Also, I was under the false impression before they began that it was going to be a Queen cover band, so I was super disappointed with that.

Portraits of 200 friends. A creative collaboration. Monotypes by Adam Funari. Photographs by Michael Keany.

I have wanted to write about the dream pop trio Clones of the Queen for a while now, but have purposefully held off until their next album release. With their new EP, “Braided,” out now, it is by far high time.

Interview I did with my friend's skateboarding magazine.

A Code for America effort. You agree to listen for the siren test and report any problems.

This barely talks about Occupy Honolulu and instead focuses on our homelessness problem, which is a huge one.

Sabrina asked local bands about their experience with Kickstarter, including me for the ‘Gate’ EP project funded on the site.

Christa Wittmier reviewing my first Lapwing show at Kaleidoscope back in 2009.

Two Portlanders who blog about their experience in Honolulu covered our Clones of the Queen/At Sea show. Very nice!

My friend Niko Rivas interviewed me and wrote up this great column on my Lapwing EP.

‘At Sea (Honolulu, HI) @ thirtyninehotel, Honolulu, HI. 12th, July 2011.’ ‘Not merely a reunion, but a reinvention, as the band rearranges their instrumentation and song writing style, switching from long-form drone inspired post-rock epics to a more concise semi-pop-structure featuring former cellist (now guitarist/singer), Yvonne Harada on vocals.’

Sabrina profiles the weekly music showcase. Ross: “But Kaleidoscope may have some form of a legacy. I think it’s helped organize and increase the quality of music, to a point where I feel like a number of our bands are at a stage where they can crossover. We’ve played some role in that. And a role as well in the transformation of Chinatown. I know for absolute certain that we’ve been at the heart of some indelible moments in peoples lives. And that is a hell of a thing.”

A picture of Chaz with two fans and a brief mention of the show. “As I’m packing a bag for Los Angeles this week I’m laughing to myself because I already know the dialogues I’m going to have with everyone there. It’s going to be about here. How we got to see Toro Y Moi and how the weather is getting hot for spring.”

A video by Jordan Blackmon, bassist for Toro Y Moi.

Photos by Tracy Chan. “The South Carolina-based ‘chillwave’ musician and his band brought their signature brand of funky, groovy, electronic shoegaze jams to a sold-out show at NextDoor Saturday night. Opening were local acts Clones of the Queen and Painted Highways. Although the club was packed and sweaty, people really got into the music, some dancing and some just swaying with eyes closed.”

Photos by Brian Tseng.

Gary Chun again! “Chaz Bundick and his crew manned their spaceship last night at Nextdoor, and took the good ship Toro y Moi and an audience of eager passengers to a nearby galaxy of sound and rhythm, forward thrusters go.”

Profile/promotional piece from Gary Chun.

Friend and ally Gary Chun gives COTQ and the Toro Y Moi show another shoutout in the Honolulu Pulse picks. Too kind. “Arguably the busiest indie rock band in Honolulu, Clones of the Queen had six shows lined up this month, and will be concluding their run this weekend and Thursday. Band member Matthew McVickar (also known as solo act Lapwing) is promoting his first club concert, and he got a great first mainland act in Toro Y Moi, the retro-pop-funk band led by Chaz Bundick. He and the band, along with fellow indie noteworthy band Painted Highways, will open for Bundick and company Saturday night at NextDoor starting at 9. Tickets are $20.”

Contrast put up the mixtape of MP3s I put together at Ara's request, and I think it helped a lot, because there were 122 downloads (!) of the .zip file. (I mistakenly hosted the ToroMix I made on Ge.tt, who, after that many downloads, removed the file, so the link doesn't work anymore. I was excited about Ge.tt because it's clean and allowed for hot-linking to files without interstitial 'Download This!' pages, but I should have known better to trust a baby webapp with vital data.)

My new friend-through-friends and fellow musician Sabrina interviewed me for her blog on Honolulu Pulse, the Star Advertiser's online nightlife section.

A mention of Clones of the Queen, the band I'm in.

A new all-ages venue. Struggling financially, of course, but this is awesome. Idea: offer to do a weekly solo show.

The coop local organic grocer right down the street from our apartment in Honolulu. Beautiful.

"The newest creature was dubbed a 'microshark' by Jan War, operations manager at the natural energy lab. Scientists tentatively identified it as a deep-water catshark and said only two other specimens are known to exist."

"We meet Wednesdays in Manoa for meditation and discussion. All are welcome." The website is ugly, but the yoga is free. A good thing.