical dream, right? Remember these guys. You’ll be hearing a lot more from them soon.
Here’s two tracks from their latest album and a video of them playing My Girl From The South Sea Isles.
The Sweet Hollywaiians – Ellis March
The Sweet Hollywaiians – Ten Tiny Toes
www.myspace.com/sweethollywaiians
