Videos this week include the new one from Eddie Vedder, podcast star Helen Arney (you can download this song and a couple of others on Bandcamp for free if you make it before it runs out), Lemos and a houseful of buddies, auto-erotica from Garfunkel and Oates and plenty more besides.
After last week’s Window Shopping post I got a few complaints about the insane prices of the ukuleles featured. Looking solely at ukuleles I’m too poor to afford is the only way to ensure I don’t end up buying one. But this week I put my wallet in peril for you and look at what I’d buy at the lower end of the market.
Under $25: I’d have to go with a Pink Mahalo U-30 and hope I got a good one. Yes, pink. I need a uke that’s going to match this shirt.
But I’d be tempted by: A Practical Method for Self Instruction on The Ukulele by N.B. Bailey. I love old ukulele instruction books.
Under $50: I don’t own a pineapple ukulele so I’d go with a Makala Pineapple.
But I’d be tempted by: The Wolfelele.
Under $75: If I didn’t already have a Mahalo Les Paul, I’d definitely be getting one of those. Otherwise, perhaps an old Harmony.
But I’d be tempted by: A ukulele teapot with intestine handle.
Under $100: The sensible choice would be Kala Mahogany Concert. But the Plaid Kala Ukadelic to garish-up my collection nicely.
But I’d be tempted by: This adorable pair of beaten up banjoleles that I’d never get round to having fixed up.
Under $150: It would have to be an Ohana Vita uke in tribute to Roy Smeck.
But I’d be tempted by: This Soul Cat cigar box ukulele.
Leave your suggestions/shopping list in the comments.
A flurry of F-words, gaffes and misinformation as the British media has gone on one of their ‘the ukulele is making a comeback’ kicks (as they’ve done a couple a times a year for the last five years). A selection of the goings-on:
– The most amusing was in the Telegraph which was originally sub-headlined, “The ukulele is hard to take seriously thanks to its association with George Forman.”
– The Daily Mail originally had it, “It seems there are several theories as to why the ukelele – or ‘uku’ as it is nicknamed – is enjoying a revival.”
– Michael White laid into the UOGB’s Proms performance pretty viciously (despite being quite positive about it at the time).
– Huffington Post illustrated the story with a picture of Sting playing a guitar.
– The Express headlined “Now the ukulele outsells electric guitars,” but quotes figures that don’t seem to back that up.
– The Guardian reckon it’s only possible to play the ukulele (or ‘ukukele’) like George Formby: “Something in the posture required to play the ukulele – shoulders hunched, elbows akimbo – probably encouraged a perky grinning manner: it’s probably impossible to play the ukukele in any other way.”
– And on TV: Channel 4 News and on Daybreak (with Lorraine managing to knock out Sweet Child of Mine at 6:30am).
– One interesting fact in the brouhaha:
180 music shops were surveyed with 42 per cent saying the ukulele had seen the biggest rise in popularity in the last year. 31 per cent stated that keyboards had seen the largest growth, and 16 per cent for acoustic guitars.
I need to calm down after that epic bitch-fest with some Bigfoot and Tiki cartoons.
The UOGB present the Ukulele Podcast of Great Britain with a guest appearance from Glenn Tilbrook. And here’s Will playing what he claims is the world’s smallest playable ukulele (which Alvin Okami may take issue with) (thanks to Ron).
Vo-do-de-o Days charts the history of Tiptoe Through the Tulips.
The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra are on iTunes.
Lots of intriguing pictures from the Tokyo Hand Craft Guitar FES.
The ukulele bit on Cougar Town (thanks to Anna). If you’re in a location-blocked country you can still watch Josh Hopkins having a bit of a uke here.
Ari Pulkkinen – Angry Birds (Tab)
Angry Birds might be annoyingly addictive and sometimes annoyingly annoying, but the theme music is outstanding. It’s one of two games I play and don’t turn the music off for (the other is Pizza Boy).
For my version, I did mess around with things a bit. The intro section is picked with a bit of running man picking (alternating index and middle). The main section is mostly played with the thumb flicking down on the g and C and the index finger flicking up (which a few strums thrown in). In the final section, Thumb on g, index on E and middle finger on A.
Lead Sheet
Here’s just the basic melody and it’s a bit more faithful to the original. So you can play it simply as it is or arrange your own version around it.
Ari Pulkkinen – Angry Birds Theme (Lead Tab)
Here’s how it sounds by itself.
The May 2011 edition of the podcast is here. Helen Arney very kindly took time out of her tour with the Uncaged Monkeys to have a hilarious chinwag with Bossarocker and play a few songs. As well as that there’s a bumper crop of songs.
You can get the latest Uke Hunt podcast delivered straight to you by:
Subscribing on iTunes
RSS Feed
Adding to Google
You can get in touch and submit tracks for consideration via:
Facebook
Soundcloud
Email at podcast@ukulelehunt.com
Playlist:
1. Ukulollo – The Beat of the Strum
2. Aaron Keim – Wandering Boy
3. Ruth Acuff – Nightingale
4. The Mother Ukers – Lucifer
5. All Young Girls Are Machine Guns – Swing Back Baby Blues
6. Helen Arney (in session) – Christmas Love Song
7. Helen Arney (in session) – Strong Woman With A Broken Heart
8. Helen Arney (in session) – The Perfect Boy
9. Martin White & the Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra – Four Minutes & Thirty Three Seconds
10. Howlin’ Hobbit – 20th Century Fads
11. Shiny and the Spoon – Black Nag
12. Arch Larizza – I Don’t Need Another Ukulele
Jonathan Coulton and GLaDOS – Want You Gone (Chords)
Site update: I moved the site to a new host over the weekend which is why you may not have been able to get on it. Hopefully, things have shaken out now. If you’re reading this by email or feedreader and can’t get on the site please do send me an email at ukulelehunt@gmail.com. Or if you notice anything else that’s wonky. Thanks!
***************SPOILER ALERT***************SPOILER ALERT*********************
Portal 1 is easily the best satire of working for a large corporation with all the jumping through hoops, monitoring, lies and promises of far off rewards. It’s a shame games rarely go for satire because they’re one of the best mediums for it.
Portal 2 does a similar job by making us forget everything we learn in Portal 1 and make us put power in the hands of one being and hope that this time everything will be cool. Replicating the hope-over-experience of countries who sell arms to non-democratic countries and organisations again and again and again and again and again each time saying, “You better turn out to be pretty cool or I’m going to be pissed.” I could easily go on and on about the game but I should move on to the song.
No ukulele this time and it doesn’t transfer entirely happily. But you can still make a good fist of it.
Twiddly Bits
You can play the little riff like this:
Suggested Strumming
I think the riff sounds better on uke if you include the chords with it (shown in the chord chart). That beefs it up a bit and means you can play it an octave lower. You can strum this for the first chord in the riff:
d – d – d – d u
Then switch to this for the next chord:
d – d –
Then stop.
That sounds like this:
In the chorus you can just switch between the usual F# and B chord shapes, but the ones shown keep the ascending sound. Either way, you can use this strumming pattern:
d – d – d u d u
Once for each chord.
It’s a shame I never got to see the Asylum Street Spankers live before they split up. They were one hell of a band. Two video this week from their trio of final shows; one with Pops Bayless on uke duties and the other with Christina Marrs.
Quick warning: I’m going to try to move the site this weekend (if I get the courage) so it will be down for some time. I’m not sure how long. Last time I tried it was a bit of a disaster.
Martin, being a very generous company, allowed employees near retirement to come in on their days off and build an instrument of their own choosing. While it was a bit stingy not to let them do it in their work-hours, it has produced a healthy number of collectable ukuleles. This week there’s this 1947 Spruce-top Martin Tenor. It’s being sold by Ukulelefriend so the description is well worth a read (just don’t look at the price).
With all the hype surrounding Eddie Vedder’s uke album, I hope some will spillover onto his luthier of choice: Eric DeVine. Who makes handsome ukuleles like this.
I think this ukulele is too camp to have been made in ‘late 1800’s to early 1900’s’.
8-string pineapple from Kapono
The solid-body Kala UBasses are around and I’m quite taken by the Skyline Red model.
London’s chief ukulele floggers, the Duke of Uke are being chucked out of their premises. You can help them out by buying a t-shirt or donating on their website.
While we’re in London, good friend of the blog and all-around fantastic person, Lorraine Bow is running two ukulele courses from early June – one for ‘absolute beginners’ and one for ‘advanced beginners’. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend signing up.
Amsterdam may be famous for its legal laxity but Amanda Palmer got arrested for playing her ukulele in public. You can read her side of the story here.
Listen to Eddie Vedder’s ukulele album on NPR.
Stephin Merritt is releasing a new obscurities album and you can grab a free uke track from it on Merge Records.
Make your own felted ukulele gig bag
Lil Rev is raising money for a new album.
Religious cult’s ukulele band.
Playable lego ukulele (thanks to Emily).
Ukulele minimalism and songs with one chord.
I intend to steal this pun next time the Bushman slow-delivery issue crops up.
Photos: a tour of the Kamaka factory (via Ukulelia), 3 neck ukulele and others (also via Ukulelia)
Continuing the celebration of Manchester in honour of the Bossarocker’s Ukulele Show with five – mostly jangly – Manc riffs.
The Stone Roses – Waterfall
I moved this one up a fret because I like this sound of the g-string ringing. But, if you want to play along to the record, it’s easy to move everything down a fret (and the G down to the C-string 6th fret).
The Happy Mondays – Loose Fit
This one is slightly adapted to keep it in the same key.
Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
I wanted to have this one strummed. That way you can get away with implying the low B and A notes in the last two bars rather than playing them.
The Chemical Brothers – Galvanize
I don’t know if this one even counts as being from Manchester. The Chemical Brothers were both born in London and this riff was sampled from Moroccan Najat Aatabou.
The Fall – Wrong Place, Right Time
I couldn’t let this post go without one from The Mighty Fall. The first half of the riff sounds great with full chords. But it does make the second half – played as single notes – sound a bit wimpy.
More Manchester
The Smiths – This Charming Man
The Fall – Theme From Sparta FC
The Fall – Blindness
The Fall – How I Wrote Elastic Man
The Happy Mondays – Step On
