Stripped-down rock | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Stripped-down rock | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Thursday, August 14, 2003

THE LEFT LANE
Stripped-down rock

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Brian Tashima, former front man for the Hoku-Award-winning Tone Deaf Teens, is finding the unpretentious rock scene in Portland, Ore., a good match for his musical approach.

With his new band, Upper80, Tashima says he's adopted a "less chords, less thinking" philosophy. "We've been taking a simplistic, stripped-down approach that's been influenced more by laziness than any particular band or style," he says.

The four tracks on Upper80's new EP, "Evicted," each evolved out of jam sessions and feature Tashima's signature interplay of melody and hard-driving guitar. The EP was recorded at Jackpot Studios, which has also been used by indie luminaries Sleater-Kinney and Elliot Smith. Mp3 samples are available on the band's Web site (www.upper80.com) and on mp3.com.

Baby, you're a star

Taylor Wu, right, 30 months old, of Kalihi, and Alexandria Werthman, 25 months old, of Wailuku, bested more than 50 finalists to capture top honors at Meadow Gold Dairies' 50th annual Healthy Baby Contest. The finals were July 26 at the Hawai'i State Farm Fair.

Taylor was crowned the 2003 O'ahu Healthy Baby, succeeding last year's winner, Keila Sue Wong. Alexandria is the 2003 Statewide Meadow Gold Healthy Baby. Both girls received prizes and a $2,500 savings bond. For a list of winners, visit www.lanimoo.com.

Monkeypod motif

Staff of The Contemporary Museum, volunteers from the arts community and sculptor Patrick Dougherty joined forces last month to encase the trunk of a large monkeypod on museum grounds in a work that artist Esther Shimazu describes as "mutant basketry" or something out of the stylish animated film "Princess Mononoke."

Dougherty, a North Carolina-based former potter who now specializes in site-specific installations like this one, masterminded the structure made of hundreds of 20- to 30-foot-long waiawi (strawberry guava) and rose apple (Java plum) saplings harvested from Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden in Kane'ohe. In a statement on the museum's Web site (www.tcmhi.org/ex_mhsummer032.htm), Dougherty said that, in working with saplings, he attempts to "impose some of the ideas I had associated with clay — fluidity, immediacy, and the ease of applying marks to the surface."

The piece will be on view at the museum, 2411 Makiki Heights Drive, indefinitely.

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