Author: Ray

The Swongos – An Instrumental Surf Band From Wisconsin!

Posted by Ray on in Tiki Music

The Swongos are a surf band from the St. Croix River Valley on the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. I’m pretty sure there isn’t too much surfing going on but there but when it comes to Surf music, well that’s a different story! The Swongos play classic surf music with a couple different musical genres throw in for good measure. The Swongos are releasing their first album soon, it’s called Curious Tourist and here’s Tom (The Swongo’s guitarist) to tell you all about it …

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #91 The Ritual Room – Minneapolis MN

Posted by Ray on in Home Tiki Bars 2 Comments

A couple years ago I did write up on Lucas Mark’s blog: The Meek Tiki for my Tiki Blogging series. Since then, Lucas and his wife Amber bought a home and converted their basement into an incredible home tiki bar. It’s called The Ritual Room and I feel lucky that I got to see this home tiki bar in person! Here is Lucas to tell you all about it …

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #90 Liki Tiki – Everett WA

Posted by Ray on in Home Tiki Bars 1 Comment

The Liki Tiki is in the attic of Lin Cooper’s garage, well it’s more of crawl space but you can fully stand up in it. The only way to get up to this attic or should I say “Liki Tiki” is by a small ladder.

All the dark wood and sharp angles of the garage’s roof are the perfect bones for a tiki bar to be built in, all you got to do is get an actual bar up there! This is exactly what Lin did. After lugging a bar up the small ladder, he added some bamboo furniture and lighting. If there’s anything that you can take away from Lin’s tiki bar, is that you can make anything into a tiki bar, you just need to think outside of the box, or should I say garage?

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La Cultura Tiki Fanzine – A Tiki Fanzine From Mexico!

Posted by Ray on in Tiki Lifestyle

Back in the 90’s during the Tiki Revival, before the internet, you learned about tiki by word of mouth, searching out tiki yourself or you read Tiki News. Tiki News was a fanzine created by Otto Von Stroheim and it was very DIY, underground and super cool! Matt Watson lives in Mexico City and decided to get the word out about tiki in Mexico by doing it old school, he started his own tiki fanzine! It’s called La Cultura Tiki Fanzine and I LOVE this! Here is Matt’s story on how the tiki fanzine started and where it’s going…

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #89 Heathen World – Phoenix AZ

Posted by Ray on in Home Tiki Bars

I like my tiki bars dark, really dark and so does Heathen John. John lives in Phoenix and when he decided to build his tiki bar, he wanted to keep it dark because most of the commercial tiki bars are too bright. John had a half acre of land with an old barn and a house on the property. John didn’t just build a tiki bar, he built a Heathen World. What is Heathen World? Keep reading…

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #88 Camo Cat Tiki Bar And Lounge – Golden Valley MN

Posted by Ray on in Home Tiki Bars 2 Comments

Always look before you sit down!

You may just sit on your cat, especially if your cat’s fur matches the fur of the chair. This was how the name of Joyce and Richard Bishop’s Witco filled tiki bar was named. Before Joyce and Richard discovered tiki, they were collecting Witco, and they have a lot of it! Once they got their Witco bar, their space evolved more into a tiki bar but they still preserved the Witco vibe. Elvis Presley may have the Jungle Room, but Joyce and Richard have Camo Cat. Elvis, eat your heart out!

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