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.
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.
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.
So, first off, sorry I've been gone for so long (assuming you noticed). My work schedule has ramped up into insanity mode. But, no excuses. Anyway, I'm not sure how I found this video because I haven't watched Scrubs in several years and even then I barely watched it to begin with. I think it aired right before or after something I did want to watch but I have no idea what that even was anymore. I don't even have cable these days, so it's hard to remember what life used to be like when I had to watch commercials and shows I really didn't give a rat's ass about just to watch the ones I did.
Anyway, apparently there's something to be said for watching shows accidentally because if I was still sitting through Scrubs I would have seen this super charming video. I think I remember the bald guy as the defeated hospital lawyer, but I don't recall the girl character at all. Maybe she was later or something. Anyway, watch the video and then you can learn more about her.
See. Wasn't that rad? Anyway, using my super sleuth skills, I was able to determine that cute ukulele-playing girl's identity. She is Kate "Oates" Micucci. Oates, you say? Yup, more on that later. But, first, you probably want to know how to play that song right? Yeah, me too. So I started transcribing it and then I had the brilliant thought to search first and see if anyone else has already cracked that egg. Well, of course, Woodshed over at UkuleleHunt.com has done it already. If you wanna see why I have a real man-crush on him, check out his post where he has the tabs for the Scrubs Screw You song.
Anyway, back to this "Oates" business. Yeah, so apparently Kate is in some sort of non-New Zealand folk/parody comedy duo with Riki "Garfunkel" Lindhome. You know, like Flight of the Conchords only the American lady version. Yup, they call themselves Garfunkel and Oates and I might have as much of a crush on them as I do Jemaine of the Conchords.
So, apparently the Screw You song is one of theirs, only their version is called "Fuck You" and it has a kazoo. Can't go wrong with a kazoo and extra swearing, I always say. See, take a peak.
Yup. Adorable, right? Anyway, I expect I'll be posting more Garfunkel and Oates in the coming days, assuming my work load lets up.
Holy crap. It's almost been a month since I've posted something. How freaking embarassing. In my defense, we had family in town for a week and we built a shed, compost pile and a mess of raised garden beds. Also.... I'm lazy. But, I made myself hop on Twitter today and try and get caught up with "the gang". Minutes later, I know exactly what I'm going to post, thanks to @AnIdleDad (check out his blog at cookingwithtoomuchsalt.wordpress.com).
He sent me a link to a Ukulele Rap Novelty video by Fully Sick Rapper. I hadn't heard of this guy before, but I'm a sucker for rapping ukulele novelty acts (*cough* Mr. B, The Gentleman Rhymer *cough*). Also, I'm not sure that I've mentioned this before, but I was actually in a White Trash-themed rap band somewhere around '98. We were called PWT and we had songs about Convoy, BBQ, attractive cousins and the like.
Anyway, back to Fully Sick Rapper. The video rules and was, apparently, made from his hospital room. Unless this is a gag (and I don't believe it to be) he was diagnosed with TB and was in quarantine when he made the video. If you wanna learn more, you can follow him at @FullySickRapper on Twitter, or on FaceBook. His Youtube channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/ChristiaanVanVuuren.
So, without further ado, I give you "F you, I'm a Ukulele". Hooray!
Yeah, say that title three times fast. I dare ya! Heh. Well, I'll let the video do most of the talking on this one since I, apparently, can't record a Ukulele video without talking through half of the damn thing. I really like the sound of my own voice, I guess?
If you are intersted in the chords or words, I've posted them below.
F
The plowhorse went lame
Gm
the wheat crop failed
F
when the well went dry
A#dim (0202)
I knew that the rest was sure to follow
Bb C
looks like the pretty life we planned yesterday
A7 A Bb
gonna turn to dust tomorrow
Bb C A7
and the day after that is gonna be more of the same
Bb C
Well you said that it wasn't my fault
A7 Dm
but I know that was a lie
Bb C A7 Bb
it's just that you couldn't bear to let all that pain and sadness back inside
Gm C
You just couldn't admit
Gm C
that maybe it was wrong
Gm C F
to fall for a guy cause he wrote you a pretty song.
F
The roof still leaks
Gm
The Barn's collapsed
F
It hasn't rained for weeks
A#dim
and I know that the worst has yet to get here
Bb C
You said youy'd stay with me forever
A7 A Bb
but we both know that's not right
Bb C A7
Why you and the children run off the farm tonight
Bb C
Well you said that it wasn't my fault
A7 Dm
but I know that was a lie
Bb C A7 Bb
it's just that you couldn't bear to let all that pain and sadness back inside
Gm C
You just couldn't admit
Gm C
that maybe it was wrong
Gm C F
to fall for a guy cause he wrote you a pretty song.
Gm C
So baby, if this is it
Gm C
If this is the very last so long
Bb C F
I'm still glad it was me what wrote that pretty song
So, I spent the whole weekend pretty much ignoring my computer and living in the backyard (when it was nice) and the movie theatre (when it was crappy out). So, as a result, I didn't see a tweet from @gotanda until just a few minutes ago. That's a shame because it means I could have watched the Youtube video he sent me a few more dozen times. Heh.
The video is by someone known simply, as Pecker. Yup. Pecker. I did a "D-" amount of research and I believe he's something like the Barcelona version of Gunther only with more (or is it less, I can never tell) ironic value. If you wanna check out his site, you can find it at http://www.pecker.es/.
Anyway, the video is just Pecker and a ukulele (is it a Mahalo maybe?) covering The Ramones song "I wanna be your boyfriend". That's one of my favorite Ramones songs and my son and I actually cover that ourselves when we are transformed into our Ramones cover band (we are called "Second verse, same as the first").
Anyway, the video is fun and I like his accent. I'm especially glad that it's not faked (the accent, I mean).
Well, this wouldn't be much of a Ukulele blog if I didn't talk about this Ukulele version of We Are The World. It's 33 Ukulele players from all over the world playing We Are The World and it's be edited into one video. Apparently there are ukulele players from Australia, Canada, Germany, Hawaii, Italy, Malaysia, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S.
I like the concept of this (it remind me of that great Stand By Me youtube video), I just sort of wish they picked a different song. Sure, I grew up in the 80s, but I pretty much can't stand this song. But, it's nice to see all the great ukes and players and hear everyone's style on this, regardless of the tune.
If you want to see more of a particular player, check out all of the following links. They are the Youtube pages for everyone who is in the video. You're going to have to do a little guesswork, though, if your favorite is in the middle of the video. Either that or be a really great counter.
Andy Smetanka posted a link to a video today that I figured I could get away with re-posting here. For one, I just need to start posting again (stupid real life getting in the way of my blogging) and for another, I'm actually playing Ukulele in the music of this video.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Andy is a long-time friend and full-time Renaissance man. I met him around 1997 or so when he was fronting Humpy, a great Missoula hardcore band. If you've seen any Volumen videos, then you've seen his work before. He made videos for Sexy Astronaut, Snakes and Lost in the Baltics. Heck, he's even made videos for The Decemberists. Heck, he even officiated my wedding, if you can believe that.
This particular video was made for Big Sky Brewing, a local Missoula Brewery. However, the music that's featured in the video was recorded, I think, for another project. I think he was making a Tolkien-inspired video for Le Force. This music was supposed to be for the Hobbit's merry-making and whatnot, I think? Anyway, besides me on the Ukulele, Al Pils is on the jawharp and I think Bryan Ramirez and a few other folks (Andy as well) are stomping, snapping, etc. I'm actually a little surprised that there is no musical saw in this song because Andy is also the king of musical saw, if you can believe that.
Oh, hang on! I just found a link for the Le Force video as well. I'm probably stretching it by including this video here, but hay, it does have some ukulele in the beginning. Besides, the video is freaking RAD!
So, this morning I hopped on the ole computer feeling a little bit groggy (I'm not a morning person). I headed over to twitter to see if I had missed anything, and I notice that @valcam1 has tweeted a Youtube link at me. The morning is starting to look up. So, I made my way over to Youtube to see a Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain video that I've never seen before. Huzzah! Now, I don't know if I'm just slightly emotional today, or maybe slightly hungover, or what, but when they all come in together at the end, I definitely teared up a little bit. Yeah, I'm a sap, I'll admit it. Enjoy!
![Marcy Marxer: Ukulele for Kids 2 [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WHR72ACWL._SL75_.jpg "Marcy Marxer: Ukulele for Kids 2 [VHS]")
![The Joy of Uke 2 [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PjVXGJJcL._SL75_.jpg "The Joy of Uke 2 [VHS]")
Besides, the video is freaking RAD!
