DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM At Club Ground Level, Chad Kawamura plays guitar and is the lead singer for "Haunted Pines."

Pines have punky panache

Retro garage rock resonates

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Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com

Compared to retro garage rock brethren with short, punchy names like the Strokes, Hives and White Stripes, The Haunted Pines seems like a curious choice for a moniker. It seems more appropriate for perhaps a goth, ambient band filled with artsy brooders.

But singer/songwriter Chad Kawamura says he was inspired by a song from The Band's 1969 sophomore album "Whispering Pines." You'd be hard-pressed, however, to hear anything approximating the evocative American folk-rock sound of that band.

The Haunted Pines With Hellbound Hounds and Extra Stout Where: Anna Bannana's, 2440 S. Beretania St. When: 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. tomorrow Admission: $5; 21 and over Call: 946-5190

Instead, think Velvet Underground and the early bluesier Rolling Stones -- with a tinge of psychedelia. The Pines hew their sound from '60s garage punk standards, complete with keyboard organ sounds provided by Tommy Yasuhara. The band (including lead guitarist Shawn Yoshizawa, bassist Reynold Higa and drummer Cristine Gibbons) is quickly developing a solid, interlocking sound with the right amount of punky panache.

In fact, the times when Kawamura is singing a catchy and bratty chorus or two, he and the band sound like one of those great, unknown '60s Japanese bands that used to copy the American garage rock sound of the time.

THE PINES have slowly built a word-of-mouth reputation, and they'll be opening for Hellbound Hounds and Extra Stout tomorrow at Anna Bannana's, all part of an alternative, underground music scene that's becoming more interesting with its widening diversity.

This band "is more directed, more focused on a different approach to the music," said Kawamura in comparing the Pines to his former work with Yoshizawa and Higa in Kite Festival.

"In our previous band, we made it a point to have each of the songs sound different from each other -- the songs would sound either poppier or heavier -- so the styles would really change. Now, we're more straightforward."

That new approach is also due to the addition of Yasuhara, a former member of Littlejeans who asked to join the Pines, and Gibbons, a guitarist in a couple of Pearl City High School bands before moving over to the drums.

"Once their drummer moved to New York, there was an open opportunity to try out for the band," Gibbons said. "Once I got in, and after the first few practices, I've gotten better every time. I'm more of a straightforward player."

"She has more charm in her playing style," added Higa.

But, when all is said and done, The Haunted Pines is Kawamura's baby. "This is more than a hobby to me. The music means a lot. I want it to sound honest. It's got to be music that's generous in nature, but also at the same time, greedy -- and I mean that more in an aesthetic way.

"It's like the Beatles singing 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' -- that kind of open declaration where the songwriter gives a part of himself."

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