Mixed Signals Records · Stereo

Three musicians on a wooden lānai with a green mountain ridge behind them: a man with an ʻukulele, an older woman with a plumeria in her gray hair playing guitar, and a man standing at an upright bass. Two roosters stand on the deck.

RoosterPancake

We don't know either.

Hawaiian music · ʻukulele and kī hōʻalu

Three players from Kapaʻa, Kauaʻi. One reel-to-reel deck at the end of a lānai. Three albums, 1990 to 1996. The roosters were present at every session. They were not asked to leave.

Side A

A1The Lānai
A2The Trio
A3Tapes
A4Session Log

From: Kapaʻa, Kauaʻi, Hawaii
Years: 1989–1998
Label: Mixed Signals Records

Play side A

The Lānai

Liner notes, as printed on the back of the first sleeve, with later chapters from the archive.

Rooster Pancake formed in Kapaʻa in 1989, on the lānai of a plantation house above Kawaihau Road. Kimo sang and played ʻukulele. Auntie Mapuana played slack-key guitar. Rodney played upright bass, which he carried up the hill on his shoulder.

The house belonged to Auntie Mapuana's late uncle. He left her the house, the guitar and a reel-to-reel tape deck in a green case. The band set the deck on a table at the end of the lānai and recorded there for nine years.

The yard had roosters. The band did not chase them off. Kimo has said there was no point, because there would be another one by the second verse. Every record the band made has roosters on it. The archive has listened for a track without one. It has not found one.

“We don't know either.”
— Kimo, asked by a visitor what kind of bird was on the record

Note 1

The Lānai

The house sits above Kawaihau Road, on the mauka side, with a long lānai facing the ridge. Auntie Mapuana's uncle built the lānai in 1958 and left it to her with everything on it.

Kimo came up first, in 1989, to borrow a chair for a family lūʻau. He stayed and played. Rodney came up the next week because Kimo told him there was room for a bass. There was room for a bass.

The three of them played on the lānai on Sunday afternoons for a year before anybody suggested recording. It was Auntie Mapuana who threaded the reel. She said the deck had been sitting there long enough.

Note 2

The Roosters

Kauaʻi has always had chickens in the yards. The band's lānai had more than most, because the mango tree beside it dropped fruit and the roosters knew it.

The band discussed the roosters once, in 1990, during the first session. Rodney asked if they should wait for a quiet moment. Auntie Mapuana said there would not be one. The tape kept running.

After Hurricane ʻIniki in September 1992, the band rebuilt the lānai with their neighbors over the following months. When they came back to record, the yard had more roosters than before. The band set up in the same place and began on the same day of the week. They did not move the microphone.

Note 3

Pancakes

Every recording day began with breakfast at a roadside diner on the highway north of town. Three stacks, bacon, coffee in brown mugs. The waitress knew the order by the second year and stopped bringing menus.

There was usually a rooster at the screen door. The band did not consider this unusual.

The band wrote set lists on the back of the guest check. Several survive. One of them is a set list for a show in Hanalei with the total for three short stacks written underneath it.

Note 4

The Last Reel

The band stopped in 1998. Nobody left in anger. Rodney took a second shift on the county road crew. Kimo's family grew. Auntie Mapuana said she would rather play on the lānai for nobody than drive to Līhuʻe for anybody, and nobody argued.

The final session was a Sunday in April. They played for two hours and recorded none of it, because the last reel was already full. Auntie Mapuana has said the roosters were there. She has said that is all she will say about it.

The Trio

Three players, as credited on every sleeve, in the order they sat on the lānai.

Kimo, a Hawaiian man in his thirties in a faded blue aloha shirt, eyes closed, singing and playing ʻukulele on a wooden lānai — Kimo, singing. He sang with his eyes closed. He knew where everyone was.

Seated left

Kimo Pālama

Vocals · ʻUkulele

1989–1998

Now. Lives in Kapaʻa. Teaches ʻukulele to children on Saturday mornings at a church hall. Still sings at family parties when asked, and is always asked.

Close view of Auntie Mapuana's hands on the neck of an old acoustic guitar, a plumeria in her gray hair — Auntie Mapuana's hands. The archive holds no other portrait. She preferred it that way.

Seated center

Auntie Mapuana Kahale

Slack-key guitar (kī hōʻalu)

1989–1998

Now. Still in the house above Kawaihau Road. Still plays most evenings. Has kept every reel. Does not lend them out.

Rodney, a man with a thin mustache in a cap and white tee, carrying an upright bass on his shoulder down a red-dirt road, hens at his feet — Rodney, carrying the bass up to the lānai. He carried it himself every time.

Standing right

Rodney Dela Cruz

Upright bass

1989–1998

Now. Retired from the county road crew. Keeps hens. Still owns the bass and still carries it himself.

Tape Boxes

Three reels. Each box is shown as it sits on the shelf in the house above Kawaihau Road, with the label in Auntie Mapuana's hand.

Reel 1 of 3

Title: What Are We
Recorded: Spring 1990
Speed: 7½ ips · ¼ in.
Tracks: 8 · 28:56
Roosters: 2 roosters. Mango tree.

The first reel. Recorded on the lānai over four Sunday afternoons in the spring of 1990, with the deck at the end of the table and one microphone between the three of them. Auntie Mapuana tuned to taro patch for every track. Two roosters can be heard. Neither was invited.

Mixed Signals Records · 1990

Open the box — What Are We

Reel 2 of 3

Title: Confused Energy
Recorded: Spring 1993
Speed: 7½ ips · ¼ in.
Tracks: 9 · 31:11
Roosters: Nine. Stopped counting.

The second reel, recorded the year after Hurricane ʻIniki, on a lānai the band rebuilt themselves. The roosters had multiplied. Rodney counted nine during the session for the title track and stopped counting. The band kept every take that had a rooster in it, which was every take.

Mixed Signals Records · 1993

Open the box — Confused Energy

Reel 3 of 3

Title: Still Don't Know
Recorded: Summer 1996
Speed: 7½ ips · ¼ in.
Tracks: 8 · 28:26
Roosters: Did not count.

The third reel and the last. Recorded on the lānai through one long summer, and on the seawall at Kapaʻa on two evenings when the tradewinds were down. It is the quietest record the band made. The roosters are not quiet on it. The archive did not attempt a count.

Mixed Signals Records · 1996

Open the box — Still Don't Know

Kimo laughing at a table on a screened porch, a portable reel-to-reel deck in front of him and a rooster standing at the microphone — The deck, the microphone and a rooster at the microphone, 1993. The tape was running.

Session Log

Kept in a composition book on the table beside the deck. Entries are copied as written. Rooster counts are the band's own.

Year	Entry	Where
1990	Session: What Are We Tuning: Taro patch. Roosters: 2.	The lānai
1993	Session: Confused Energy Tuning: Taro patch, wahine tunings. Roosters: 9 (count stopped).	The lānai, rebuilt
1996	Session: Still Don't Know Tuning: Taro patch. Roosters: Not counted.	The lānai · the seawall
1990	The First Take Auntie Mapuana threaded the reel, pressed record and sat down. Kimo counted in. Two bars later a rooster crowed from the mango tree, close enough to register on the needle. Rodney looked at the others. Nobody stopped. The take is the opening track of What Are We. The rooster is the first sound on it.	The lānai, Kapaʻa
1994	The Hanalei Pavilion The show was a family afternoon at a beach park, with coolers and folding tables and children on mats. During the second song a rooster walked out of the naupaka and stood on the mat in front of the band. He stayed for the set. When Kimo said mahalo at the end, the rooster left. Several families have described the rooster as part of the band. The band has never described him that way.	A beach-park pavilion, Hanalei, Kauaʻi
1996	The Seawall Auntie Mapuana wanted the sound of the water on one song. Rodney carried the bass, Kimo carried the deck, and they ran an extension cord from a friend's truck. A rooster walked along the top of the seawall for the whole of the first take and crowed once, at the sun. The take is Seawall, track two of Still Don't Know.	The seawall, Kapaʻa

Standing policy

The Policy

The band never removed a rooster from a session and never stopped a take because of one. The policy was not written down. It was not discussed after 1990.

The Deck

A portable reel-to-reel in a green case, left to Auntie Mapuana with the house. It ran at seven and a half inches per second. It had one input that worked. All three albums were recorded through it.

The Tuning

Auntie Mapuana played in open tunings handed down in her family, most often taro patch. She did not write them down. She has said that anyone who needs them written down is not ready for them.

Breakfast

Every recording day began at a roadside diner on the highway north of town. The band wrote set lists on the back of the guest check.

The trio at a diner counter with plates of pancakes, bacon and brown coffee mugs, a rooster standing outside the screen door — Breakfast before a session. Three short stacks. One rooster at the screen door, as usual.

Guest checkNº 0417

Counter · 3Server: same one

3Short stackButter, syrup
3BaconSide
3CoffeeOne black
1Last pancakeKimo, from Auntie's plate

Three short stacks, bacon, three coffees. Rodney took his coffee black. Kimo took the last pancake on Auntie Mapuana's plate every time, and every time she let him.

On the back: set list

What Are We
Kapaʻa Morning
Lānai at Five
Mango Season
Red Dirt Road
Uncle's Guitar

Mahalo · Come again

Shows

The flyer for the Neighbor Island Tour, 1994, as tacked up in stores and post offices from Kapaʻa to Hilo. Hand-lettered by Kimo. Printed on the mimeograph at the church office.

Live music · Free · All ages

Rooster Pancake

Neighbor Island Tour · 1994

01Kapaʻa, KauaʻiOpening. Neighborhood center.
02Kīlauea, KauaʻiSchool cafeteria. Benefit for the band program.
03Hanalei, KauaʻiBeach-park pavilion. Sunday afternoon.
04Hanapēpē, KauaʻiFriday night, on the main street.
05Waimea, KauaʻiChurch hall. Potluck after.
06Kaunakakai, MolokaʻiCommunity hall. First show off Kauaʻi.
07Hilo, HawaiʻiBayfront park, afternoon.
08Kapaʻa, KauaʻiClosing. Back on the lānai.

Bring a chair. Bring the kids. Bring a dish if you like.

The band will play rain or shine. The roosters will attend.

The trio playing under a large banyan tree at a beach park, families on mats and folding tables around them, roosters walking through the grass — A Sunday at the beach park, Hanalei, 1994. Coolers, mats, two hundred people and an unknown number of roosters.

Letters

A clipping from the local paper, and letters received by the archive. Entered without correction.

Eastside Bulletin, Kauaʻi · August 1993

Kapaʻa Trio Records Second Album on Rebuilt Lānai

Rooster Pancake back on the reel, and so are the roosters

By Staff

Eleven months after Hurricane ʻIniki took the roof off her lānai, Mapuana Kahale is back at the end of it with a guitar on her knee and a reel-to-reel deck on the table.

Her band, Rooster Pancake, has finished a second album there. It is called Confused Energy. It was recorded on the lānai the three members rebuilt with their neighbors over the winter.

Asked about the roosters audible on the recording, bassist Rodney Dela Cruz said there were more of them this time. Asked how many, he said nine, and then that he had stopped counting.

Asked what the album title means, vocalist Kimo Pālama said, "We don't know either."

The band plays Sunday at the beach park in Hanalei. Bring a chair.

“He said nine, and then that he had stopped counting.”

Clipped and kept

From listeners

✿✿✿✿✿

My grandmother plays What Are We every Sunday morning. She says the second rooster is the best singer on it. I have not told Kimo.

L. Kanahele · Kapaʻa, HI

✿✿✿✿✿

Bought Confused Energy at the swap meet in 1994. Bought a second copy in 1995 because I wore the first one out. The roosters are on both.

D. Ramos · Waipahu, HI

✿✿✿✿✿

Beautiful slack key. Rooster on every track. I asked the band about the rooster and was told they don't know either.

M. Ostrowski · Eugene, OR

The trio sitting on a seawall at sunset with ʻukulele, guitar and upright bass, a rooster standing on the wall behind them

Mahalo

Shirts, prints and printed matter from Rooster Pancake are kept at the Sideband Label store. Each one is made to order.

Visit the store

The ʻohana list

Leave a name at the store to hear when a reel is copied and a new shirt is printed. Letters are sent rarely, and by hand.

Sign at the store

The seawall, Kapaʻa, 1996. The evening Seawall was recorded. The rooster arrived first.