Tag: eleuke

Video: The Eleuke Escalating Electric Fence Wager (part 2)

Ok. If you just came into this sequence of drunken buffoonery, make sure and check out Part 1 so you aren't lost. Actually, I guess you'll probably get the gist of it.... unless you are currently drunk, in which case you probably better watch Part 1.

Anyway, I should fill you in here.  My brothers and I are pretty competitive.  I can't really explain it because none of us really did much in the way of sports growing up (Bryan, your football season doesn't count).  Yet, if you get all three of us in one place, playing cards or (God forbid, Monopoly) and there is bourbon nearby, you can expect it won't end well.

As part of this we have a running gag about staging an eating contest.  So, let's say we're at a BBQ or picnic or something and one of the brothers remarks, "Man, I love deviled eggs!"  Within seconds, one of the other brothers will respond with "Yeah?  How many do you think you could eat in an hour".  And off we go.

So, with all of this in mind, it should come as no shock to you that as soon as I put an electric fence in my backyard (to keep marauding black bears from effing up my compost bin and childrens' faces) it was less than 20 minutes before the conversation steered to, "How much money would it take for you to touch the electric fence?".  If I recall correctly, Bryan started high with something like $1000 and then worked his way down to $125 or something.  Colin started at $85 or something.  I said $40 and then was somehow talked down to $20.  And so the story begins.  Don't worry though, there's quite a bit more video to come still.

To make this video acceptable for UkuleleGuy, you'll notice that I'm holding my Eleuke Electric Ukulele. Ahh yeah! Apparently I should have been playing it though, Eleuke is having a contest right now.

Video: The Eleuke Escalating Electric Fence Wager (part 1)

Damn, I nearly broke my "e" key on the title there.

Ok. I'm not going to say much about this video.... yet. Consider this a teaser of things to come. I know this doesn't appear to be especially ukulele-related, but rest assured that I was holding my Eleuke electric ukulele when I actually touch the electric fence. So... it's legit. 😉

This video series has more cursing than you've come to expect from my videos. But, don't worry, it also has more drinking and slurring. So, it balances out, right? Heh.

A guy in love…. (covers Magnetic Fields, of course)

So, today I felt like I needed to do something special for my wife, Erika.  I stayed up super late playing poker and maybe drinking too many beers and I slept in too late, etc.  She's the center of my world and I knew I needed to remind her of that today.  So, what did I do?  Well, I covered some Magnetic Fields, of course!

Maybe this doesn't make sense to everyone, but Magnetic Fields are pretty much a touchstone for us.  Hell, our youngest son's middle name is Merritt for heaven's sake.  We're pretty rabid fans.

But, this song is something special for us.  A fantastic Missoula band, The Oblio Joes, played on our wedding day and they played this song as "our song".  I actually sang it with them (although, I guess I probably should have been dancing with Erika, right?) and it sealed this song in time, as ours.

Then several years later, The Oblio Joes played their last show ever in Caras Park in Missoula.  Well, this last show took place on the anniversary of our wedding.  So, as a surprise to Erika, I jumped up on stage and sand Strange Powers with the Obes for the last time.

Well, today I had to do it without the Obes, but I did as best as I could.  There are 11 tracks in this song and they are:

  1. muted strumming on a Tacoma acoustic guitar
  2. muted strumming on a Rogue baritone ukulele
  3. muted strumming on a Lanikai CK-TEQ tenor ukulele
  4. bass on my Applause acoustic bass
  5. guitar on my Tacoma acoustic guitar
  6. ukulele on my Lanikai CK-TEQ tenor ukulele
  7. vocals
  8. backup vocals
  9. tiny hook on my Kala Pocket Ukulele
  10. weird harpsichord (?) part on my Lanikai CK-TEQ tenor ukulele
  11. synth electric guitar sound from my Eleuke

Oh yeah, and I recorded it on my MOTU Traveller interface.  I love it!  And I used an AKG C 2000B Microphone.  But, enough of all that tech jibber jabber.  This one is for my baby.  I hope you like it, Erika.

Strange Powers (Magnetic Fields Cover) - by Ukulele Guy, for Erika

P.S.  I need a windscreen for my mic.... I know.  I'm buying one today as well as new Aquila strings. 😉

P.P.S. I'd love to make a video for this song.  You know one of those rad videos that shows me playing each of the instruments as the part comes in for the first time.  But, that seems like a ton of work and I'm not really sure what software to use.  Does everyone do those with Adobe Premier?  It seems like it has a steep learning curve (and costs about a million dollars).  Any other suggestions?

P.P.P.S  Crap.  I just realized that I muffed the lyrics in a few spots.  Hopefully Stephen Merritt never hears this because I'm not sure I could stand up to his sardonic comments and cool stare.

Misfits “Halloween” by Volumen (featuring the Eleuke)

So, it happened.  I was able to convince the boys in Volumen to play a Misfits song with me.  I'm not sure why I had my heart set on this particular song, but I did.  As I said yesterday, the audio is pretty blown out, but that's because we are so F-bomb loud.  Also, Volumen Beta (our drummer) is a machine and the camera was sitting right next to him for most of the video.  (Something tells me that I'll have my proximity to Volumen Beta, and his massive beat generation, to thank for significant hearing loss in my right ear.  Heh.)

Anyway, up until yesterday, I've always sort of treated Volumen and Ukulele Guy as two separate (but equally fun) entities.  So, it was really nice to combine the two of them for this video.  The boys were real champs about learning this song real quick.  I mean, we had already practiced for 2+ hours on our original material for an upcoming show, so it's not like they hadn't already filled their rock quota.  Well, quota be damned, I always say... hrm... actually, I've never said that, but I wholeheartedly believe it now.

Just in case you are playing the home game.  Volumen are:

  • Volumen-1, Shane, Guitar/Bass/Vocals (aka Ukulele Guy)
  • Volumen-2, Doug, Guitar/Vocals (not appearing in this video, he was filming)
  • Volumen^2, Bryan, Bass/Guitar/Vocals (my brother)
  • VolumenBkawck, Chris, Keys/Percussion/Vocals (wrestling mask)
  • Volumen Beta, Bob, DRUMS (drums!)

Also, if you want to play along, you should check out UkuleleHunt.com.  Woodshed wrote up some tabs and lyrics that I actually used.  Ukulele Hunt is actually one of my favorite Ukulele sites because it seems like I have similar tastes to Woodshed.  That is to say, I love the songs that he chooses to make tabs of.

Enuff of my gabbin'.  Here's the video.

Another Eleuke Demo – This time with extra LOUD

So, as you may or may not know, when I'm not "Ukulele Guy", I play in Volumen.  We are a heavy new wave band from Missoula, MT, and we've been playing weird sonics since 1996.  Well, yesterday was Wednesday and Wednesday=Volumen Practice.  So, I went in a little bit early and brought my Eleuke so that I could make some videos of it through a better amp.

I lucked out because Volumen^2 (my brother) showed up just minutes later with a case of Coors and he agreed to hold the camera for the second half of this video.  Woo hoo!  I didn't really have an idea of what I wanted to play, so I just went for it.  Sadly, my wah wah pedal badly needs a new battery, apparently, so that part is a little bit weak, but you get the general idea right?

After we finished recording this video, we had regular Volumen practice and then I convinced the boys to play "Halloween", by the Misfits, with me on the Eleuke.  We'd never played it before, but we picked it up easily enough.  I'll post that video tomorrow, or maybe later today.  It's a little blown out, because we are so damn loud, but that just makes it punk rock, right?

P.S. Whoever can tell me what I'm playing during the "clean" portion of this video wins extra special bonus Ukulele Guy points.