YouTube is a near endless universe of music discoveries waiting to happen. I've spent quite a bit of time surfing through hour-long mixes of latin grooves, channels that specialize in unearthing ambient gems, and users who've been digging up old video footage from the 1980s and 1990s of local musicians in Hawaii.
There are also a few channels from Japan that almost exclusively share music from Hawaii. This is not surprising, especially when you consider that one of the reasons I started this blog was because the only information available online (at the time) about rare, collectible Hawaiian records were to be found on Japanese blogs. So, why not take some time to add some tracks to the vast, simmering YouTube pot of sounds?
This time spent at home during the pandemic has given me the motivation to revisit Aloha Got Soul's YouTube channel, and a lot of other things about the label. The AGS YouTube has, admittedly, been neglected over the past few years. I mostly uploaded a scattering of the releases we've done. During the first week of staying at home, I dumped at least two dozen videos onto the channel — complete releases that I'd missed earlier, mixes from our NTS show and live DJ sets. I even got around to creating a new channel for Pacific Sounds, the field recording project populated by natures sounds captured by Kit Ebersbach.
This time at home has also found me even more immersed in my collection of music from Hawaii. I alphabetized my local 45s by label. Similarly, I re-visited my Hawaiians LPs to ensure they're alphabetized, then proceeded to recorded an impromptu "A to Z" DJ set for YouTube and Instagram, which has inspired other members of the AGS crew to contribute to the series with their own ABC'd sets.
So here we are, sitting at home with our music collections that we've amassed over the years. How to share these sounds with others while maintaining a cohesiveness and sense of discovery? Post a song a day on YouTube — and follow a theme each week to guide our selections.
There's so much (recorded) music from Hawaii. Between myself, Vinyl Don, and Oliver Seguin, our collections cover decades of material, from the 1950s through the 1990s and into present day. So much music that, we plan to continue sharing a new song every day for the foreseeable future. No limitations on format, genre, or generation. As long as it's connected to the Hawaiian Islands, it'll be considered.
We're currently on Week 04 of this endeavor — the theme is Beatles covers.
Weeks 01 through 03 covered the themes of Nothing To Do, Kupuna, and cover songs. Upcoming we have themes like songs about automobiles, educational recordings, sovereignty, surfing, and more.