The nominees are in and here’s the final list of contenders:
If you can’t see the poll above you can vote here.
You can only vote once and polling closes at midnight Hawaii time on 13th February. I’d encourage you to watch any you’re not familiar with but other than that, go wild. Vote for whoever you like for whatever reason you like (who wins isn’t as important as getting some exposure for excellent videos).
A James Hill double-bill this week including one from his Hi Session. It’s worth checking out their other stuff too. There are uke appearances from Kalei Gamaio and Aldrine Guerrero, and non-uke stuff like this performance by Kuana Torres.
If you haven’t made your nominations for ukulele video of 2011 yet head here and make your pick.
The real purpose of the vote: to get people watching excellent musicians. So if there’s a video you think has been cruelly overlooked, be sure to give it a nomination because I’ll be watching anything I missed first time round.
For the first stage, everyone gets to nominate up to 5 videos – leave them in the comments. From those nominations, I’ll cobble together a list of ten (ish) that will be voted on in the next round. Use whatever criteria you like. I went with whichever videos/songs I enjoyed most.
The rules remain as ramshackle as ever:
- There has to be a ukulele in there.
- Videos must have been originally uploaded in 2011.
- Videos must be publicly available online.
- Maximum of five nominations per person.
- Post your nominations in the comments.
- Nominations close midnight Sunday 5th February.
- Ten acts with the most nominations go into the final vote with their most nominated song going forward.
- No prize. Just the love and admiration of the heaving masses.
- No sucking up by voting for me.
Don’t panic if your comments don’t show up right away. First time commenters and comments contains a few links can get held back for spam checking.
A Banda Mais Bonita da Cidade – Oração
Amanda Palmer & The Young Punx – Map of Tasmania
Keston Cobblers’ Club – Pett Level
Lisa Hannigan – Knots
LP – Into The Wild
To jog your memory, here are some more videos that have caused a stir in the comments, on the net or in my pants:
Raymond Penfield – Addicted To Love
Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt – What Are You Doing New Years Eve?
James Hill – Hand Over My Heart
Eddie Vedder – Can’t Keep
Taimane Gardner – Taimane’s Toccata
Seryn – River Song
Keston Cobblers’ Club – Shoemaker’s Song
My Brightest Diamond – I Have Never Loved Someone
Nicholas Abersold – Those Punk Rock Days
tUnE-yArDs- You Yes You
Givers – Meantime
The Jive Aces – Bring Me Sunshine
Pegasus Bridge – Yoko
Celisse Henderson – Me and You
Ukulele Tim – The Summoning
Ukulele Bartt and James Hill – Kashmir
Sungha Jung – I’m Yours
Leftover Cuties – Places to Go
Jake Shimabukuro – 143
KYAS – Bad Romance
Kina Grannis – Michicant
Kate and Janelle – Star Witness
Jonathan Coulton – Down Today
Sophie Madeleine – Oil & Gold
U900 – I Want You Back
If you haven’t already, make sure you get your nomination in for the Ukulele Video of the Year 2011.
Current high-flyers are Lisa Hannigan, LP and Eddie Vedder. If you think someone else deserves a look-in head over to the post and make your nominations in the comments.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who cringes whenever they hear unimaginative use of ukuleles on TV. So Rob Manning’s score for Channel 4′s Girls on the Pull a refreshing change (if you’re unfamiliar with 4′s naming tactics it’s a documentary about compulsive hair-pulling).
Vanilla Ice plays ukulele for hipsters (seems like the video only works in the US though), Warren Buffett ukes for the Chinese, and The Rock plays to promote his film.
Makers of the film The Descendants attempt to bribe Oscar judges with a ukulele. Although Brett McKenzie is the true uker’s choice for an Oscar.
The Ukes for UNICEF festival takes place in Berkhamsted (UK) on the 3rd March and features Uke Hunt friends Ken Middleton and Krabbers and plenty more.
Coverage of the industry-fest NAMM on Ukeeku and Ukulele Underground.
On Uker Tabs: Coheed and Cambria, Bombay Bicycle Club and Charlie McDonnell.
Pictures: Taylor Swift in Vogue, mustachioed paper valentine ukulelists.
How to learn the ukulele well enough to (almost) get you laid.
David Arnold – Sherlock’s Theme (Tab)
There’s a lot to love about the BBC’s updating of Sherlock Holmes (and a few things – like all the tilt shifting – to hate) and one of the parts I love most is the music (by David ‘James Bond’ Arnold and Michael Price).
It’s interesting to hear how similar the score for Sherlock is to the music for the film version of Sherlock Holmes by Hans Zimmer despite the music for the TV version being written before the film came out.
My version of Sherlock’s Theme is all done with fingerpicking. After the intro, it’s all:
C-string = thumb.
E-string = index finger.
A-string = middle finger.
Make sure the melody stands out from the backing (the notes in brackets)
My arrangement of the tune is quite tricky. So here’s the plain melody for the tune (without the intro). You can play it as it is or jazz it up in any way you see fit.
Download Podcast #13
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Podcast #13 in your face.
The January 2012 podcast features an interview with Lila Burns (where everyone finds out they’ve been pronouncing her name wrong) and plenty of excellent tracks.
Tracklist
1. Lloyd Gabriel – Unhook Your Heart
2. Kiwafruit – Alone And Thinking Of You
3. Megg Farrell’s Whiskey Social – O’ Fear Nothing, Ms Bennet
4. The Great Sebaldo – Man On The Train
5. Sara Dennis – Lost Times
6. Lila Burns – Witching Hour
7. Lila Burns Interview Part 1
8. Lila Burns – Again and Again
9. Lila Burns Interview Part 2
10. Lila Burns – Timeline
11. Spoon Blind Williams – Oh! Wow
12. The K – Unusual Possibilities
13. Manitoba Hal – Down In Pubnico
You can get in touch and submit tracks for consideration if you follow the rules (particularly the one about file format) via:
Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know (Chords)
I’ve had a bunch of requests for Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know since the five people on one guitar version went viral. Inspired by the success of that they attempted the same thing with a ukulele. And they do successfully play ukuleles sometimes.
Use this once for every chord:
D – D U
The only exception is the C5 in the last verse. Play the same pattern loads of times (16 at my count).
Pay attention to the dynamics in this one. Start quietly and bash it out in the choruses.
You can play the ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ intro like this:
And the bridge bit like this:
Walk off the Earth have certainly had a good start to 2012. Their five-people-on-one-guitar Gotye cover hit it big and they had plenty of other excellent videos to back it up. Including some uke action.
Also new since I last posted, Supercute! rope in Kate Nash and Andrew WK; David Wax Museum rock a jarana; drinking songs from The Sprialtones, Howlin’ Hobbit and Gerald Ross; and loads more besides.
This weekend is NAMM (the orgy of musical instrument makers) and this year the CEO of NAMM is putting his money on ukuleles. Follow the action on Ukeeku including Mahalo’s attempt at making a ukulele worse than the flying V and whatever the hell this is.
The big curiosity on eBay at the moment is this huge collection of ukuleles. Looks like an interesting set of ukes but the $55,000 price tag and the seven-word description are off-putting.
Strange ukulele-ish instrument.
Ipana Tooth Paste: protects gums and makes you play the ukulele weirdly close to your face.
Doll outfits are more expensive than all my clothes put together: Barbie’s Ken A Go-Go
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