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 for the laydees.

The riff moves to the uke pretty well – even keeping it in the same key. If you want to make it easier to play, you can drop the notes on the g-string without losing anything important. And you can drop the little run in bar 7 and keep playing the riff if you don’t feel like some pointless showing off.

Riff

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 ukejeff does here) or just to provide one of those’ “I didn’t know you could play that on a ukulele,” moments to the uninitiated. They’re not always arranged in the original key – although this time round I’m doing that more than usual.

First up is U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday. The easiest way I’ve found to play this is to keep your index finger barred across the C, E and A strings.

Riff

And here’s a version in a more uke-friendly key (suggested by Jimmy)

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 this week by Ukuleles Tim, Zaza and Dav; Ryo Natoyama; Gerry O’Beirne and Todd B. But, panic not, doe-eyed whisper-voiced duties are taken care of by Ingrid Michaelson doing the song she wrote for Cheryl Cole.

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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 Craft and the Ohana CK-65D Milka Triolade fretboard. And if you’re planning to resell your ukulele don’t write your name across the fretboard.

I love the look of the aNueNue 1879. They’ve taken a design from a 1879 ukulele and remade it.

At last, a girl who looks as angry as I do whilst holding a uke. We should get together and make furious babies.

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 whole ordering process. Like anything, it’s takes a bit of practice to get it right but with the cost and hassles of a custom uke, I’d want to get it right first time.

In case you were wondering what had happened to the podcast, Bossarocker is taking some time out to deal with family business. But it will be back.

When cornered by an angry mob of Organisasi Papua Merdeka members, save yourself by playing your ukulele.

For those who thought Tiny McItchyFace was cute but wished he couldn’t play, your dreams have been answered. For everyone else it raises the prospect of another month being told about this adorable clip on YouTube you’re just going to love.

Daybreak (for non-Brits: it’s a faltering breakfast TV show) deputy editor tries to encourage creativity by playing the ukulele all day (scroll down past the grinning war-monger).

Even a monkey could do it.

Uke-spotting: Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine, Mae Whitman in Parenthood (spotted by Jenny), UKE JAM (spotted in Vancouver).

MP3s: Jennifer Teeter’s songs are now up on iTunes, One Track Mind has Pepper Rabbit’s Older Brother, interview and performance from Nellie McKay from the New York Times (thanks to Kate).

In the comments: The Wukulele Festival post turned into a bit of a shit-storm in the comments. I ditched my policy of replying nicely to people and lost my rag (but I’ve made up with Ian now and we’re agreed we’re equally twattish).

Photos: James Hill Plays the Ukulele, My Favourite song, Rock N Camilla, uncanny Jimmy McGee impression, awww, bless.

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 he’s nailed it with his version.

More from David:

Mississippi Blues
In the Mood
If I Had You
The Whistling Milkman

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 to write it up when I tabbed out the James Bond theme. I decided to save it for the release of the next James Bond film. Then they decided to stop making Bond films. Which seems wise to me. It seems well past its sell-by date.

The studio version of this song is in F#, so I decided to go with the live version which is in the more uke-friendly key of F. I also took a few cues from the Radiohead version (which is in E).

Twiddly Bits

The intro to the song:

It’s really important to let the notes ring into each other as much as possible. Here’s how I play it:

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 coming up) and knock-out vocal performances from both Patsy Monteleone and Gabrielle Giguere.

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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 its appeal thusly: “The advantage is added coolness. :-)?” I would have thought another maker would have stolen that idea by now. I suspect they’re difficult to mass-manufacture. But Pete Howlett wasn’t daunted, he’s been perfecting his prototype. Be sure to check out this gallery of harp instruments. And who would spent five grand on this harp guitar.

aNueNue are another one moving into banjoleles. While Aaron Keim goes in the other direction and has a Brazilian Rosewood uke for sale.

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 was flowery
And often glowery
He lived,nightly, and drank, daily,
And died playing the ukulele.

And Rupert Brooke struggles with the spelling in Waikiki

Warm perfumes like a breath from vine and tree
Drift down the darkness. Plangent, hidden from eyes
Somewhere an `eukaleli’ thrills and cries
And stabs with pain the night’s brown savagery.

It’s the Wukulele Festival this weekend and I’m going to be there (or at least wandering along the seafront near there). And so should you if you’ve got the chance. I mean, Bob Brozman is doing a set. By the by, I’m not sure where they got that quote from me from. closest I can recall is, “it’s the best uke festival line up this year.”

Hall of the Mountain King on Uker Tabs.

Knocked out by his own ukulele.

In the comments: We had an interesting discussion in the Tubular Bells thread. I should clarify: I think there’s a world of difference between ‘easy’ and ‘simple’. I think you should strive to play everything so it sounds as good as it can. And that’s even more difficult when you’re playing something simple.

But my favourite comment was one I couldn’t bring myself to publish: “I just love her. I mean you get a gorgeous girl + Orgasmic Voice + Sensual Ukelele = some ultimate musical God. I hope she reads this, I would pound her like yesterdays beef. Love Love”