Part two of the UkeToob includes me giving the Uke Hunt kiss of death to four Shake Your Soul entries, Bess Rogers (who managed to drag herself away from the Boobie Bungalow for one night to join April Smith) and a couple of tributes to The Ramones. There’s also a version of First Day of My Life I picked up thanks to Donnie’s UkeTube replacement service. I have a number of instant rejections for consideration. And one of them is covering a blatantly obvious tune (which includes anything done by The Beatles, Jake or Julia Nunes). Which saves a huge amount of time but does mean I miss the occasional gem like this one. Read the rest of this entry »
During the three week break there are too many videos for just one post. So I’ve split them into two parts and here’s the first.
The curiosity of the week is a track from Steeleye Span with ukulele contributions from Peter Sellers (you can see a picture of them all here). Also in this post are Bliss Blood, Victoria Vox and some incredibly adorable kittens. Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t remember seeing a baritone pineapple ukulele before. And I definitely haven’t seen a 5 string baritone pineapple ukulele with the fifth tuning peg being bang in the middle of the headstock. Kamaka, being the originators of the pineapple, are keeping it more old school with the HP-1 soprano pineapple. Classiest of all is this Mike DaSilva pineapple.
These Aloha ‘Oe tube amps look fabulous. Ideal for a uker. But they do have a hefty price tag of $1,500 (mostly, I would guess, to cover the cost of bikini models). However, they do make an interesting proposition: “If you use the amp in a short video and post it on YouTube we’ll refund your Paypal account $300.” Seems like a great way to spread the word about your product – and I would expect a lot of ukulele companies would get plenty of takers for much less than a $300 refund.
Wallet busting uke of the week: Ludwig Crown banjo ukulele only £4,500 (or about $7,500 in funny money). But if I could choose any uke around, I’d go with this Kahiko ‘Concert Flyer’. Check out the koa on that one.
As if Kala’s slimline ukulele wasn’t gimmicky enough already, they’ve now put a compass in the headstock.
Mahalo are synonymous with cheap, basher ukuleles, so it’s always disconcerting when they come out with something posher like the solid cedar ULTD3.
Ibanez are the latest guitar company to jump on the bandwagon with their range of ukuleles.
Mel Bay have a new dedicated uke site which includes a chance to win a Kala travel ukulele.
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at the Proms (it may or may not be available where you are).
The film industry seems to have been overtaken by ukuleles recently. James Franco serenaded Julia Roberts with Jen Kwok’s ukulele. She’s also going to be ukeing in the film. And Zac Efron plays uke in his next film as well. Whilst Russell Brand ukes in his skivvies (thanks to Heather for that one). But they can’t do it like the old-school stars: Buster Keaton and Ukulele Ike duet on one uke.
Humble Baritonics is a new blog from Jeff searching out baritone ukulele tabs online.
One to avoid: PlayAUke. Yeah, it’s for charity. But charging for this is just ridiculous. Chapter one is six lines of writing and 3 Julia Nunes videos. And it doesn’t get any better.
The Observer chats to the UOGB and Tricity Vogue.
MP3s: Oh World has a track from The Hazzards (formerly the Ukes of Hazzard), ZME Music has tada tata.
On Flickr: Jukebox-ulele, The Secret Life of Toys
10 ukulele clubs and club nights in London.
The Beatle Fest’s largest ukulele ensemble record attempt gathered 97 people. So I’m still a World Record holder.
Impress your boho boyfriend with a ukulele (via ps i love uke).
If anyone knows or is a ukulele player/teacher in the Woodstock/Kingston area, can you shoot me an email.
Yes, I’m supposed to be on holiday. But I took some time out from the Pig-in-a-Poke intinerary of slapping Germans, flirting with French girls and performing 80s dress-up montages to pass on some important news. And the news involes Dr John (I don’t just throw these things together).
Killian Mansfield has just released his album Somewhere Else.
For the few of you who don’t memorize everything I write, Killian is a 15 year old uker who is currently battling cancer and has recorded an album featuring the likes of Dr John, John Sebastian and Kate Pierson (off of The B-52s) to benefit the children’s cancer charity Hope and Heroes.
You can pick up the CD on Amazon and listen and download on iTunes. And the tracks you really must grab are: Express Yourself, Scratch My Back (with Dr John), Kiss and Fire in My Pocket (with Levon Helm).
Must be off. Eric Idle won’t run himself over. Toodles.
Time for a bit of a blog-break. No more posts until 21st August.
No complaining unless you’ve mastered all of these:
How to Play Ukulele Strums
The pentatonic scale
How to Play Blues Ukulele
Naked As We Came
Neal Paisley’s Gossip
Sweet Child o’ Mine
Everything on Ukulele Dav
You can keep up to date with the latest uke news on Ukulelia and the latest uke videos on UkeToob.
Love ya, bye!
Last in the series of Not Guitar Riffs for Ukulele and it’s a corker. I’m not sure it works on ukulele quite as well as some of the others. But still. Hot stuff.
If you’re feeling adventurous. You could do a prebend on the E string at the third fret and release it for the first two notes of the last bar.
Looks like Hollywood has rediscovered the uke. Appearances this week from Kate Micucci and William H Macy (plugging their new film Bart Got A Room) and Adrian Grenier and Ari Gold come over all Pub Landlord (I know Iain’s going to love that link) with Amanda Palmer.
Also this week: I give Sebi the kiss of death by declaring him the obvious winner of the Go 90s contest (if you like his style, he’s done a post on how he does the fancy multiscreen video thing), The Waifs with – invisible as always – Josh Cunningham doing great work on the uke, Ken Middleton singing a song I have to stop before the end because the last line cuts me up too much, The Pyles is officially world’s sexiest uker and more videos than I usually let myself include. Read the rest of this entry »
A couple of Tahitian ukuleles up this week. The most impressive is this one carved into the shape of a bird. There’s also this soprano Tahitian ukulele – which you don’t see very often.
The Stagg Electric ukuleles I mentioned a while back are up for sale. Intended as Strat and Les Paul copies. They don’t quite pull it off.
The recession must really be hitting the uke collectors. Every week there seem to be more Martin ukuleles for sale. This Martin 2K obviously isn’t from a collector, but it’s very nice.
Two great photos I wish I knew the story behind:
– “Can you guide me in?” “Sure I’ll just put down my uke.”
– I don’t know what those girls are doing to that poor guy, but I want to hang out with them anyway.
It was only a matter of time: Obama ukulele dashboard figurine.
Rogaine: Makes dogs hump your leg.
The LA Times discusses the ukulele revival. But I’m not sure how Hester and Kitty would react to the UOGB being described as, “eight men in tuxedos.”
A video of an entire James Hill performance.
You can now get UkeFarm’s chord sheets on your iPhone.
J-Hob covers ukulele acts at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.
Argyle Smile’s Every Song on Uker Tabs.
I think this is the best repurposing of a ukulele I’ve seen. And she has some magnificent trophy fruit (which sounds like innuendo but isn’t).
Daily Growl has a couple of MP3s from The Second Hand Marching Band.
