Saturday UkeTube
September 26, 2009
Before we get down to business, two bits of news.
1) Jimmy from The Bobby McGee’s has recorded a jingle for the blog and here it is:
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Just don’t visit www.ukehunt.com.
2) If you visited the London Uke Fest and enjoyed it, vote for it in the UK Festival Awards.
This week’s videos include L’Uke and GUGUG trying desperately not to smile, Pilar Diaz, Susie Asado, a rollocking version of the Benny Hill Theme on a Tahitian ukulele and plenty more. [Read more]
Ode to Joy, Made In Hawaii: Friday Links
June 12, 2009
The UOGB provide a tutorial for playing Ode to Joy. Which you can play along with them at the Proms. They were plugging it on Radio 4’s Today (listen again here – starts about 1:41) along with Kathy Clugston.
Details of the John Kavanagh Memorial Concert.
Pam finds out what ‘‘Made in Hawaii’ really means. And the post is followed up by an article in the Hololulu Star Bulletin.
Uni visits Auckland where, according to the anchor, she’s a famous as the Rolling Stones.
For those of you who weren’t so keen on Madame Pamita’s lo-fi approach to recording, she has now rerecorded some songs in dazzling mono.
The Lille ukulele club COULE has a new website complete with uke-news blog in French and English and some funky illustrations.
Jeff always has the best ukulele photos on his blog and this one is an absolute gem.
Everyone is voting delete on this Flikr photo – it has to be saved (via Ukulelia).
Another – more challenging – ukulele quiz (via Seeso). 16/20 for me. But I dispute question 16 (and 18).
Daily Growl has an MP3 of Fanfarlo’s The Walls are Coming Down.
I mentioned the other day that I couldn’t be sure Frank Sidebottom played the uke. I can now be sure.
Friday Links: Madame Pamita, Uketopia
April 24, 2009
The response to the Slide Ukulele ebook has been great – far better than I was expecting. So it’s going on permanent sale at the new price of $7.
Pick up Madame Pamita’s new album Wax Works on a ‘pay what you like’ basis. It’s an excellent album. All recorded on wax cylinders without using electricity. Essential tracks: Do Whatever You Please, Madame Pamita’s Theme Song, Malaria. And she’s touring the UK in May.
The Ukulele Shop is no more. And Ukulele Ireland is spreading the rumour that the Duke of Uke is heading the same way.
In more sad news, Chicago’s Windy City Uke Fest won’t be going ahead this year. But it’ll be back for 2010.
And yet more sad news: Tab-U-Learn has shut its doors.
Ken Middleton’s new site including his tabs.
Uketopia is an excellent new(ish) ukulele podcast with songs, instrument reviews, interviews and various uke chatter. And there’s also the Stretchlinks Podcast from “America’s haymakers of jocularity.”
How to get sopranino tuning on your soprano ukulele.
Make your own ukulele chord sheets with the help of Kiwi Ukulele
The Baby McGee’s are the cutest thing ever. And the full size version are releasing a 7″ single ahead of their new album in June.
Jack Kirby style ukulele by Ben Towle.
On Flickr: Another ukulele playing monkey, ukulele lamps, Mon ukulele enfin fini
Monday Exposure: Madame Pamita
July 7, 2008
Competition update: The ‘Review Your Ukulele’ contest is now closed. There have been loads of great entries. I’ll be looking over all of them and will announce the result on Friday (probably – it’ll be a tough decision). Everyone who entered should have their Rick tab. If you didn’t get it something must have got lost along the way, send me your entry again and I’ll get it to you.
Madame Pamita – Love Is Good (mp3)
Madame Pamita – Pink Pocketbook (mp3) via Madame Pamita’s Parlor of Wonders
After last week’s post Madame Pamita got back to me with the answers. And it was worth the eleven month wait.
What was your first musical instrument and what made you pick it up?
my first musical instrument was imaginary tambourine in my backyard playing “band” with my neighborhood friends. we also did a lot of lip synching to my mother’s broadway show soundtrack records – “South Pacific” “The Music Man” “The Sound of Music” – we would set up a “curtain” across the clothes line, put on the record and perform an entire two and a half hour musical in 12 minutes. the ultimate broadway experience for those with short attention spans. Very
groundbreaking theatre. we were very avant garde. we had an all-girl cast of 2nd and 3rd graders playing the jets and the sharks in “west side story.” a bold choice, i know, but that’s because there were only girls in my neighborhood.
How did you go from surf music and Cheap Trick to old-time music and spiritualism?
there really is a secret link between all of them. I can see it clearly. anyone who sends me an email naming the mysterious common denominator will get a free CD from me. it might not be a cd of me, but it will be free.
I just got an email from a friend saying, “you’re always reinventing yourself” and I told him, no it’s not that I reinvent myself, it’s that I have M.A.D.D. (musical attention deficit disorder). I am like a very poorly trained dog who chases after a squirrel and then barks at a mailman and then starts running after a passing car. clearly my piano teacher didn’t rap my fingers hard enough with that ruler.
What goes on at a Parlor of Wonders show?
it is a madcap adventure into mysticism and mayhem and not unlike a 12 minute backyard version of “cabaret”. willkommen! bienvenue! I have a set of very large tarot cards. each card has a fortune (of course) and also a song attached to it. audience members come up, and pick a card, get a fortune and then i’ll sing the song that goes along with that card. the audience is, in essence, choosing the set list for the night. it’s always a different show. always unpredictable. the people who come up are often exceptionally drunk, which makes it even more entertaining.
How did you manage to build up such a collection of strange instruments?
by being the worst person ever at saving money. my latest favorite is my marxophone. it’s the people’s instrument, you know.
On a related note, have you ever managed to get a good tune out of your ukelin?
no, but i enjoy the bad tunes very much. it’s the best $15 bucks i ever spent. i bring it out at parties and become one of those insufferable people who forces partygoers to play it and then listen to the legend of the ukelin. do you know the story? they were sold door to door. the price on the inside of the ukelin says “$35″ (which was a huge amount of money in the 1920s) but the sales man would sell it to you for “wholesale cost” which was $17.50, IF you would become a ukelin distributor yourself. If you sold 6 at full price, you would even get your $17.50 refunded. My ukelin came with all the original paperwork for the whole dastardly pyramid scheme transaction. See? now you know what it’s like to go to one of my parties. but you get to hear the ukelin legend from thousands of miles away! that’s the magic of the internet!
How did the idea for The Very Special come about?
My friend sid who invented the swirlygig and i were holed up in a cabin in the woods of wisconsin for a week. we were playing this and that and then we wrote the swirlygig jingle. and then we decided that more things needed jingles. things that we love that don’t get the credit that they deserve such as “foam fingers” and “slotted spoons” and “bobby pins”. have you heard any good bobby pin jingles lately? no, i thought not. now you can see the genius behind that. of course, being jingle writers, we’re not musical snobs who write only because we are “inspired,” so if you have something you want a jingle for, just send us the pertinent information and we’ll write a jingle for you for $1 a word. that’s a total bargain. jingles are short. the shortest one we wrote was a $4 jingle!
What have you written jingles for so far?
we are so prolific, we don’t keep track. well, sid does. she’s the organized twin. we are constantly writing jingles. the latest best one was for bituminous asphalt. our favorite one goes “flag foods – we’ll wave when you come in” – it doesn’t get better than that in the jingle biz. not for $8, it doesn’t.
I was reading your about page on the Dime Box Band site and it said you couldn’t live without ‘vintage jewelry, un-picked-over thriftshops and used bookstores’ and it struck me that there’s a similar vintage/used theme in a lot of the music you’ve made. What is it that appeals to you?
that bio had some very interesting repercussions. there was a time that i was dating around and i had a whole string of dates with different guys and they would take me to thrift stores. i thought, “wow! i’m meeting a lot of guys who are into thrift shopping.” but it turns out there was a question on there that said “what is your dream date” and i had just randomly put down something about thrift shopping. they had been scoping out my band website beforehand and
then planning our first date around that. now, of course, i’ve changed the answer to that question to “driving the getaway car at a bank robbery”
and i didn’t answer your question at all, did i?
I have to ask this one. What do you see in my future?
I pulled three cards for you
the seven of swords, the ace of wands and the moon card.
you are starting a new activity that you are very passionate about – new songs? a new project? but you’re very excited about it. the main thing to do though is to keep your thoughts about it based in realism, it will be easy to get “pie-in-the-sky” about something this new that you’re this excited about. dream big but also keep one foot on the terra firma of practicality. the best news of all though is that this project will involve doing something that is a little crafty – not illegal, but just a little rascally – and that you will get away with it!
Madame Pamita will be recording a new CD in August and touring after that. You can keep up to date with all the news on her website.
Madame Pamita and Entertainment for the Braindead
June 30, 2008
Quick reminder: You’ve got until midnight on Sunday to review your ukulele and win a Kala pineapple.
Here’s how it goes sometimes: I hear some ukulele music I really like, I ask the person if they mind answering a few questions, they say ‘go ahead’, I send them some questions, they realise the questions are idiotic and offensive and I never hear from them again. I can’t offer much in the way of facts with these two, but you should definitely check out the music.
Madame Pamita
Madame Pamita – Pink Pocketbook (MP3)
Madame Pamita – Love Is Good (MP3)
Madame Pamita – No Bad News (MP3) via her website
Pamela Moore is not short of bands or genres. Her musical credits include surf guitar with The Neputas, ole time country with The Dime Box Band, punk with the Birdinumnums and all-girl Cheap Trick covers with Cheap Chick. She also has two ukulele featuring acts: The Very Special (jingles for things that should have jingles but have been overlooked by the advertising industry) and Madame Pamita (a perfect mix of ukuleles and spiritualism). Almost as entertaining as her music is her Flickr account with old time gentleman musicians and old time lady musicians
Entertainment for the Braindead
Entertainment for the Braindead’s Hypersomnia is a quite brilliant album of drowsy, spaced out, acoustic songs. You can download it all for free here and buy the CD here.
Standout ukulele tracks: Sleep, Winter
Standout non-uke tracks: Ordinary Sunday, Home
