Ukulele Guy

Well, I must have listened to Pretty Good Musician's ukulele songs about two dozen times today. The end result was that I really, really, really want to get my ukulele novelty band off of the ground. But, today I had to settle for recording a version of "Help me scrape the mucus off my brain", by Ween. I played this one with my Kala Pocket Ukulele because it's been awhile since I used it in a video and because I look pretty ridiculous playing it.  It's just sooo damn tiny.

Anyway, this song is off of the Ween record 12 Golden Country Greats.  It's definitely one of their better records and songs.

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So, I think I got a tweet Hillary a week or so ago but I forget how this whole thing started.  I think we were just shooting the shit and then suddenly she dropped that her and some friends have an all-ukulele version of the Duck Tales theme song.  What?!  That freaking reeks of awesome.

So, we get yakking back and forth and I decided the world needs to know more, especially after I heard their covers of "Sweet Jane", "Duck Tales", "Straight Up" and "Who's That Girl".  Not only does the world need to know more, but I need these guys to move to Montana.  I've been toying with the idea of making a ukulele novelty band for a few months now, but finding the right folks is proving tough.  I'd be more than happy to play second fiddle to these badasses.

So, their band is called Pretty Good Musicians.  It's comprised of Hillary O'Keefe, Ian K and Matt Miklos.  Depending on the song, you are gonna hear between 1-5 ukuleles and most likely some hilarious commentary and occasional cursing.  Everybody likes swears, right?  Yup. In the recordings, they play a Lanikai Tenor LU-21T, an Eleuke, a cigar box ukulele and a few other random ukes.  You can tell that they have a blast playing together and recording and that's what it's all about folks.  What is the point of being in a bad if it isn't fun?  These guys get it.

Check out the Pretty Good Musicians Facebook Page if you wanna be a fan.

I noticed that the Facebook page doesn't have some of my favorite tunes, so here ya go:

• Duck Tales - Pretty Good Musicians
• Straight Up - Pretty Good Musicians
• Sweet Jane - Pretty Good Musicians

Oh yeah, and to all of you who might be saying, "Man, I could do this."  DO IT!  Stop talking.  Do it!  The world needs more ukulele bands.  Especially ones who know how to have fun.  The world doesn't need anymore Interpol or Coldplay.  Joy is contagious.

P.S.  If you are already in a hilarious and fun ukulele-powered band, please send me songs and vids!  I don't care if it's recorded on your 4-track or karaoke machine.  (In fact, I almost prefer that).  I want to hear it!

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Well, I'm finally back from the whirlwind Volumen Mini-tour of the northwest.  I feel like I'm still recovering, though.  This morning Simon (my five-year-old) asked me when I was getting my normal voice back.  I wish I knew kid.  I wish I knew.  Anyway, we played 4 shows in 4 days and after the 2nd show I had already lost my pillow and my voice.  After the 3rd show I had lost my credit card and any dignity and sanity I used to have.

The tour was awesome!  We had really great turn-outs and we sold buckets of CDs and shirts and whatnot.  Actually, the t-shirt sales weren't all good news.  We discovered after the Seattle show that we had sold at least one shirt that still had the security tag on it.  Whoops.  Sorry about that folks.  Just drive to Montana and we'll unlock it for ya.

Anyway, this is all leading up to a Ukulele video, right?  Umm... yup.  Here's the story.  We played at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard (Seattle-ish).  We played with Summer Babes (who are awesome) and two other bands who were fine, I guess?  I was a little grouchy on stage because we weren't allowed to drink on stage.  It's apparently against the law.  But, for some reason $37 white belts and tight pants are totally legal.  I'll let you figure that one out.  So, after our set we all made up for lost time with something I like to call "Extra Beers".  Then we loaded up our gear and drove to the afterhours at Jeff's house (Jeff is in Summer Babes and The Lights).

After arriving safe and sound we went across the street to The Buckaroo and had $2 cans of Olympia, pickled eggs and Misfits played super loud.   They ran us out of there by bringing a motorcycle inside the bar and peeling out inside the bar.  It was nuts.

So, we ran back to Jeff's house and decided to chill out.  This started the impromptu Girl From Ipanema session you are about to witness.  Keep in mind, Bob is our drummer and we'd never seen that keytar before.  K.  Here goes.

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So, a few weeks (months?) ago a good friend of mine (and Missoula's award-winning bartender), Al Pils, sent me a Youtube video of the great Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters song from the 1979 movie, The Jerk.  I decided I had to learn it.  Especially because if you want Steve's fingers it seems like the sound is especially fancy for what he's doing.  Wait... what?  You mean movies aren't always real?  Huh.  I'm not buying it.  Anyway, take a peak at the video first to get some context:

Anyway, I went looking for tabs but everything I found was in the wrong key or too simplified or both. Then I found the following video from mbrenne72.  I feel like he pretty much nailed it.  Although, some other folks seem to think you should tune your C string down a full step and every other string down 1/2 step, but that seemed much too difficult.  Anyway, if you tune your uke down 1/2 step and play it like I do then it sounds pretty good with the movie.  And, no, I didn't tab the coronet solo.

So... here's my video:

And for those of you who want to do this from the comfort of your own home, here's the tabs:
Tonight You Belong to Me
Tabs: Ukulele Guy – http://ukuleleguy.com
Based almost entirely on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib6-FxuHTwo
If playing along with the movie, tune your ukulele down ½ step.
NOTE: I'm Ukulele Guy, not Music Theory Guy or Ukulele Expert

G	 = 0232
Gsus4	 = 0233
G6	 = 0202
G#6	 = 1313
G7	 = 0212
G7sus2   = 0210
G+5	 = 0332
A7	 = 0100
D7	 = 2223
D#-5	 = 0330
Cmaj7	 = 0002
C6	 = 0000
Cm6 	 = 2333
E9	 = 1222
E7	 = 1202
F#maj	 = x121 (3121)
Walk Part:
Dmaj-D7-D6-D =  2225-2223-2222-2220

Intro:
G6 G#6 G6 plucked G string
G6 G#6 G6 D7

G
I know (I know)
      G7-G7sus2   Cmaj7-C6  G+5-D#-5
You belong     to somebody  new
      G         D   D7    G  Gsus4 G Dmaj-D7-D6-D
But Tonight you belong to me
G
Although (although)
      G7-G7sus2
we're apart
     Cmaj7-C6   G+5-D#5
Your part of my heart
      G         D   D7    G   Riff Part
And Tonight you belong to me

    Cm6     E9  Cm6
Way down by the stream
             E9   Cm6
How sweet it will seem
     G         F#maj  E7
Once more just to     dream
       A7
In the moonlight
D7
My honey
  G
I know (I know)
         G7-G7sus2  Cmaj7-C6    G+5-D#-5
With the dawn  that you will be gone
    G           D  D7     G
But tonight you belong to me
        D          G       77710
Just to little old me

There ya have it. Now, get out there and have fun and don't let anyone give you hard time. Ukulele elitism isn't good for anyone... plus, it's silly.

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I have been meaning to post this for awhile, but freaking summer just gets busier and busier. Anyway, Rick from Kala sent me a press release about Kala's new "Round About" Ukulele Amplifier. I know I've talked about the Roland Micro Cube before and I do love that amp, but as far as looks go, the Round About is the winner.  It comes in three styles: Black, Pink and Tweed!  What great choices!  The whole look of the amp feels really retro and fun.  It seems like something a foxy lady in the 60s would carry around with tiny white earbud headphones.  Or maybe something that Frankie Avalon would bring to a beach party.  Here's some pictures:

Kala Black Round About Amp

Kala Pink Round About Amp

Kala Tweed Round About Amp

The amps are 10 watts with a 5" speaker.  If you want more details, here's a YouTube video talking all about the Round About Amp:

If you are interested, then head over to the

Or take a peak at these Round About Amps up on eBay:

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So, here's the deal.  Besides being a Ukulele Fanatic, I also really dig new wave music.  I've been making Heavy New Wave sonics with VOLUMEN for something like 13 years.  During those 13 years, we've released something like 5 full length albums, a handful of EPs and 7" records and some various videos and whatnot.  We've also toured portions of the US (as far NE as Minneapolis, as far SE as Austin, as far NW as Seattle and as far SW as San Diego).  Once we even did a 14 day tour of the Baltic countries (Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).

But, these days it's hard enough to get all 5 dudes (all of whom have wives now, and 4 of whom have kids) together for weekly band practice, let alone world tours.  So, I'm pretty psyched that we are going on for a Mini-Tour in August!  Woo hoo!  We are calling it The Replication and Entropy Mini-Tour.  That's a nice way of saying that we are getting old and making babies.  Heh.  This tour is to support our newest record, "Skipper of Reverses"  (Note: Check out Volutunes.com if you want to get some mp3s of this record.  I think it might also be on itunes, but it's cheaper on Volutunes).

Sadly, I don't play Ukulele in Volumen, but I will have at least one ukulele with me.  So, if you wanna hook up before/after the show, lemme know!  I'd love to kick out the jams with some good ukulele-lovin' folks!  I'd also love to see a bunch of nutty Ukulele-lovers at the show cause I think it'd freak out the rest of the showgoers.  Heh.

Here's the details of our tour:

Wed Aug- 4  Missoula @ The Badlander w/ Wartime Blues, Pony Canon
Thur Aug- 5  Spokane @ Empyrean  w/ Belt of Vapor
Fri Aug- 6  Seattle @ Sunset Tavern w/ The Royal Bear, Summer Babes, Panama Gold
Sat Aug 7- Pdx @ Dante's w/ Don and the Quixotes, The Polaroids, The Lordy Lords

If you want to know more about Volumen, here's a link to a short documentary about us.  This Documentary won "Best Directing" and "Best Music Documentary" in the International Documentary Challenge of 2006.  It was filmed/directed by a good friend of ours who spent several days in our Amulance on our Sonic Infection (aka Mustache Reunion) tour.

Here's some random videos for some of our songs.  These videos were made by a good friend, Andy Smetanka.  Who has made videos for Guy Madden and The Decemberists.

• Volumen - Snakes
• Volumen - Sexy Astronaut
• Volumen - Lost in the Baltics

Um.  So, yeah.  I guess that's it.  I apologize for the non-ukulele-ness of this post.  But, like I said, I'm really psyched to get out on the road.  And, if this means I get to meet more Ukulele folks face-to-face, then I'm all over it!

Thanks!

Ukulele Guy

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So.  Here's the deal (and try not to look shocked when I reveal this), I'm freaking addicted to "Novelty" music.  Yup, I know.. scandalous, right?  Anyway, in my family you don't have to look to far to find a "25 All-Time Novelty Hits" (or equivalent) Record or CD.  There's almost always one within arm's reach.  Anyway, one thing most of these novelty compilations have in common is The Martian Hop.  My kids can't get enough of it!

We've almost got it to the point where one of us does the "Pama em me meh" and the other one does the high pitched "Ee-ee-ee", meanwhile I play it on the uke.

I found chords for this somewhere online so I just reprinted them here with the fingerings for ukulele.  There is a modulation through the song (where it goes to G/C/D).  But, if you are having a hard time with the F#/B/C#7 fingers, just play the whole song using G/C/D instead.  It'll still sound fine.

Wait.  What?  You've never heard The Martian Hop?  Seriously?  Freaking public schools letting everyone down!  Ok.  Here ya go:

And here's the chords:
The Martian Hop:The Ran Dells.
Chords:
F# - 3121
B - 4322
C#7 - 1112
G - 0232
C - 0003
D - 2220

INTRO:(Slow)
F#            B            C#7                  F#
We have just discovered an important note from space.
F#            B            C#7                  F#
The Martians plan to throw a dance for all the human race.
(Fast)
F#            B            C#7                  F#
Papa em meh meh, papa em meh meh, papa buppa buppa buppa em meh meh..
F#            B            C#7                  F#
Papa em meh meh, papa em meh meh, papa buppa buppa buppa em meh meh..
F#            B            C#7                  F#
Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee...Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee..

#1.
F#            B            C#7                  F#
I got into my rocket ship to see the Martian Hop.
F#            B            C#7                  F#
I saw the planet shining red so there I made my stop.
F#            B            C#7                  F#
But as I opened up the door and climbed the ladder down.
F#            B            C#7                  F#
I saw the Martians on the floor a-dancin` to this sound.
F#            B            C#7                  F#
Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee(The Martian Hop)
F#            B            C#7                  F#
Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee..

#2.
F#            B            C#7                  F#
It seemed I was the first one there and so I was surprised..
F#            B            C#7                  F#
To see the Martians Twist and Stomp before my very eyes.
F#            B            C#7                  F#
They did the Locomotion and the Hully-Gully, too.
F#            B            C#7                  F#
I couldn`t name a single dance the Martians couldn`t do.
F#            B            C#7                  F#
Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee (The Martian Hop)
F#            B            C#7                  F#
Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee..

(Change keys.)
G           C          D  G
Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee..
G           C          D  G
Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee..

#3.
G		     C		          D	         G
Now right around the stroke of twelve the dance had just begun.
G			    C	              D			G
The Earth kids parked their spaceship down on Mars to have some fun.
G	         C		        D	        G
And so I left my friends, the Martians, stomping on the ground.
G		    C	          D			G
And even though I`m back on Earth I still can hear this sound.

G        C	    D			G
Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee..(The Martian Hop)
G	 C	    D			G
Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee..

OUTRO:
G		 C	          D			 G
Papa em meh meh, papa em meh meh, papa buppa buppa buppa em meh meh..
G		 C		  D			 G
Papa em meh meh, papa em meh meh, papa buppa buppa buppa em meh meh..

G		 C		  D			G
Papa em meh meh, papa em meh meh, papa buppa buppa buppa em meh meh..
G		 C		  D			G
Papa em meh meh, papa em meh meh, papa buppa buppa buppa em meh meh..(Fade.)

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Well, John asked for chords for Trailer Park Moms so here ya go.  Don't spend it all in one place.  Hmm.. for some reason it didn't format right, but I think you can get the idea.  Just play along to the video.  Heh.

Bb                                                                                               C           F          Bb
Oh trailerpark moms are the funnest moms because they let you smoke weed
Bb                                                                                            C                                   Bb
trailer park moms are the funnest moms cause they get drunk and yell at the tv
Bb                                       Eb                                          F                                       Bb
trailer park moms are the funnest moms cause they let you pet the cat with cherry bombs
Bb                                                                                     C            F         Bb
trailer park moms are the funnest moms cause they let you smoke weed

Eb                                                                                       F
and the only thing better in the world than dating a trailer park girl
Bb                                                     Gm
is dating a girl with a trailer park mom
Eb
cause she's guaranteed to be hot
F
and if she's not
Bb                                                    Gm
she's like 100% likely to try and make it with you
Eb
like maybe she walks out of the shower topless
F
cause she "forget" that you were there
Bb                                                                                 Gm
yeah, that's the kind of shit that a guy could get used to
Eb                                             F                             Bb
and I used to.  I used to get used to you.  Oh trailer park mom

Bb - 3211
C   - 0001
F - 2010
Eb - 3331
Gm - 0231

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I wanted to keep my momentum going, so I recorded this little video today.  Before I get into the song, I wanted to bring something up.  See, I guess when it comes to music and art, I'm sort of a Marxist.  By that I mean, if you are telling someone they can't appreciate art correctly unless they know Art History then you are basically saying, "You can't appreciate art because you are poor and didn't go to college".  That's lame.  By the same token, sure if all you can afford is a $20 ukulele, then that shouldn't mean you can't make art with it!

Now, let me get off of my soapbox because I'm pretty sure I just called my song "art".  Heh.  It isn't.  It is, however, a goofy novelty song and that's plenty good enough for me.  I wrote this song for a project with my brothers Colin and Bryan and we were going to call it "Those Damned Hickey Brothers".  But we never practice, so I'm not sure if we're really a band or not.  You know how sometimes you get drunk with your friends and talk about ridiculous things like road trips to Mexico that you are never going to take?  Well, I guess our band is like that.

I'm playing my wife's purple Mahalo ukulele in this video.  I bought it for her because I was already buying two Mahalos for my little boys and she expressed an interest.  For $20, it's pretty much the best Ukulele you can get, if you ask me.  This is especially true if you are buying a ukulele for a younger kid.  Sure, in a perfect world you'd buy Jr. a Kala, Ohana, Pono or other bitchin' ukulele.  But, let's be honest, they are going to break it in like 6 weeks... tops.

So, get them a Mahalo because it's inexpensive and totally playable.

Now... on to the song and possible offensiveness.

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So, I'm actually cruising down the road at 70mph right now (thank god my wife is doing the driving) but I really wanted to do a post because it's been for-freaking-ever. Somehow, real life (especially work) got insanely busy. So, here I am in the car and I don't quite have enough room to actually play the ukulele and record myself so I need to use something I've already recorded. After a quick search I came across this crazy-ass video footage of a bachelor party I was at last week.

I'll set the stage for you here.  Imagine, if you will, roughly a dozen dudes decked out in their finest Bavarian attire (think Oktoberfest).  The groom-to-be has already been tied up in the middle of the farmer's market and pelted by water balloons (that were sold to passersby).   Then there were at least three stop-offs at various breweries for refueling.  By the time we got to our campsite there was just enough time to shoot about 3 bags of potatoes, through one of the 4 potato canons onsite, and then enjoy the campfire.

I had my Lanikai CK-TEQ Ukulele, Doug played guitar, Bryan (my brother) had his acoustic bass, I think there were some makeshift drums and Greg had a squeeze box.  So, we were pretty set for merriment.  Well, at least, we thought we were.

Then Greg whipped out his Roland Micro Cube amp and we realized what was missing.  Loudness and total effects insanity, that's what.  Ahhh yeah!  There's just something a little surreal (and totally fucking awesome) about playing through a loud amp with tons of sick effects in the middle of the forest.  It was like if there were such a thing as bad hobbits.  You know, using their magic and whatnot to make bourbon from corn and make their music creepy and slightly evil.

After dicking around with the various effects, we launched into an impromptu version of Captain Fantasy by Ween.  Here's the video:

I didn't know anything about these Micro Cube amp before, but I'm totally getting one.  They're like $129 and you can power them with freaking batteries!  The night in question is a little bit foggy (*cough* Bourbon *cough*) but I remember there were quite a few built-in effects.  Delay, Chorus, Tremalo, Phaser and more, I believe.

Looks like they actually come in Red and White as well, if you'd prefer that over the normal black.  Here's a picture:

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