We're making out the shopping list. Oh, good. Put me down a bottle of rum and a pineapple. What? I have to get used to those Hawaiian drinks. May I ask why? Didn't I tell you? I'm going to Hawaii for two weeks. Oh, you'd better mark down a jar of passion fruit, too. Fashion fruit? Is that good for... No. It's just the name of a fruit. What contest is it at?
It's the Peterson Poi Juice contest. Poi juice? They serve it every afternoon on the veranda of the Tiki Bongo Hotel. In addition, the winner gets free catamaran lessons, the use of a surfboard, and a year's supply of shark propeller. Welcome to the quiet room. And welcome back for another visit here at the Quiet Village. I'm your host, Digitiki, coming to you direct from Digitiki.com with our towers broadcasting from deep within the jungly heart of the Quiet Village.
I have another wonderful episode for you. As always, I want to thank everyone for the kind words about the last episode. Hope you're going to enjoy this one as much. I think you will. I've got a lot of wonderful new exotica to share with you, as well as some lovely information that I'm really excited to finally be able to share with you. So, you know what? It's hard to know where to get started. Maybe I should just start by playing.
A small little group of some new tunes that I got in. I love it that I have listeners that send me new tunes. And I will specifically give a big shout out to Bob and Wendy C. sent me a lot of great music. They've hosted Ixtawele live at their own home tiki bar, which I think is super cool. And just a shout out. Hey, Bob. Hey, Wendy. How are you? Aloha. I know you're listening. And I just want to thank everybody who sends in ideas and sends in music.
who interacts with me. It's wonderful because right now when I'm doing this, I'm talking to a computer screen, I'm talking to a microphone, and I'm imagining people out there listening. Thank you for writing in. I love to hear from you. I heard from a wonderful listener from France named Basil. So, Basil, I know you're listening. Welcome. Thank you for listening. I've got some great music, and I'm going to get started.
And again, I'm not sure where to start, but I'll just start at the beginning. I've got some wonderful new music by Jim Feigen from the Exotic Shores of San Diego, who has been a good friend of the show. of Quiet Village Radio. Some new music from the Hypnotiques out of Las Vegas sent to me by Brett Barnes. They're wonderful vibraphonist and percussionist.
as well as some great music. Again, Bob and Wendy turned me on to this group, Vibe Zotica, which is a brand new group I'd never heard from, as well as some music. Sorry. New music from my friend Darren Long from the Tiki Delight. So let's just get started right off the top. Let's just start out with Jim Feigen from... from, as he likes to say, from the exotic shores of San Diego. This, I believe, is a single, and he's working on an album.
And this may be on it. It's called In a Fog. And it's kind of a cool jazzy tune. Jazz Zotica. I think you're going to enjoy this right here on The Quiet Village. Bye. Right, there you go. That was a set of new, brand new Exotica. And I just want to say I'm so excited that people are out there making new Exotica. I really love the vintage Exotica. Please don't get me wrong.
But it's so nice to see people diving in, even if they just try it. You know, they're just trying one tune here and there. I really love that. So... What you just heard was a new group that was brought to my attention by Bob and Wendy C. That is a group called Vibzotica, and that was a track called Pakia. from their album, which just recently came out, called Exotic Moods of Vibe Zotica. In the middle of that set, we heard the Hypnotiques out of Las Vegas with a tune called Apache.
And that was Kitty Chow on vocals. I love her. I am a fan of Kitty Chow. I love her voice. And also Brett Barnes on the vibes. He did wonderful work there. He works with Exotique. in Vegas, as well as doing his own stuff. And you've heard me play some of his solo material here. So mahalo, Brett, for sending me that. I apologize. He actually sent me that. right before the end of the year, and I didn't get a chance to play it, and I was like, I gotta do it.
So that was great. So love that group. Hope to catch them live someday. That'd be great. And in the beginning of that set was Jim Figgin from the exotic shores of San Diego with a new single called In a Fog. It was kind of a... really jazzy Exotica kind of a tune. A lot of jazz. I enjoyed it. I thought it was kind of Steely Dan-ish a little bit. I don't know. I could be completely off-base, but...
Anyway, I've got some more wonderful new exotic and some wonderful news to tell you. You know, I do want to say first... One of the things that's kind of been itching in the back of my head, and I wasn't quite sure how to bring this up, Finding Exotica out there. A lot of you are out there scouring. I know I scour it. I find a lot of stuff. I am a fan of... Spotify for finding new stuff because I can find stuff I never would find by going to a record store and I can sample.
the stuff. The one thing about Spotify, and I have a love-hate relationship with it, I do subscribe to it, but also as an artist on Spotify, I've noticed that the royalty payments have gone down significantly over the years. There's a lot of YouTube videos out there about people who have delved into Spotify and they talk about what it does and how things have changed quite a bit. One of the things I will say is I'm not trying to...
I'm not trying to discourage you from using Spotify. It is a great resource for finding new music. In fact, my music is on there. But again... independent artists kind of get the short end of the stick, and I really want to just...
to bring up independent artists here. I want to expose them. I want you to hear them. I want you to decide for yourself if they're worth purchasing and that sort of thing. Hopefully they are. But one of the things I've noticed lately is a lot of consolidation in the digital music realm and some of the formerly independent music distributors. for small artists like me and like Vibesautica and Hypnotiques and all that.
They have been gobbled up by some of the major labels and the major music distributors out there that used to once be only for the major labels. So, so far we haven't... noticed a whole lot of change, but I'm sure that change is coming. They'll be able to mine those artists for more income rather than have them competing against the major labels. And I'm...
I don't know about that. It's a little worrying. I mean, some of the things I do see that really worry me sometimes on Spotify, on iTunes, on some of these major, these music... streaming outlets is that you see a brand new artist on a major label, their song, their first song or their first album drops and it is immediately the most downloaded song. How is that possible?
when there are more independent artists out there on that platform than any other. And there's a lot of cynical reasons that I could tell you. There's a lot of conspiratorial reasons, one of which I do believe is stream... farms that some of the majors used to do is they would set up hundreds of little computers that would just stream a song over and over and over. It's illegal, but it does happen.
So for that reason, I just, there's a lot of stuff that I don't think keeps the playing field on an even. And I will say, first of all, the music I'm playing here and the independent artists that I play here, including myself, are exceptionally niche. So it's never going to be in the top 10. Unless it's a fluke. I mean, you know, think of Denny hitting with Exotica and, you know.
Yellow Bird by Arthur Lyman, those one songs by those artists out of all the albums they did and all the songs they did. So, you know... There is that. But I do want to impress on all of you. If you like the artists here, please support the artists. Go to their independent music. Purchase the music if you like it. Stream it if you like it and you're on Spotify or Pandora or any of those that you're paying the subscription for.
definitely stream it, play it, put it in your playlists with other similar artists so their algorithms will... Will, you know, if somebody plays Martin Denny, it'll come up and play, hey, look, here's the hypnotics or, you know, that sort of thing. So definitely, that's an easy way for you. And I will say this. If an artist has a band campsite, check their music out on Instagram.
Bandcamp. Sometimes you can purchase the songs digitally for less than you could on iTunes, and it's really nice. I'm on Bandcamp. I have a lot of wonderful artists that I play here on Bandcamp. So I do definitely like Bandcamp. So check it out. Okay, I talk too much. I am now going to play... two groups that I have done some work with. One of them is the Tiki Delights, Darren Long. The other one is Skip Heller and his Voodoo Five, which I have
I've been playing and performing with that group, and I recorded with that group. And the first record is out, the Voodoo 5, and I'm going to play a track right now. That is really wonderful. For those of you who are Disney fans too, Skip did a wonderful arrangement of the Jungle Book song, Trust in Me. And then I'm going to play a track that I did Vibes guesting on.
From the Tiki Delights by my friend Darren Long. So right now, let's get real dark and exotica with Skip Heller and his Voodoo 5 featuring Lisa Marie Cardinal on vocals. And... Me on Vibes. Hey, right here on The Quiet Village. We'll see. Okay, there we have it. That is San Francisco's Samba from a very, very new, very brand new album, EP, whatever you want to call it, from the Tiki Delights called Jet Setting.
with the Tiki Delights, and that was yours truly on Vibes. Darren Long is the driving force behind the Tiki Delights, and he is actually from San Francisco, so that's kind of an homage to his hometown. And I love San Francisco. Beautiful place. Expensive place. But it is gorgeous. And there's a lot of wonderful stuff there. So the Tiki Delights jet setting with the Tiki Delights. Definitely check that. Just another thought going back to before the set when I was talking about...
Supporting local artists. I do try to put links to the artists' websites or at least to their Facebook page. Definitely. Check those out on the website under the podcast tab. Right before that, the first song in that little mini set was Trust in Me, which goes back to a wonderful hit from Jungle Book, Disney's Jungle Book.
That was Skip Heller's Voodoo 5 featuring Lisa Marie Cardinal on the vocals. That's Skip Heller's wife and yours truly on the vibes there. Really wonderful rendition of that. I've been doing a lot of... of gigs and some recordings with Skip Heller's Voodoo 5. It's a lot of fun. Lisa Marie Cardinal is a wonderful vocalist. I mean, she is really accomplished, and she can do those. She can do the... the Ima Sumac stuff, which just blows my mind. Anyway, definitely check that album out.
And as I was saying before, I was talking about streaming and supporting artists online. I will definitely have links to the bands, to their sites, to their band camps. here in the website so if you go to digitiki.com go to the podcast page and you can find this episode episode 140 you can check it out there should be links in fact I try and put links on all the episodes
to many of the artists there. So definitely check those out and support the artists. Now, having said all that, I still, I'm talking about all kinds of news and stuff I have. One of the big news things is about me. I know. I know. I know. I'm orbiting planet me. Well, I didn't want to do it right up the top of the show. I wanted to feature some other artists because...
the world of Exotica is not about me. There's a lot of other artists out there and I definitely want them to get the spotlight as well. But I do want to let you know, I actually teased in the last episode about a project that I was working on, and it is about finished. It is not out yet.
So I'm going to go ahead and just give you a little preview of it. The album is going to be called Midday Mai Tais. That's right, because it's five, not five o'clock, it's 12 o'clock somewhere. So the album... is called Midday Mai Tais and it's actually a collaboration between myself the Tiki Delights, Mr. Mowai and the Tiki Heads, and Connie Manakura of the Manakuras. So all four of us kind of came together to write completely new original material, and we all played on each other's project.
and the album is about to come out. Not only that, May 1st at the 2025 Tiki Caliente, we will be performing together for the first time this... So we're going to be releasing the album that day. The album's going to be released on May 1st, and we'll be performing May 1st at Tiki Caliente in Palm Springs. So definitely check that out. I'm going to preview a track.
Here... from that album and it obviously it features me on vibes it features connie manicura on the steel it features uh darren long of the tiki delights on the guitar uh it and it also features mike young of mr and the tiki heads on the ukulele and percussion. This is a great song. I really love this. This is one of Connie Manakura's original compositions that will be on the record.
And it is called Rainbows Over Kaneohe. So here you go. This is a preview of my project I've been working on with these guys, Midday Mai Tais, right here on the Quiet Village. you Thank you. Getting a little margarita style. I really enjoyed that because that band is called Toasty Pinecone, which I love. They are out of...
Canada, if you can believe it. So the margaritas over there, you don't have to freeze them. They just go outside and they freeze themselves. So it's got to be really cold up there right now. So I really enjoyed the fact. that the band sent me this track. I think it was one of their first tries with Exotica, and they went for Margaritaville. And I like it. It's fun. I love...
I'm a Buffett fan, and I am a proud tiki lover and Buffett fan. I know some of you aren't, and that is okay, but I am, and that's okay, too. Right before that was memoir. Yours truly from my album, La Highness Sunset. Actually, it's a bonus track, not on the LP. It's on the flash drive. That was called The Legend of Pu'u Pehe, which is named... There is a legend of Pu'upe, which is also called Lover's Rock, which is a big rock jetty on the island of Lanai, right across from the Bay of Lahaina.
And that was from my album, Lahaina Sunset, but it was a bonus track. Also, the very beginning of that was Rainbows Over Kaneohe, written by Connie Manakura of the Manakuras, and it was featured on... the upcoming album that I'm a part of, as well as Connie Manicura, Mr. Mawa and the Tiki Heads, and the Tiki Delights called Midday Mai Tais. It's going to be dropping at Tiki Caliente May 1st.
And I don't even have a copy in my hand yet, but I want to give you a preview. And I will be performing with all of those guys on Thursday night, May 1st. at Tiki Caliente. Also, just to tell you, just to push myself a little further, I'm going to be performing with my own little group called the Mambo Combo Saturday night at Tiki Caliente. We're going to be doing kind of a Cal Jader vibraphone.
Latin jazz thing, which is going to be a lot of fun. As if I don't do enough running sound day and night there. I'm going to be playing with those groups as well. As a late-night show with Jason Lee, I am one of the dark entities, and we're going to be doing it. Jason Lee's dark entities are going to be back playing in the dark at the Reef Bar at Tiki Caliente.
2025. So definitely check that out. We have come to the end of another visit here at the Quiet Village. I want to remind you, you can go to the Quiet Village at any time by simply going to digitiki.com. If you click on the podcast menu, you can see a list of all of the podcasts, including all the tracks on every podcast, including...
links that I was talking about earlier to all the bands, their pages and that sort of thing. So definitely check them out. Support the artists if you like them. One of the things I'd like you to also do is to go to the Quiet Village gift shop when you're on digitiki.com.
where I've got a lot of cool stuff, including I still have my LP and the flash drives with all the extra tracks and videos and all that stuff. But I also have my EP flash drive, which is the Aloha Kaftan Society, which was written... for the Aloha Captain and Society. It's all Ultra Lounge. It's cool. It comes on a pink flash drive. And you can also pick up the Suck On This glasses from my Don Ho show. Those sold out when I did the Don Ho show tour.
Two other times at Tiki Caliente, the glass is sold out. There's this different art on each one, but they sold out. And then I get people even... months and year or two later saying, do you still have any of those? And I don't. But the Reef Bar was... was kind enough to give me the last of the suck on this glasses from 2024 and you can get them only at the quiet village gift shop so check those out also want to remind you that the ernie minahuni mug and music collection that has been
selling like gangbusters there is only a hundred i think i only have about a dozen maybe less than a dozen left they're each numbered the entire discography along with a whole bunch of unreleased material from ernie minnow including... a beautiful Econ Bookum mug, and it's really something special. And the music is not going to be reissued anywhere that I know of, at least that I know of. So this is the only place to get it.
digitally so check it out and it's not lp rips it is from the master tapes it is officially licensed from the owner of the ernie minahuni collection so i just want to tell you guys get those before they're gone if you're waiting Don't wait because there's not many left. Somebody just bought two of them from me.
Anyway, I want to thank you all for listening to The Quiet Village, and I am going to close this show out with a tune I wanted to play a couple episodes ago, but I never got a chance, and it was one of those I found, again, on Spotify, just kind of... clunking around, it's called Drum Song. And it's a reggae tune, but it's very exotica underneath the reggae beat. And I thought, you know what? I think I should play this. The artist is Marjorie Wiley.
And it is from an album called Interpretations and Improvisations. I know nothing about this artist. I know nothing about this. this particular collection or album, but I was listening to this track and I'm like, hey, it's kind of cool. It's reggae, which I don't normally play on here, but if you listen to the... Underneath, it sounds very Martin Denny-ish. So have fun with this tune, a little something different. And like I said, support the artists making Exotica today. Go check them out.
All right. Until next time, everybody. Aloha.