/24-7PressRelease/ - April 12, 2008 - Bolstered by a little help from American Idol's Jason Castro, and two and a half years after it's Internet release on iTunes, the song, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", off the debut release from Hana, Maui, based, Major Hana Records, "Ohana - Volume One", by Maui's own, Kanekoa, appeared at Number 5 on the US iTunes Folk Charts this past Wednesday. The 'Ohana Compilation is a rare Hawaiian release in that it combines the finest in traditional Hawaiian music with some of the most fresh, exciting, contemporary, Hawaiian material, from some of Maui's most talented bands and vocalists. Castro, the dreadlocked contestant scored big with Simon Cowell when he went out on a limb and sang, "Somewhere", while accompanying himself on ukulele.
"When we put out the 'Ohana Compilation Record, in September of 05, it instantly topped the Pop Compilation Record Charts in 12 or 13 countries, we ruled that Pop Compilation Chart for 4 months", says, Major Hana Records, Chairman, Jonathan Block: "It was still early days in terms of the iTunes technology and I think we pioneered that Pop Compilation Record chart, we had six to ten songs from the record perform in the top 5 in a lot of countries, but "Somewhere" was number 1 everyday in the US, Canada and Australia. Then, out of nowhere, Apple abandoned the Compilation chart. Poof, it was gone -- I was never able to really find out why they did stop tracking the Compilation chart from any of the people I know at Apple -- but sure enough, they stopped it, I think their internal tracking program changed then, and it will continue to do so as time goes on, and they continue to upgrade, tweak, and fine tune their hardware and software to keep up with the rapidly changing technology." "Somewhere" was beating out songs on that chart from various other Reggae, Hip Hop, Rock, Classical, Children's, and, Pop -- Compilation Records as well as a record featuring Super Hero Theme songs. "It was funny to be battling it out with Batman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, and The Green Hornet on a daily basis". According to Block, "About that same time, the powers at be at iTunes changed the category of our Ohana Compilation from World Music to Folk Music; the song had done marginally well on the World Chart up to that point in the US, Canada, and Australia, but nothing to speak of. When it was changed to Folk, the song began to resonate with more people."
Kanekoa is the only band in the world to feature 2 ripping, electric ukuleles. The band has been compared to The Dave Mathews Band, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, and The Grateful Dead. Maui native, Kaulana Kanekoa, Kanekoa's rhythm ukulele player and lead vocalist, agrees, ""Somewhere Over The Rainbow" shows the diversity of our band. Our music has always and I think will always inspire people to dance. After 10 years of playing together we know eachother so well personally and musically, every night is like another journey. Vinnie and I play the electrified ukuleles and Kanekoa is the first band that has taken this instrument, which essentially is one of the cultural cornerstones of our Hawaiian history, out of the traditional Hawaiian sound and into a more, contemporary style of music that everyone enjoys. I was stoked to hear that Jason Castro played the ukulele on American Idle -- because it's another sign of the door opening for Hawaiian artists into the mainstream".
After seeing the band play live in Los Angeles, director/producer, Peter Farrelly ("Dumb and Dumber", "Something About Mary", and "Kingpin") put it this way, "Kanekoa played the best live show I've seen in 15 years, I'm their new, biggest fan." Farrelly since casted and filmed the band in San Francisco, and featured them, and their original music in the Farrelly Brothers comedy, "The Heartbreak Kid", starring Ben Stiller, for Dreamworks.
Nicole Dionne, founder of Primal Scream Music in Los Angeles, agrees. "Kanekoa's sound is totally infectious, that was the best live show I've seen in a long time. These guys are real stars, and their music is so uplifting."
By the end of January 06, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" went to number 1 on the iTunes Folk Chart in the US and Canada. In February, it went to number 1 in Australia, as well.
"We have been able to send a lot of MySpace users to iTunes and have been able to pinpoint certain trends in certain countries, and by utilizing the Internet from a global perspective, we can get into different countries and make an impact", Block says. "I've really taken the last couple of years to learn the MySpace and Apple iTunes technologies and have developed various techniques consisting of Bulletins, Blogging, Classified Ads, Group postings, high traffic page postings, and the like, and have been able to see instant Chart movement on iTunes. It's funny, I was so hands off the MySpace thing for a long time. I would see Vinnie and Monyca, a 17 year old surfer, whose parents are good friends of mine, at my house, both glued to MySpace. I thought it was strictly a kids thing and didn't pay much attention to it. Now I realize that it is one of the most important marketing forums available to our entire society. The other day I read that 40 percent of MySpace users are 35 and over. I remember when Vinnie first suggested that I get a MySpace page, I told him I didn't have time for MySpace, I've since changed my mind. I think in the digital age we are now in, tools like MySpace, Facebook, iTunes and other creative, social networking, 2.0 sites are the portholes to entertainment and they really are the future and as the Internet becomes more and more wireless, the ways of delivering content to consumers is going to change at an even faster rate than it has in the last decade." Block continues, "A perfect example of this happened about this time last year, until that point, the most movement I'd seen from my MySpace and Internet based marketing had been seeing our song go up 50 chart positions overnight on the US iTunes Folk Chart. I thought that was pretty cool and that I would never be able to top that jump -- only to find the song had jumped from not even being on the top 100 on the Australian Folk chart to number 9. On the UK Folk chart, "Somewhere" had never broken into the top 60 and it jumped from 89 to 5. I couldn't believe it. In the US it went from 29 to 3 and in Canada it jumped from 26 to 6. On top of that, it broke into the top 5 in Italy and Switzerland, two markets we had never been able to penetrate the top 100 in, prior to that time. That was 2 years ago. Thanks to American Idle, I haven't seen a spike like this week, where we went from not being in the Top 100 to Number 5 on the iTunes Folk Chart, ever in two and a half years of tracking this song, or any other song, for that matter." says Block.
Jumping from not being on the US Folk 100 to being Number 5 shows the strength of American Idle. In the US, the Maui version of "Somewhere", has out performed other versions by Patti LaBelle, Chet Baker, Tony Bennett, Tori Amos, Willie Nelson, Judy Garland, Placido Domingo, and Phish. In Canada, the song has out performed other versions by Katharine McPhee, Israel Kamakawio'ole, Pati La Belle, Tori Amos and Chet Baker. In the UK, and Australia, the song outpaces other versions by, Israel Kamakawio'ole, Patti LaBelle, Tori Amos, Willie Nelson, Chet Baker, Tony Bennett, Tom Jones, and Placido Domingo.
Block says, "We put out Kanekoa's debut Major Hana Records release, "Under The Coconut Sky", after "The Heartbreak Kid" came out last October. The first single, "Way Down" was also in the film, it got played on about 25 Triple A stations around the country and represented the very first time ukulele players from the state of Hawaii have ever been heard on US radio. The record is available in the stores through Fontana/Universal distribution. The second single, "Stranger Things" will be shipped to radio in a week."
Block, a former AFI Best Director Award winner of the yearly contest, "Visions of The US", and director of "Major Hana - The Movie", continues, "Kanekoa's music is heavily featured in "Major Hana The Movie", now in editing and post production. We continue to utilize 2.0's such as, MySpace, Facebook, Digg, iTunes, and YouTube, for our bands and brands, and will soon start to incorporate sites, such as, YouTube, and MajorHana.com to build awareness and anticipation for the movie. We will work aggressively with the Feed Company, who are by far, the industry leaders in the promotion of video transmissions in the most recent and fastest growing visual sector of the Internet. The highly anticipated 28 song, double soundtrack album will blow people away -- it's amazing. We won't release the full double album until it makes sense to do so in support of the film's release. Major Hana Productions launched a massive, worldwide Internet contest last year awarding the winner the opportunity to place a song on the soundtrack. Canadian artist John Moore won the contest with his song, "You and I"."
Shot on location in London, Maui, San Diego, and Los Angeles, MAJOR HANA is about a journey an American guy (Chris Weld) makes from Hawaii to London to see his girlfriend, not only physically but, emotionally. It's quite a journey and late at night aboard an old, Red, Routemaster bus in London he meets several characters who are about to change his life forever! The movie also includes music from, Kanekoa, Bradah Larry, Kaleo Kaina, Christopher "Boom" Helakahi, and Patsy; who are some of the most exciting artists coming out of Hawaii right now. Funk legend, and James Brown sideman/producer/songwriter/trombonist, Fred Wesley, provides intregal and uplifting jazz and funk tunes to the film. Mr. Wesley also steps out as an actor, providing a poignant portrayal of a London Underground street musician. Look for MAJOR HANA to hit the international film festival circuit later in 08...er/songwriter/trombonist, Fred Wesley, provides internal and uplifting jazz and funk tunes to the film. Mr. Wesley also steps out as an actor, providing a poignant portrayal of a London Underground street musician. Look for MAJOR HANA to hit the international film festival circuit later
for more info:
contact Peter Monroe
VP Publicity, Major Hana, at:
MajorHana@aol.com
or,
http://www.majorhana.com
http://www.myspace.com/majorhanarecords
http://www.myspace.com/majorhanathemovie
http://www.youtube.com/user/Kanekoa
http://www.kanekoa.com
http://www.fredwesley.com
http://www.myspace.com/theblazebrothers
http://www.monyca.com
http://www.myspace.com/asshairhat
http://www.asshairhat.com
Maui band, Kanekoa's version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" is an iTunes exclusive.
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