You heard him on our program, and just today, Jake Kongaika was on TV. Finally local news media, KHNL News 8, decided to pick up his story. He didn’t mention DoctorTrey.com, he probably just needs to be reminded. Read about it and view the story here. And here are a few links:

Cubworld
Cubworld’s Online Store
Sellaband

Technorati Tags: Jake Kongaika, Cubworld, Sellaband, KHNL News 8, Hawaii, music, musician

You might think that I too often talk about how great Mighty J is, so maybe I should have someone else tell you instead. Last week, it was John Berger of the Honolulu Starbulletin, this week it’s Wayne Harada of Honolulu Advertiser. He even created a new word using my name! Trey-mendous! Thanks Wayne.

Technorati Tags: Wayne Harada, review, Mighty J, Music, hawaii, Honolulu Advertiser

[QUICKTIME http://doctortrey.com/video/Zaysha.mp4 http://doctortrey.com/images/dtdcposter.mov 320 257]
Here’s Zaysha of the group Simple Souls. She was stopping by to pick up some Mighty J posters, so we thought it’d be kinda cool if she would aloha our website visitors.

Technorati Tags: simple souls, ZAYSHA LABRADOR, Mighty J, Kanalo, music, hawaii

[QUICKTIME http://doctortrey.com/video/Baba.mp4 http://doctortrey.com/images/dtdcposter.mov 320 257]
In Hawaii, everyone seems to have their very own ritual prior to eating. We just love food, and foods of all different types. Here is Baba Alimoot demonstrating his very own ritual. For those who aren’t aware, Baba is a singer and producer here in Hawaii, known for his work in the Hawaiian music industry. He sings as a soloist and with the group Hemapa’a. Baba introduced me to Man Doo Kook Soo today at Kim Chee restaurant in Kaneohe. Thanks Baba.

Technorati Tags: baba alimoot, hawaii, music, hawaiian music, kim chee, hemapaa, food, korean food

[QUICKTIME http://doctortrey.com/video/KawikaCrowley.mp4 http://doctortrey.com/images/dtdcposter.mov 320 257]

Remember when we posted about Kawika Crowley and how he’s the guy who co-wrote Hawai’i 78? For those who are unaware, Hawai’i 78 is a classic song recorded by The Makaha Sons Of Ni’ihau and more recently by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. Well, now that this video thing is so easy to do, i decided to have Kawika do a short clip about the song and sing a bit of it too. He sings, of course, the right words. For more information about the true story of Hawaii 78 go to the official website. Oh and before i forget, according to Kawika, this is the only place you will hear or see Kawika perform this song.

Technorati Tags: hawaii, hawaii 78, hawaiian music, makaha sons, makaha sons of niihau, Israel kamakawiwoole, kawika crowley, bruddah iz

John Berger, a professional listener of music, has reviewed Mighty J in today’s Honolulu Starbulletin. It just goes to show that even someone who’s job it is to listen to music also thinks Mighty J is good stuff.

Oh and FYI another magazine that releases once per week has a feature on Mighty J as well. Someone tell me why I’m not mentioning the name of the magazine. Can you figure it out?

Technorati Tags: Honolulu Starbulletin, Mighty J, Calling Out, John Berger, Reviews

We’ve been talking about this for a long time now, and I am aware that this website shares many visitors with the Mighty J website, but this post is for those who don’t visit MightyJMusic.com. Just wanted y’all to know that Mighty J’s debut cd releases today. This CD is the one that we’ve been working hard on, and for you the fans of The DoctorTrey.com podcast, keep in mind that this group is our baby. We actually saw the birth of this group on episode 14 of season 1. So if you’ve missed that one, go check it out. The CD itself features 13 songs, 12 of which are originals. If you haven’t had a chance to head out to pick up your copy yet, please do so now. I’ll wait.

Technorati Tags: mighty j, calling out, mailani makainai, tiki suan, jenn wright, jroq, doctortrey.com, podcast, music, hawaii

Perhaps Hawai’i’s best known and original icon, Don Ho, Passed away early this morning of heart failure. Of course he was best known for his hit song “Tiny Bubbles,” and more recently, for undergoing an experimental stem-cell procedure in Thailand. You might recall that recently Don Ho got married to his shows producer Haumea Hebenstreit. So, thanks for the music Mr. Ho and for putting music from Hawai’i on the map. Don Ho was 76 years old. For more information regarding his passing and highlights of his career, please select the links below.

Waikiki legend Don Ho dies (from the Honolulu Starbulletin)
King of Waikiki entertainment dies (from The Honolulu Advertiser)

Technorati Tags: Don Ho, heart failure, Tiny Bubbles, stem-cell, Thailand, Haumea Hebenstreit, music, hawaii, death

I’ve been spending some time thinking about EMI and Apples announcement to offer the no DRM thing. On the surface it may seem like it’s a good thing, but is it? Let’s take a look at why it might not seem like the best possible thing for us.

Apple claims in their press release that the non-DRMed versions of the songs will be of CD quality. Well, they’ve claimed that before, but now the files are supposed to be offered at a higher quality. This is a good thing right? I mean I am a studio engineer and personally I almost feel as though all the work I’ve been doing is for nothing. It seems that sound quality is not as important as one might think. Recording music to go to mp3 seems rather ridiculous especially considering that we record our music through high quality studio mics, pre amps, and converters. Add to this the fact that we track at 96khz, 24bit. Who, however, is complaining about the sound quality of music downloaded either from iTunes or from other sites? Obviously considering the decline of CD sales and the increase in the amount of people receiving digital downloads, it would seem as though not very many people are complaining. It would seem, therefore, that no one truly cares about sound quality. In other words the current standard of data compression is “good enough.”

Along with the increase in sound quality, the “deluxe” non-DRMed versions of the songs would be presented at a higher price. In fact 30 cents higher. If you take into consideration Read more »

This is from the press release. I think we’re moving in the right direction.

CUPERTINO, California���April 2, 2007���Apple�� today announced that EMI Music���s entire digital catalog of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes�� Store (www.itunes.com) worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today���128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM���at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher Read more »