RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Pennylane takes the stage at Club Pauahi.
Pennylane hits road
to (almost) fame
This is the story of four guys from the islands who recently moved to Portland, Ore., to follow their muse.
In fact, the name of their band was inspired by the name of a character in Cameron Crowe's autobiographical movie "Almost Famous." Kate Hudson played a groupie with a heart of gold by the name of Penny Lane. From the original Beatles song to a fictional movie character and now to Pennylane, the band.
Pennylane
With Linus, Port Guyana, Teradactyl and MoreThanMonstersWhere: Club Pauahi, 68 S. Pauahi St.
When: 8 p.m. tomorrow
Admission: $5, all ages
Contact: portguyana@hotmail.com
"Yeah, we took our name not from the Beatles song, but from the character in one of my favorite movies," frontman David Tamaoka said Tuesday evening at Ward Centre, joined by his brother and fellow bandmate Josh. (The rest of the band, Kellen Craddock and Laine Furukawa, hadn't arrived yet due to a combination of pau hana and holiday traffic.) "She's kind of a groupie, but I think of her as the muse who inspired the young guy in the film. She was a true fan of the music who was supportive of the musicians she met.
"We're kind of like her in the sense that we want to get out there and meet a lot of people," he said.
Thus the move to the mainland. And if the CD that they recorded here is a true portrait of Pennylane's music, the band's musical journey is worth it. Describing their music as "melodic pop-punk, kind of like emocore" (with maybe a bit of Tool thrown in), the six-song EP shows that Pennylane is already building on a strong musical foundation. Recorded in a friend's garage on Kauai, the songs are crisply played and imaginatively arranged, with a sure sense of dynamics. The four of them hurl themselves into the music with a passion -- each of them proving to be solid musicians, with the Tamaoka brothers distinguishing themselves, David with his emotive vocals and Josh playing his drum kit with youthful power and lockstep precision.
(Pennylane is part of this weekend's local indie-rock lineup at Club Pauahi.)
With the exception of the Kauai-born Craddock, the other three were born and raised on Oahu and, in fact, had a band here by the inspirational name of Yellow Snow. Pennylane, however, was born on the Garden Isle, on the Wailua-Kapaa side to be specific. David Tamaoka, fresh out of Moanalua High School in 1999, moved to Kauai to live with his widowed grandmother, who was recovering from eye surgery. Brother Josh and Furukawa would occasionally visit him for "little surf trips," and David and Kellen used to be in a band called Longshot with some other kids from Kauai High.
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
David Tamaoka, left, bass and vocals, Josh Tamaoka, drums, Laine Furukawa, guitar and vocals, and Kellan Craddock, guitar.
When Pennylane finally formed in February and recorded their CD, they realized they needed to take the next step in making themselves a better band. So, on Sept. 5 the four of them, with mutual friend Brandon Baptiste (the mayor's son) made the move to Portland, Ore.
"I had checked out the music scene earlier," said Tamaoka, "and I got the feeling it was not as jaded as other larger city scenes and would be supportive of our band and our music. We know we're not seasoned musicians, and still fairly new to the scene, but Portland is a big city with a small-town feel." (And besides, his girlfriend is conveniently attending Western Oregon University in nearby Monmouth.)
Both Tamaoka and Furukawa are Pennylane's lyricists -- "Not Waving, but Drowning," "Losing You" and "The Role of 'You Care'" are filled with Furukawa's emotionally wrought imagery of relationship tumult, yearning and self-doubt. Tamaoka appropriately sings/screams/yells through all the angst, and his own "Violent Remedy" and "Riverside Waiting" is more of the same, with the latter a pretty abstract venture into unresolved regret.
"'Violent Remedy' is a little more religious in nature," he said. "There's a bit of symbolism in there, and it chronicles the struggles I've had in my journeys with faith. My lyric writing pretty much reflects my life -- moments of clarity, then confusion and coming to terms. It's an ongoing process."
Click for online
calendars and events.
