Jens Lekman – La Strada Nel Bosco (mp3)
Jens Lekman – Tammy (mp3)
Jens Lekman – Run Away With Me (mp3) via jenslekman.com

The other day Jeff asked me about the Swedish uke scene and, after a brief period wondering if IKEA made ukuleles, I decided I had to feature Jens Lekman today.

The ukulele is big enough in Sweden to have a it’s own festival – which saw appearances by Lekman and James Hill – but Jens Lekman is Sweden’s biggest uke star by some distance. He has released two albums (When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog and Oh You’re So Silent Jens) which have launched him to indie darlingness. But it’s his E.P.s that are the real treat for uke fans. They are far more uke heavy than the albums and, better still, you can download a number of tracks for free from his website.

His latest album, Night Falls Over Kortedala, has already been released in Sweden. But those of us elsewhere on the globe will have to content ourselves with the jaunty lead-off single Friday Night at the Drive In Bingo (possibly inspired by his two day spell as a bingo caller after he ‘retired’ from making music) until the album gets a global release in early October.

I’m working on a couple of Swedish folk tunes for the uke so stay tuned if that’s your bag.

Download even more tracks from Secretly Canadian

Pre-order Night Falls Over Kortedala US UK

Every month on Ukulele Cosmos, a song is selected for all comers to interpret and post their version. This month it’s Daydream Believer. The chords on Alligator Boogaloo are, as always, passable rather than definitive. So I’ve taken it on myself to add a few bits and pieces.

Daydream Believer was written by John Stewart who was a member of the folk band The Kingston Trio (one of the inspirations behind the film A Mighty Wind). The song is a shameless Beatles rip-off; it has the same chord sequence in the verse as Here, There and Everywhere (released a year earlier).

The piano intro fits surprisingly well on the uke (thanks to the G note pivot).

You could even play the whole verse in a similar fashion. If you’re just sticking to the chords, using an Am9 chord in place of the Am7 in the Boogaloo version is very effective.

Another couple of bits you might want to include are the little guitar lick after “…never rings” (with a little added harmony):

And the trumpets before the chorus:

Buy The Monkees – Greatest Hits US UK

First off, be sure to check out the videos from the ukulele festival in Helsinki. Loads of excellent stuff. Second off, head over the fold for more. Read the rest of this entry »

The blog of Durham Ukulele Club has chords and mp3s for some classic tunes.

A Noob and his Uke: The ukulele world seen through the eyes of a newbie.

Lars Larsson’s themed guide to the best uke videos on YouTube. (The forum was having some decidedly NSFW spam problems earlier in the week so tread carefully).

Vote for the Giant Uke of Liverpool (not that Liverpool) as one of the 7 Wonders of Nova Scotia.

The Night of 100 Ukes performance of Ring of Fire at Bestival is available on Rob Da Bank’s album of the event.

The mp3 blogs are awash with tracks from the new Beirut album, The Flying Club Cup.

Transpose a chord progression a chord progression into the most suitable key for the ukulele using the Uke-ifier.

Listen to tunes from Bob Brozman’s lastest album on NPR. Each song was built up from an initial improvisation on a small instrument such as the ukulele or the charango.

Follow the Adventures of Bad Jenny the uke-playing pipe-cleaner doll as she drinks, poops and plays uke in the fridge. Update: Learn Bad Jenny’s fellatio tips.

What he has to put up with at the office.

Kick out the jams Mother Hubbard: The class of Room 4 have some sound advice on dealing with teachers.

British Pathe made 3,500 hours worth of newsreels and ‘cinemagazines’ and have made their achieve available for download – free for low quality clips. They have everything from huge historical events to oddities and have a grand total of 29 ukulele clips. Here’s a round up of what you can grab.

Harry and Max Nesbitt

A pair of South African brothers who made it big in the British Music Hall (or made it medium at least). Max and Harry have six clips videos on the site. The above clip is a tour de force of acrobatic ukulele from Max – just skip past the ‘comedy’ at the beginning, it hasn’t aged well. The clip of them performing My Baby’s Got Red Hair and Freckles has also turned up on YouTube and features some nice strumming and a disturbing impersonation of a crying baby.

The Motley and Melody clip contains an extraordinary, and offensive by today’s standards, blacked up performance Zulu-land song.

The video of Georgia Got A Moon is from 1939 (the other Nesbitt clips are from 1930 and 1931). Max and Harry are noticeably older and the acrobatics of earlier clips are gone.

Max and Harry also crop up in What The Public Wants vol 4 (with a selection of uke backed songs) and the Radio Parade Reel 5 video but aren’t the one’s playing the uke. Stanelli and Edgar do an impression of a ukulele on the violin and the Houston sisters give us some banjo-uke before breaking out the ventriloquism.

Donald Peers

Donald Peers was a Welsh crooner who came to prominence in the post-war years and somehow manage to remain hugely popular during the 50’s rock and roll invasion (read this extensive Donald Peers bio). In a pre-feminism clip which has made its way onto YouTube, he lounges in a deckchair and ukes away while the womenfolk toil.

Felix Mendelssohn and his Hawaiian Serenaders

Felix Mendelssohn had a straight ahead, British band until the late thirties when he fell in love with Hawaiian music. He recruited Hawaiian musicians and dancers and started the Serenaders. He is not to be confused with the German composer of the same name (as the British Film Institute have done). The clips on British Pathe feature ukes and girls in grass skirts.

Geddes Bros.

The Geddes Brothers (Tom and Jock) put on a baffling musical performance. A typical pairing of dour one and one with ADHD. Their antics don’t come off as natural as those of the Nesbitts but it’s still fun to watch.

Motorcycle Band

A silent clip of a uke, a banjo-uke and a violin being played whilst riding motorcycles. The most dangerous trick sees a plank of wood balanced on the bike with a uke player at one end and a violinist at the other. Anything to get as far away as possible from that dreadful screeching noise.

Going Gay

“Let’s go gay!” A clip of a gay cruise in Sydney. A huge dixieland band consisting mainly of ukes cram onto the deck.

“I’m not sure how to end the song.”
“Stop playing. If you keep playing, for some reason, people think the song is still going.”

You reach the end of a song and what do you do? You could just stop. The outro is a great opportunity for a bit of musical invention, as a way to build to a climax or have a little joke to leave them smiling and offset any chin-scratching muso posturing that may have gone on before.

Here are a few familiar codas that you build on or use as they are. All these are in the key of A so transpose as required.

1. The ‘Woke Up This Morning’

Blues midi

This is a very common blues ending. You play this inside-out, upside-down and bass-akward. You can play the strings in any order, you can play them all at the same time, you can let the A string ring open.

2. The ‘Goodnight Cleveland’

Rockabilly midi

Give it the bit rock and fire, explosions and fireworks ending. The notes you play aren’t as important as how fast you play them and how orgasmic you make your face look.

3. The ‘Where Nobody Sucks (Except for Flanders)

midi

As used by Homer Simpson in the I’m Talking Springfield episode (you can download the mp3 on Simpson Crazy). Previously know as The ‘And Many More’ (at the end of the Happy Birthday song). I used this one to end my tab of Baby Elephant Walk.

4. The ‘Whoops, Have a Banana’

Banana midi

A very old-school, fun and instantly recognisable ending. As featured in the tab for I Wanna Banana. The little lick contains the same notes each time but is played it a different position the second time to give it a slight ‘call and response’ feel.

5. The ‘Turned Out Nice Again’

Chord midi

A common chord progression to end a song or to use as a turnaround during a song.

You can even mix and match endings. Play the first bar of the ‘Woke Up This Morning’ then dive into the ‘And Many More’. All of them can be played around with and given your own twist.

The standout track on The Flying Club Cup as far as I’m concerned – although I am completely biased in any matter that involves ukuleles – is the uke lead tune The Penalty.

The first thing to notice in the chords for the song is that there are three different inversions of the C chord in there. The Penalty starts off with a shortened bar of the usual open C shape. Then the three strings remain open while the A string is played at the seventh fret. I’ve called it e/C as the highest note is the E. Finally, there’s another C chord – I’ve called it C(alt) which acts a passing chord between the Em and the F (it is only played for a short time and is, therefore, in square brackets). There’s is also a short Fadd9 chord which is made simply by taking your finger off the G string and letting it run open. This chord is only played for a short time also and is used to create a little harmonic interest in the long F bars.

There’s only one other set of chords in the tune: a simple F C F G. Then you are good to go.

More Beirut tab and chords for ukulele

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Beirut’s debut album Gulag Orkestar and single Elephant Gun established Zach Condon as one of the biggest stars of alternative, indie ukulele. On his new album, The Flying Club Cup, he delivers only two new uke heavy songs – The Penalty and St. Apollonia – but both are instant classics.

The new album suggests that Beirut’s music is making a steady drift westwards and forwards in time: from Beirut, to traditional Balkan music, to early twentieth century French. Flying Club Cup is packed with accordion waltzes, chanson strings and French song titles. The concept behind the album is that of a balloon race with each song representing a flying over a different French city. The concept, fittingly enough, doesn’t weigh the album down but gives it continuity and an atmosphere.

The sound of the album is noticeably larger and more cleanly produced than Gulag. Whereas Gulag Orchestar was recorded in Condon’s bedroom, Flying Club Cup was recorded in the Arcade Fire’s church come studio. Whereas Condon recorded Gulag Orchestar alone, Flying Club Cup features the eight regular touring members and string arrangements by Owen Pallet (Mr Final Fantasy). The album is very much in keeping with the move towards grandeur and intricacy in indie music at the moment.

There are two things that haven’t changed: Condon’s acquired taste of a voice and the risk that at any moment the whole thing could crash over into pretentious, student-railcard music. But the songs are strong and regular moments of absolutely gorgeous sound (the opening of Forks and Knives, The Penalty and Cliquot) that you are quickly distracted from the possibility.

Overall, eight thumbs up.

At the current rate of geographical and chronological trajectory, I estimate that the next album will be based on 1940s England. So the next Beirut album is like to have an Arthur Askey vibe to it. Can’t wait.

Buy The Flying Club Cup US UK

Tab and chords for The Penalty, St Apollonia and more Beirut.

The King Blues – Mr Music Man Demo (mp3) via KingBlues.com

This ukulele kills fascits.

In a world where popstars fly halfway around the world in their private jets to tell us not to leave our TVs on standby, you’d be forgiven for dismissing any musician with political pretentions. The King Blues are a polemical, left-wing, ska-punk band who have been mainstays of the London squatter scene. They have three advantages over these acts: they seem to practice what they preach; they have songs called Fuck You Bono and Fuck Bob Geldof; they have a ukulele.

Their political credentials are boosted by the support of, left wing activist and writer of Pirates of the Caribbean, Tariq Ali. According to Ali, The King Blues make, “rough, radical music that should unsettle the rulers of this country.” I’m not sure exactly how much weight Gordon Brown places on the opinions of the UK’s ska-punk squatter scene when setting policy, but I did hear he consulted with Ramraid the Offy on the decoupling of payments under the Common Agricultural Policy.

Buy Under the Fog (if you can stand to do something so capitalist)

I’m quite ashamed to be mentioning Britney Spears for the second time on this blog, but the quality of this ukulele version of Toxic didn’t really leave me with much choice. She does a great job of cramming all the essential parts onto the uke.

The most challenging part of the song is the riff that kicks the song off. It starts off with a string of hammer-ons and pull-offs. The Fluke she uses is louder and has more sustain than many ukes. If you’re using a soprano you’ll have to work a little harder to get all the notes to sound clearly. The second bar of the riff she plays all on one string. If, like me, you’re so lazy you don’t like moving your hand unless it’s completely necessary, you could the second bar like this:

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