Friday, October 29, 2010
Rock 'n' Roll Ghoul
Happy Halloween, y'all.
Ashville, NC's resident ukulele goddess Ami Worthen was kind enough to send us a copy of Mad Tea Party's latest 7" vinyl and second Halloween-y tune, Rock 'n' Roll Ghoul. (It's a follow-up to last year's fab Zombie Boogie.) You can buy your copy here. The $10 price includes a digital download (so you can have it today for your party this weekend!).
"The EP offers up 4 spooky selections for your rockin’ Halloween party. “Possessed,” a 60s-tinged psychedelic number, features Worthen’s wicked vocals and a demonic guitar solo from Mr. Cartwright. The furious screamer “Rock ‘n’ Roll Ghoul” expounds upon the theme of flesh-eating music critics while drivin’ rocker “Dr. Phibes” is an ode to the popular Vincent Price villain. The duo close with the Hollywood Flames’ song “Frankenstein’s Den” with Cartwright on drum kit and Caroline Pond (Snake Oil Medicine Show) joining Worthen on doo-wop vocals."Here's an interview with Amy and Jason: Link
And here's the video of the title track.
Poke around the Mad Tea Party site. Lots of ghoul, er, cool stuff to check out.Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
The 'Strange Powers' of the Magnetic Fields
"I just like the ukulele for its lack of rock associations. And I love the fact that you can bring it on a plane."
Here's an interview with John Hockenberry. Link
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
A Slightly Different Jake Interview
Jake Shimabukuro - Star Spangled Banner
Friday, October 22, 2010
Cyndi Lauper, Uker?
"'I found a really sick ukulele in a novelty shop with a metal top,' she says, in her almost comically caustic Bronx-Sicilian drawl. 'I tuned it to a chord and played it with a knife like the old guys did. I'm not fantastic – but I'm not fantastic at anything, except singing. And I don't really give a damn. I just love doing it. It's like the trombone. I make the dog jump when I play that.'"Played it with a knife? Link
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Over the Rainbow on Bari
Want to be the hero to millions of baritone uke players? Tab this one out for us. As Lightnin' Wells sez, "Have a nice day, everyone."
Monday, October 18, 2010
Kala Clip On Tuner
There is something wonderfully satisfying about seeing the tuner screen turn green when you're in tune. I regret not having gotten one sooner. Monkey simple to use, and works for both C- and D-tuning. Highly recommended! Link
Mistletoe Mazel Tov!
It's Mistletoe Mazel Tov, a new CD of ukulele holiday favorites from Ukulelia pal, Gerald Ross.
Gerald calls this a "collection of holiday instrumental classics arranged for ukulele and steel guitar." He was kind enough to send us a reviewer's copy and we've been rockin' around the Christmas tree here for several days. My favorite so far is his arrangement of the achingly bittersweet Christmas Time is Here from "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
You can order the CD from Gerald's site for only $18.95 and he'll also send you any disk in the Gerald Ross Catalog as a bonus - free of charge. (If you don't have Ukulele Stomp -- and you should -- now's your chance.) Plus free shipping anywhere in the USA. Such a deal!
But wait, there's more. At our humble, but brilliant suggestion, Gerald has posted the chords for his arrangement of Go Tell it on the Mountain online here.
Here's the link to Gerald's online store. Get your copy today and give it a sov.
Uke'chaim!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Bad Company Feels Like Makin' Uke
UPDATE: Woodshed located a video. Looks like it was an Ovation mandolin. Woodshed = Killjoy. (Kidding. Thanks, Al.)
The Daily Ukulele
Here's a nice profile on the First Family of Ukuleledom and the new book. Link
Train Edges Ingrid Michaelson Out of Our Brains
Ingrid Michaelson has been known, at least for the past few years, as pop music’s primary ukulele practitioner.Link
But, she laments, the group Train’s recent hit “Hey, Soul Sister” has quietly co-opted her status.
“Yeah, I heard that song and I was like, ‘Oh well, there goes that,’” Michaelson, 30, says with a laugh. “What I did is ... now stamped on that song forever, that very, very catchy song that will never go out of our brains.”
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Danny Ferrington Uke Update
Turns out that Leslie commissioned Danny to make one of his gourd ukes for her husband (lucky man, he). She blogged about it today, and her post includes more info and photos of their construction.
Danny Ferrington is scheduled to appear on The Today Show on Tuesday, October 19th (we presume to showcase his ukes). If so, we'll try and post a clip. We're anxious to hear how they sound.
And just to be clear, we believe that a luthier has a right to obtain whatever price they can for their work. By all accounts, Danny is an amazing luthier. (Our beef was primarily with Needless Markup's hack copywriting job.) But I do hope in this case that Danny gets the lion's share of the $6,000 price tag. Link
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Eugene Uketoberfest 2010
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Blue Valentine
Ryan Gosling serenades Michelle Williams with You Always Hurt the One You Love on uke while she tap dances in the Sundance favorite Blue Valentine.
Link
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Ukulele Thai
News of the Jake World
Jake Shimabukuro will release a new CD in January, 2011. "Peace Love Ukulele" will feature Jake's original songs 143 (the numeric pager code for "I love you") and his tribute to World War II veterans, Go For Broke. The album's only two solo ukulele arrangements are Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Here is Jake performing the latter in a clip from a upcoming documentary film scheduled for release sometime in 2011. Link
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Danny Ferrington Neiman Marcus Ukulele
But mainly this uke is $6,000 because it's in Needless Markup's Christmas Catalog.
The accompanying catalog blub sez that Ferrington "purposefully stays low-tech (no computers or Internet)". Apparently, so does Neiman Marcus's copywriter, who blithely asserts that the ukulele was "created in the Hawaiian islands by Micronesian immigrants in the 1870s".
Maybe "Madeiran" isn't in his/er spellcheck. Or maybe fact-checking is just so...déclassé. Link