For a recap of The Creepy Creeps two-day stint opening for and hanging out with Robert Plant and The Band of Joy, click this link to read the blog post on  “Urban Taxidermy,” the tattoo and art blog of Creepy Creeps’ guitarist, Dave Warshaw

The Zombie is the benchmark for the classic exotic cocktail, and the drink that lit the fuse of the mid-century Polynesian craze in America when it debuted in 1934.  This complex and powerful drink is a medley of bold flavors that takes the drinker on a trip to the islands.  You just can’t call you bar a tiki bar without serving up a great Zombie.  At Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco, where they take pride in offering 75 historic exotic libations, owner Martin Cate serves this drink made right with all fresh squeezed fruit juices, the correct & historically accurate rums, and housemade ingredients.  Martin Cate gives a cocktail seminar each year at the West Coast’s largest gathering of tiki enthusiasts, Tiki Oasis in San Diego, CA. He’ll be back this year with another interactive & informative seminar for hundreds of guests at this premier tiki event August 18-21.

Classic Zombie 1934 by Don the Beachcomber

.75 oz fresh lime juice
.5 oz fresh grapefruit juice (white or pink)
.25 oz cinnamon syrup
.5 oz falernum
1.5 oz gold Puerto Rican rum
1.5 oz aged Jamaican rum
1 oz Lemon Hart 151 Demerara rum
1 tsp grenadine
Dash angostura bitters
6 drops pernod or herbsaint

Pulse blend all ingredients with  6 oz crushed ice for 2-3 seconds, and pour contents into zombie glass and add ice to fill. Garnish with mint sprig.

Luxuria needs your help

to survive and thrive!

(Reposted from the Luxuriamusic website.) For eleven years, Luxuriamusic has provided YOU PERSONALLY with a seductive variety of international music, chat, and interweb bonding. it’s our pleasure to do this, but it doesn’t come cheap. (Click Read More below to read more, or just click here to go straight to the Donate page.)

We want to move forward, but first, there are some tough realities to deal with. Listeners know our equipment is old and at the breaking point, and we can’t currently afford to repair or upgrade. In order to do that, we’re asking for your help.

Our DJs are currently working hard to make this 2011 pledge drive fun both for our listeners, and of course… for ourselves!  Why not!  We’re offering lots of great new Donation Premiums including CDs, DVDs and books by our distinguished staff, including Andrew (“Come to the Sunshine“) Sandoval, Steve (“The Nice Age”) Stanley, Kristian (“Peppermint Spicerack”) Hoffman, Gene (“Atomic Cocktail”) Sculatti, Strike (“Kitsch Niche”), Angel-Baby & Doctor Nod (“Between the Sheets”), and Jason (“The Bachelor Pad”) Croft.  In addition, you can choose to support our studio directly by clicking on a whole range of items in our studio, like microphones, the mix console, the T1 Internet terminal, and even walls and doors.

You can also send in a check, cash or money order to this address: LuxuriaMusic, LLC, P.O. Box 26290, San Francisco, CA 94126-6290 USA, or donate securely VIA PayPal using the DONATE link on the home page, or by clicking directly to http://luxuriamusic.com/donate.html .

Luxotronathon!!

Join Rotary Rachel and a cavalcade of stars/Luxuria DJ’s for the first annual 24 Hour “Bucks For Lux” Telethon, beginning at 12pm March 3rd and ending 12pm March 4th. (pacific)

There will be giveaways, auctions, games, and much more fun – including a line-up of VERY special guests! Scheduled to appear are TV’s Frank Conniff, Pamela Des Barres, Allee Willis, Blaine Capatch, Micky Dolenz, Ruthann Friedman, Taylor Negron, and many more TBA!!

Not to mention special sets from all your favorite Luxuria DJ’s….including OG Lux 1.0 legends The Millionaire and Eric Bonerz!

DO NOT MISS this amazing event! The chat room, donation page and phone lines WILL be open for this important cause. We need your help to keep all the groovy LuxuriaMusic programming on the air!

This Thursday – 2/10 – Dionysus Records brings you three bands at The Redwood featuring exotica with a twist from The Ding Dong Devils, The Dick and Jane Family Orchestra with Dionysus’ Lee Joseph on bass, and Casino 66, formerly The Huntington Cads and featuring ex members of The Finks, The Witchdoctors and The Tiki Tones. Only $5.00!

9:30 PM
$5.00 Cover
The Redwood Bar and Grill
316 W. 2nd St.
Los Angeles, CA. 90012
213.680.2600

The Mixologists of Paradise:
Don the Beachcomber presents

WAITIKI: A 3-Day Festival Celebrating Exotica Music & Tiki Cocktails

Don The Beachcomber Restaurant
16278 Pacific Coast Hwy,
Huntington Beach, CA 92649
(562) 592-1321
www.donthebeachcomber.com

Featuring Exotica’s finest:

LOPAKA COLON, ROBERT DRASNIN, SHERRY SHAOLING, COMBUSTIBLE EDISON, and Hawaii’s WAITIKI 7!

Wednesday 12/29: The Jazz Sides of Exotica
Exotica musicians like vibraphonist Arthur Lyman created otherworldly pieces that straddled the boundaries of jazz. This jazzy side of exotica — or exotic side of jazz — will be highlighted when the WAITIKI quartet takes the stage with sweetly swinging hapa-haole tunes by R. Alex Anderson, Arthur Lyman, Queen Liliu’okalani, to the cool Latinesque grooves of Cal Tjader, Lee Morgan, Duke Ellington, Bill Fitch and Tim Mayer.

Buy tickets to 12/29

Thursday 12/30: Coronation of the Voodoo Masters
Contemporary exotica masters The WAITIKI 7 make a rare West Coast appearance, on this special night commemorating classic exotica. The WAITIKI 7 made Hawaiian music history this summer with rankings at #1 on the JazzWeek World and #2 on the CMJ Jazz charts, and have been noted by New York Times music critic Nate Chinen as “the band to beat.” Special guests Robert Drasnin (former CBS TV Director of Music and creator of the the 1959 exotica classic, Voodoo) and Sherry Shaoling (of Don Tiki) perform with the band too.

Buy tickets to 12/30

New Year’s Eve: The New Sounds of Exotica
Ring in the New Year with as The WAITIKI 7 get swanky, in a danceable homage to Combustible Edison, pioneers of the lounge revival in the mid-90s! The evening will feature the first performance of Combustible Edison‘s music since the band’s demise a decade ago, with help from Brother Cleve and The Millionaire. Midnight will transform the ballroom into a full-on tiki dance party.

Buy tickets to NYE

Event Website: DonTheBeachcomberPresentsWAITIKI.com

Partygoers will step into a slice of paradise for three nights, December 29-31, 2010. Champions of exotica WAITIKI will celebrate the year’s end at Don the Beachcomber, the restaurant haven of the great mixologist Donn Beach and all things tiki. The events will honor Beach and the stunning libations he created; exotica living legend Robert Drasnin; and leaders of the ’90s tiki revival Combustible Edison with live music, original cocktails, and DJ sets.

The luscious mix that is exotica-the blend of tropical soundscapes, Latin dance grooves, and popular jazz-is an adventuresome and musically intricate mix. Often mistaken as kitsch, exotica flows from the vibrant postwar Hawaiian music scene and draws on everything from jazz to folk ballads, to second-generation Japanese club bands made of traditional Asian instruments, to Puerto Rican percussionists who came to the island midcentury to work.

For New Year’s Eve, the WAITIKI 7 get swanky, in a danceable homage to Combustible Edison, pioneers of the renewed interest in non-rock instrumental music from the 50s and 60s. “We were a lightning rod fans of all these vintage recordings could rally around, as we not only gave props to these styles but wrote original music in that spirit,” Brother Cleve explains. “Tiki Exotica was one aspect of what we did, and we helped revitalize it.” This lightning rod attracted big names like Quentin Tarantino and Matt Groening, as well as legions of fans.

The evening will feature the first performance of Combustible Edison’s music since the band’s demise a decade ago, with help from Brother Cleve and The Millionaire. Midnight will transform the ballroom into a full-on tiki dance party. WAITIKI and Combustible Edison will reveal their mixologist side: Original craft cocktails by Brother Cleve, Randy Wong, and others will join Beach’s creations on the drink menu.

“Donn Beach had a famous rapport with diners-to leave their worries and their fears outside. Inside the restaurant is one’s own personal paradise, whether it be from the libations, entertainment, or conversations with the hosts and hostesses,” notes WAITIKI bandleader Randy Wong, whose tiki-insipired cocktails have made it onto menus at several fine dining establishments in Boston. “This makes Don the Beachcomber very different from anyplace else. It naturally has a close-knit, family-friendly environment that’s perfect for these three evenings.”

For ticket information, see http://donthebeachcomberpresentswaitiki.com/index.php/ticket-info or call (562) 592-1321

About DON THE BEACHCOMBER

The Don the Beachcomber restaurants originated in the ’30s in Hollywood and grew to incorporate 16 restaurants under the brand umbrella. Donn Beach was responsible for creating and spreading tiki culture around the world, including his creation of rum drinks with a tropical twist, now offered at every mainstream watering hole and bar.

Although none of the early Don the Beachcomber restaurants exist today, thousands of other establishments opened following his lead. Unfortunately, many of these were poor imitations, losing focus on tiki culture. Under the ownership of Arthur and Delia Snyder, Don the Beachcomber is experiencing a rebirth with its first new restaurant in 20 years. The goal is to replicate the experience of the original tiki restaurants made popular in the ’40s and ’50s throughout Southern California, and in Orange County, where Don the Beachcomber opened its doors in Corona del Mar in 1969

About The WAITIKI 7

The WAITIKI 7 are dedicated to the celebration, preservation, and resurgence of exotica music, and the related tiki culture. WAITIKI 7 is modeled after the classic groups of Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, and Gene Rains. The WAITIKI 7 is the only modern group that performs exotica completely live and acoustic-just like in the 1950s. And like their predecessors, the musicians of WAITIKI 7 all have extensive jazz, classical, and Latin training and chops.

With two critically acclaimed albums, Adventures in Paradise and New Sounds of Exotica, the group has shaken, stirred, and thrilled listeners from Boston to Hawai’i. They recently made exotica history by landing both albums on the radio charts at once (JazzWeek World chart, September 2010).

The Natatorium – created in honor of The WAITIKI 7 by Scott Marshall, Principal Bartender, Drink



Live footage from Tiki Oasis 10 featuring The Martini Kings whos 10 + CDs can all be found in the Dionysus Mail-Order shop, with guest singer Sonny Moon of Nutty, whos CD we also stock  plus guest stage crashers, artist and carver Crazy Al Evans whos band Ape can also be found in our cart, and Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid who does not have a CD but can be found (along with all the above and more) in the “Tikimentary” DVD, also in our online shop! Footage captured and edited by Crystal Cove Media! Wonderful….

Tiki Farm “The Hardest Working Company in Tiki”
10 years of Tiki Mugs on Display
Show Exclusive Limited Editions

Oct. 16 – 31
Opening Reception: Saturday, Oct. 16th, 8-11 pm

La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323-666-7667
www.laluzdejesus.com
info@laluzdejesus.com

www.tikifarm.com

Free mai-tai’s
Free pupu’s
Dynotones LIVE!
DJ Big Tiki Dude

Anybody who knows even the slightest bit about the immensely popular resurgent Southern California Tiki movement is likely well aware of Tiki Farm.  For 10 years, they’ve worked their tails off to reach the pinnacle position in the world of Tiki, providing Tiki enthusiasts worldwide with their most coveted artifact… the beloved object d’art known simply as the Tiki mug.  On display will be the entirety of mugs produced by Tiki Farm to-date… we’re talking approximately 2,000 different mugs (plus bowls, shots, decanters & flasks) on display!  When you enter into the faux lava rock grotto entry in the front gallery, 8’ tall Tiki Gods will greet you & loom over you as you peruse this most impressive exhibition.

Founded in the Fall of 2000, Tiki Farm is back at La Luz de Jesus for their third and most significant show to-date.  Tiki Farm founder Holden Westland will be in attendance, the Dynotones will be keepin’ the joint jumpin’ with their driving Surf Sounds and DJ Big Tiki Dude will be spinnin’ an eclectic mix of Exotica, Hawaiian Style, Hapa Haole & Surf tunes.  And of course, the mai-tai’s will be flowin’!  Limited edition signed & numbered event posters by Dirty Donny will also be available

Soap Plant / Wacko will have a show exclusive line of  six limited edition glaze variations, two new open editions, a handful of “weirdos” and “hard-to-get” Tiki Farm Mugs on sale at the event.  They anticipate brisk sales of these mugs as is always the case with Tiki Farm limited runs. So if you’re free, Saturday evening, October 16th, we recommend that you head on out to this amazing show. The exhibition runs through the end of October.