Dillinger Escape Plan and the sort of band I’d usually be into but I caught them at Donington and they BLEW. MY. MIND. They tight, wild and batshit insane. Milk Lizard is one of their more straightforward songs: mostly in 4/4 time, only occasional shifts in tempo and it has a singalong chorus. Obviously one […]

This week more of the Riffs for Ukulele series – not all of them guitar riffs this time round. The idea with these riffs isn’t to play the whole song, but to throw them in to your playing for a bit of light relief (like the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on Orange Blossom and […]

No sign of The Big C in the UK so I don’t know if it’s any good. But it does have Laura Linney, Oliver Platt, a uke theme tune from Leftover Cuties and a song from Tripping Lily. I’m willing to give it a go. I should warn you, there are a lot of instrumentals […]

I don’t mind a bit of decorative filigree on a uke, but I’m not so keen on decorated fretboards. If I’m looking at the fretboard I’m down to my business socks because it’s business time. I even find the swirls a bit distracting. So I’ll be staying away from the kabuki craziness on this M’s […]

Ukulele Ghetto has a very interesting post about the regrets over his custom made ukuleles (and, worryingly, how two of the ukes turned up different from his specifications). With 5 custom ukes in his collection, he’s speaking with some experience. I have held back from getting a custom made uke because of worries over the […]

David Beckingham – The Stripper (Tab) I’ve been meaning to put together an arrangement of this song for a long time. It’s an instantly recognisable tune and liable to provoke a giggle when you break it out. But when I do get my own version together it’s going to be heavily based on David’s because […]

Carly Simon – Nobody Does It Better (Chords) Sorry to disappoint everyone everyone who thought I’d be doing Deliverance when I said I’d be writing up the, “best song from a film ever.” But if it doesn’t have lyrics it’s not a song. Nobody Does It Better is a quite magnificent song. I was going […]

Considering how much I love Springsteen there’s very little of it on the blog. Hopefully, Jim Boggia’s incredible version of Thunder Road will make up for the lack of quantity with a surfeit of quality. Also this week, Heidi Talbot with Boo Hewerdine (who provided uke for Hafdis Huld), David Beckhingham’s Stripper (tab for that […]

Eleuke’s move into acoustic-electric ukuleles might have caused ructions with distributors but their preliminary 2011 catalogue (PDF link) makes for interesting perusing. New models include two cigar-box ukuleles, oddly placed soundholes (similar to this solidbody) and some stylish looking ukes in ebony and ash. Ukulelezaza has been showing off his Knutsen harp ukulele. And describes […]

Since it was National Poetry Day yesterday, a few bits of ukulele inspired prose. ee cummings finishes oil tel duh woil doi sez with this line: yoozwidduhpoimnuntwaiv un duhyookuhsumpnruddur givusuhtoonunduhphugnting Which apparently translates into almost-readable as: yousewiththepermanentwave and theukeorsomethingorother giveusatuneonthefuckin’thing Malcolm Lowry predicted his demise in Epitaph: Malcolm Lowry Late of the Bowery His prose […]