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It's appropriate that the guys that are Pimpbot are chilling in the cocktail lounge of Waikiki's Wailana Coffee House, talking and joking over food and drinks after a recent weekday soundcheck at the nearby Wave Waikiki. A cheesy karaoke version of "Venus in Blue Jeans" threatens to drown out the give-and-take conversation. Firing up the machine
Distinct musical personalities come
together for unique sounds of PimpbotBy Gary C. W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comNamed after a character in a recurring skit on the late-night Conan O'Brien TV show, Pimpbot's crazy quilt music is much like that '50s-styled sci-fi robot with a '70s black street attitude.
Everyone in the band brings a distinct personality to the Pimpbot's lounge punk/ska sound. "The Love Machine" (a k a Fernando Pacheco, singer and trombonist who's also a member of the popular Go Jimmy Go) fronts the band with his mack daddy ways. He's backed by "Ry-Ry" (Rylan Lee) workin' that reverberating electric Roland keyboard; the very rock-starish "Jolomite" (Joel Tokunaga from Hellbound Hounds and Extra Stout) doing his best junior version of Keith Richards; and "Basey" (Shannon Ogura from an as-of-yet-unnamed emocore band) playing the prerequisite "quiet one" role in the band.
Ogura played yin to MC A-Train's (Alex Nagata of The Sticklers) pounding rhythmic yang recently, but with the addition of former Big Toe drummer Chris LaPan, Nagata will be screaming his gibberish in front of the drum kit now. For the opening of the Save Ferris gig next Friday, two horn players from the local first-wave ska band The Redlight will help power up the band's already amped-up stage show.
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Pimpbot's droll sense of humor is also reflected in its all-original repertoire that includes such should-be classics as "Ragamuffin," "Pentatonic Reggae G-Thing" and the singalong ode to obesity, "Phat Fish," with its memorable line, "no hot chicas coming my way!"The band will celebrate one year of existence next month and the members have enjoyed the ride.
"Before this band," Pacheco said, "I had been in other bands with these guys, but not all at once. Actually, I was scared to see how we all would play together; I really wanted to write my own music and start again in another band apart from Go Jimmy Go and keep the creative power. Pimpbot originally started out playing just ska, but then we started experimenting with some hip-hop."
"I used to hate ska," chimed in Nagata, "but then I saw the light and, besides, I wanted to broaden my horizons beyond The Sticklers."
"I used to enjoy ska before I played in this band," joked Lee.
Both Lee and Pacheco were in a Pimpbot prototype called the Honolulu Pub All-Stars.
"A lot of my songs laid the foundation for this band," Pacheco said. "After we got a set's worth, then the songwriting became more collaborative."
While the guys want to conquer the Entire Universe As We Know It, their small rabid fan base grew out of Nagata's day job. "They're friends of mine from the Old Spaghetti Factory. They like our idea of craziness, the whole pimpin' thing."
Pacheco's on-stage look has evolved a bit as well. "I first dressed like a two-tone rude boy, but after a King's Crab gig, Drago from (the popular Arizona ska band) Warsaw took me aside and said 'I have something for you.' He gave me a wig from his girlfriend, and when I put on shades to go with it, it felt really cool, and the crowd reacted to the look.
"I always wanted to create a gimmick with this band, and since the wig is now one of our trademarks, I accessorize around it." (That evening's onstage wardrobe included a hip-hop Kangol hat and a heavy metal stud bracelet.)
Lee, a ska and surf music enthusiast who's played music since he was 8, said that "our songs in the future will be noisier with synth sounds and weird stuff."
"And dirty, raunchy rock 'n' roll," Tokunaga added enthusiastically.
As "Summer Love" wafted over the karaoke sound system, the ever-philosophical Nagata said that "the music is the journey, not the destination."
"We want to push the musical limits in Pimpbot," said Tokunaga, looking very much the rock star in black, black eyeliner, black-painted fingernails and a bit of color in his hair.
"We're an event band," Pacheco said. "We like to do one big show guaranteed to kick ass." And, according to Nagata, Pimpbot does not play music appropriate for guys to practice their pickup lines.
"It's impossible to talk to girls while we're playing because they'll be too busy flocking to us."
Where: Wave Waikiki, 1877 Kalakaua Ave. Pimpbot
When: 10 p.m. to midnight Monday
Admission: $5 for 21 and older; $10 for ages 18-20
Call: 941-0424
Also: Opening for Save Ferris 7 p.m. March 1 at World Cafe. Tickets $17.50. Call 599-4450.
Their dreams of success are boundless (and ridiculous) to the point of MTV notoriety. "We aspire to be on TRL," Lee said. "We want to get our videos played and have some idiot chick screaming, 'Oh my God, I LOVE Pimpbot!!' "
But first things first. The band has already recorded a couple of songs at Junk Studios (where Nagata performs engineering duties as well) and, somewhere down the line, Pacheco plans to help the band get some mainland gigs through contacts made during Go Jimmy Go's last tour.
And remember, Pimpbot is not a gag band.
"We like to have fun onstage," Ogura said, "but we're serious about our music."
"We all come from underground punk bands," added Tokunaga, "and at this point in our musical lives, we're ready to take it to the next level. Punk rock can only take you so far -- playing in front of 10 kids in the basement of a house -- and this band is the best vehicle out of that. We're the funniest, most outrageous, over-the-top band you're going to see, but it's not a joke to us."
Pacheco has admired his bandmates' stick-to-it-tiveness. "My promotions job at Star 101, I know, holds the band back a bit, but I'm impressed and stoked by the other guys' commitment to pick up the slack and keep it going. It means it's all worth it."
And Pimpbot has continued with the support of the clubbers, like those who go to their occasional Pussycat Lounge gigs at the Wave. "We get no Go Jimmy Go fan crossover," Pacheco said. "That band builds its audience with BBQs and family picnics."
And if Pimpbot blows up big-time MTV-wise, the guys can look forward to their own VH-1 "Behind the Music" program. Pacheco laughingly says that "the story for us will be that drugs tore us apart, we ended up partying too much and become incoherent and go into rehab with beer bellies on us, and one guy gets so pissed off at the rest of the band that he doesn't join the reunion tour."
"And Fernando will be working at KUMU then, and I'll be still working at the now-Ancient Spaghetti Factory." said Nagata.
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