Bands from ’70s, ’80s reunite

Greenwood is back at it, with a sophomore album on the way PHOTO COURTESY GREENWOOD

Greenwood is back at it, with a sophomore album on the way PHOTO COURTESY GREENWOOD

Last November I wrote about a band that’s been around since the 1970s. At the end of last autumn, Greenwood had just released its debut CD, Lost In Paradise (in many ways a play on how long it took for the band to finally finish the project!). I recently caught up with bassist and bandleader Robin Kimura.

Robin’s been busy organizing the latest installment of his highly successful concert series, ’70s Nightclub Reunion. The concert series features bands from Honolulu’s funkier past — Aura, No-helani Cypriano, Phase 7, Glass Candle — and tickets always sell out quickly. Reserved tickets for the upcoming Aug. 8 show at Ala Moana Hotel sold out in 90 minutes! Not to worry: Tickets for open seating are still available.

For the upcoming concert, reuniting bands include: Beowulf, Glass Candle, Greenwood, Tino & The Rhythm Klub, and Honolulu. The latter two groups were prominent during the ’80s, so Robin’s tagged this show as the ’70s Nightclub Reunion Plus.

Greenwood’s CD, Lost In Paradise, has found enormous amounts of success since its release, especially thanks to Japan-based music retailer Disk Union. Not only has Disk Union sold countless copies, they’ve recently put the pressure on Robin and the band to press up a vinyl version of the album! So look for that in the coming months. It’ll be a really special release — after all, Greenwood’s original intent was to record the album for vinyl back in 1985. (Read my column from November to learn the back story on that).

So here we are, talking about the Aug. 8 concert and the forthcoming Lost In Paradise LP, when I stop Robin and say, “It’s partly ironic and very impressive that we’re talking about this success now, you know what I mean?”

Robin replies: “You know what’s neater is this is not what we do. I’m not a full-time musician anymore. This is a hobby, a love. But we get to truly realize our dream. When I got that test pressing of our album, oh man, chicken skin! Look at this 12-inch vinyl, man! This is an LP! Not this (a CD). You put ‘em on the turntable, put the needle down and the sound, oh man.”

I ask: “What does your son think of it?” Robin tells me: “When he first saw the LP, he was freaking out. He said, ‘Dad, how you gonna play that? That thing not gonna fit in the computer.’ I said, ‘Check this out!’ I busted out my turntable with the diamond needle and said, ‘Come here, let me show you how it’s done.’”

Congratulations to Robin and Greenwood on the upcoming LP release. (Robin also revealed that they’ll be back in the studio soon to record their sophomore album — to include a CD, vinyl 45 single, and most likely a vinyl LP release when the album’s done!)

Be sure to check out the 70s Nightclub Reunion Plus concert. For tickets, call 944-4330. For more information, visit 70snightclubreunion.com.

Roger recently turned his blog into a record label: alohagotsoul.com