Tag: banjo ukulele

Redneck Jellyfish – A rad game with my music!

So, let's talk about Muses.  You might expect that a Muse would be a foxy Greek godess, or maybe a supermodel or maybe even Jodie Foster (Hay, maybe you are inspired to shoot a president, right?).  Well, in my case, my muses are a rad southern dude (who makes incredible pottery and ceramics and who also happens to write code) and his amazing wife.

Keith and his wife Gina (aka Gi Gi) have appeared in music I've been a part of for many years.  Going back to Volumen, Gina was the inspiration for the "That's niiiiice" in Underwater.  Years later, Keith and Gina warranted at least 12 lines of the PWT song BBQ Funk.  Most recently, Keith created a freaking rad video game called Redneck Jellyfish and he asked me to make the soundtrack for it.

Yup, you heard me right.  After a lifelong addiction to video games and a recent obsession with the Ukulele, I was finally able to dip that chocolate into that peanut butter.  I was part of making a video game!  I can die a happy man now.  Here's a trailer for the game:

When Keith first asked me about it, he wanted to know what I would charge him.  Charge?!  Pshaw.  I feel like I should have been paying him for the privilege.  Especially considering that he designed the original Volumen logo (which you can see at Volutunes) and also the logo for my wife's toy store (Walking Stick Toys, y'all!).  He didn't charge us for either of those so money was not changing hands.

Well, Keith got the last laugh by naming the main character in Redneck Jellyfish after my youngest son, August.  Yup, the jellyfish is named "Gus Hickey".  RAD.

Keith created this game with a lot of help from his amazing kids Greyson (age 12) and Iva (age 11).  The concept was based on one of Greyson's drawings and I think Iva had a lot to do with the design of "Gus" and also some of the other art in the game.  Gus's voice, in the game, is 100% Greyson and it's pretty freaking hilarious!  Also, his crazy sayings are probably going to be tough for you to figure out if you happen to have been born north of the Mason-Dixon line. 😉

Anyway, if you have an ipad/ipod touch/iphone then y'all should shell out the measly $.99 and get this rad game.  There are 64 freaking levels!  So, it'll definitely be worth your money.  Also, I think the most recent version posts your scores to Facebook so you can get in some bragging rights.

I'll make another post soon with tabs for the main song in the game, in case you want to play along with your uke. 😉  In the version of the song that appears in the video game, I was playing my aNueNue Banjolele and also my 1974 Gibson EB-0 bass.

Click here to download Redneck Jellyfish!

Video: Poontang! (yup, poontang)

Now that I got your attention... Nah, I'm not joking. This really is a poontang video. Heh. I'm having a pretty good time here using the word poontang in a somewhat legitimate manner...... POONTANG!

Ok. I think I got that out of my system.  We can start for real.  As you may or may not know, I'm a freaking sucker for novelty songs.  I know what you are thinking, "Wait a minute, he likes ukuleles and novelty music?  High school must have been awesome for him!"  Surprisingly enough, it wasn't, but that's neither here nor there.

On one of my various novelty compilations, I first heard the song Poontang by the Treniers and I was amazed!  Frankly, I wasn't even sure the word poontang existed in 1953.  Turns out, it did.  After I heard the song I did a little bit of research and it sounds like The Treniers were pretty much party animals.  The drank and recorded rad songs.  In fact, to promote this song, they made custom labels for beer cans that said something like "Sweet Alabama Poontang" on them.  Then they sent the beer to radio station disc jockeys to get them to play it.  Freaking rad!

Anyway, I've been wanting to make a video for this for ages but kept putting it off.  So, today I just grabbed my aNueNue Banjolele and my Flip and busted out this video in a single take.  Boosh!

If you want to hear the original, check out this video:

And if you wanna play along (and who wouldn't, right?) here's some chords that I wrote up for Poontang!

Poontang by The Treniers
covered by Ukulele Guy

                  10 9 8 8 
...POON is a hug!
                  10 9 8 8 
TANG is a kiss!
C x7 (5433)
F          
I've been marooned on an isle in the South Pacific
Bb
Missing my loving each night
C
Now that I'm home I'll go right
                    E  F
Out and get me some POON-TANG!
F
Tired of talking to tigers and kangaroos,
Bb
Or singing a song to a goose.
C
Now that I'm home on the loose,
                  E   F
Gonna get me some POONTANG!

Bb 
Now Poon is a hug. I wanted a hug so badly
      D# (3331)
I was Blowing my tropical top.
C
A Tang is a kiss, I wanted a kiss so badly
       C                 E
Wanted Poontang never to stop.
F
I don't want to eat And I don't want to sleep;
Bb
I've got a yen that I'm dying to please.
C
Till I get weak in the knees,
                  E   F
Gonna get me that Poontang.
F
POON-TANG!
F
POON-TANG!
Bb
POON-TANG!
F
POON-TANG!
C
POON-TANG!
F
POON-TANG!

F
A-huggin and a-kissin...that's POON-TANG!
F
A-huggin and a-kissin...that's POON-TANG!
Bb
A-huggin and a-kissin...that's POON-TANG!
F
A-huggin and a-kissin...that's POON-TANG!
C
A-huggin and a-kissin...that's POON-TANG!
F
POON-TANG!

Rock break.

Bb
A Poon is a hug. I wanted a hug so badly
D#
I was blowin' my tropical top.
C
A Tang is a kiss, I wanted a kiss so badly
                    E
Want-a-Poontang never to stop.
F#
I don't want to eat and I don't want to sleep;
B
I've got a yen that I'm dying to please
C#
Till I get weak in the knees,
                  F   F#
Gonna get me that Poontang.

POON-TANG!

POON-TANG!

Gonna get me some, gonna get me song... poon tang!

Video: Five Foot Two on aNueNue Concert Banjo Ukulele

Ok.  Now that we got that damned guinea pig quiet, I can actually play my new aNueNue banjo uke.  I picked this standard because I feel the Warner Bros. frog would appreciate it.  Now, I just have to remember which corner stone I buried him in so he doesn't bankrupt some poor bastard in the future.  Expect many more videos with this particular ukulele.  It is my new favorite.  When I finally get my novelty band off the ground, I plan to play this aNueNue for most of the songs. Something about it paired with a stomp box and possibly kazoo... I just know that's gonna sound bitchin'.

aNueNue’s Banjo Ukuleles (details coming soon)

So I got an e-mail from a nice fella named Rich Cichowski. He runs an eBay guitar store (www.abetterguitarstore.com) and he's a big fan of Orcas strings.  So, we get to talking and he's telling me about Orcas strings (which I will review now that I have some) and also about the new Tenor Banjo Ukuleles from aNueNue.  I'm super intrigued especially when I see how pretty these things are.  Check it out:

aNueNue Banjo Ukuelele Click on the uke to go to their site and see what else they offer, but then come back here because they don't sell direct and Rich has the goods!  The banjo ukulele in the picture is a concert, I believe, but the one Rich sent me to test out is a tenor.  I literally just opened the package but I was so excited that I had to tell someone.  Don't worry, though, videos and reviews will be forthcoming on both the aNueNue Banjo Ukulele and the Orcas strings.  Although, I already broke a string with my stupidity, so I'm going to order another set from Rich as soon as I post this.  Heh... no one has ever accused me of being the Ukulele genius, thank god.

Anyway, in the meantime, check out Rich's stuff.  Here is his Orcas stuff:

And here are some of the aNueNue ukuleles you can get from Rich:

Holy smokes. I'm freaking excited! My first banjo ukulele experience!

EDIT: Turns out the aNueNue Banjo Ukulele I'm testing out is a Concert, not a Tenor like I said above.  I think I got it confused because Rich was talking to me about aNueNue's 6-string tenor ukuleles and I transposed it somehow.  Anyway, I've got the aNueNue Concert Banjo Ukulele out of the case, I've got the floating bridge in place and I'm stretching the strings right now.  The tone is soooo much more different than I'm used to.  I'll tell you more once I get a video recorded.

New Site Section “Ukuleles by Type”

So, I had an e-mail this morning from a person looking for an 8-string Tenor Ukulele. They weren't having an easy time searching my site for such a uke. Well, I could see why. I pretty much just list Ukuleles by Brand. That is... I did. Until today!

So, now if you are looking to buy (or maybe just look at some pretty pictures of) different types and sizes of Ukuleles, then check out these new sections on the site.

Let me know if you think I'm missing a section.  I actually created a section for Tiple Ukuleles as well, but there was only one listed, so I didn't add that to the my Navigation on the side.  So, if you are looking for a new Ukulele, hopefully this makes your quest even easier.