Slow Jam Daft Punk - Digital Love cover

Here's the Original of Daft Punk - Digital Love.

The Corktown Ukettes are playing at a wedding in July. The couple likes Daft Punk so tonight I put this together to see if it would work. If Alexis is singing this, with Katie and I doing harmony, and if I get to do some noodling this'll be cool. It's an imperfect Garage Band exercise - there's a part where I totally bungle it up, but hopefully you can see it's promise.

Digital Love - Daft Punk by iloveuke

Trains across the Sea - Silver Jews Cover

I love this song. It reminds me university. I play it on the baritone and wish my voice was low.

Pavement, The Silver Jews, Jesus and Mary Chain. Man I wish I still had that mixed tape...


Trains across the sea - The Silver Jews by iloveuke

Bad Romance Lady Gaga

I quite like Lady Gaga - she's a bit over the top, but under all of the costume and makeup is a really good musician. I read somewhere that she went to highschool with Paris Hilton, then about a month ago, I saw a YouTube video where Paris Hilton was interviewing her. Watching it makes me a bit sickatated. There's something weird and junior high-y about it that makes me think 'Oh Stefani Germanotta, you don't have to say that shit.'

Bad Romance - Lady Gaga by iloveuke

Separate Ways

I remember this video was one of the first. Go YouTube it. It's such crazy cheese that iMovie could blow away...

It's still a good song if you take out the synth and the tight jeans...

When I was looking up this song a few months ago I stumbled upon the whole Arnel Pineda story. It was heartwarming, but at the same time I feel it pretty sad the after his hip injuries in 1998, Steve Perry never quite recovered.

Separate Ways - Journey Cover by iloveuke

Hit Me Baby One More Time - Britney Spears Cover

When I sing this one I think of her as a teen pining for that pipsqueak Justin Timberlake.

It's a bit of a sad song really. The original masks its sadness with a funky beat. Travis re-did it, and it was better but I had the feeling he was taking the piss out of it.

To me this song is about a confusing time for the protagonist who had no clue that they guy was going to break up with her is pretty desperate for whatever scraps he sends her way, even if it is to be hit up one more time.


Hit Me Baby One More Time - Britney Spears Cover by iloveuke

Shell Shock - New Order cover by iloveuke

Let's go back to 1986, Pretty in Pink Soundtrack.


I went to see the McFlies the other night. They're a fun band to watch. As a friend put it last night, "you feel like you're at a school dance", as for many of us, the song selection takes on back to those days of slouching and braces; I kept looking around to see if anyone was going to ask me to dance... When no one did, I decided I would dance alone. There are always circles of girls dancing at the front of a show so I made some friends.

Oddly, back in high school, I didn't like pop very much. I liked the Smiths, Depeche Mode, Sinead O'Connor and I was dismissive of pop. Now as an adult, I play a lot of pop, likely because they offer nice, easy, and predictable 3-chord progressions to me on the ukulele (go Google that to find out more). Not that some of the alternative music doesn't have the I IV and V pattern, it just seemed that the songs were injected with better lyrics for a thinky/feely teenager like I was. If there were song of disappointment, dissatisfaction, I was all about that stuff to soothe me through my most awkward years.

Here's one that came on while I was waiting in the coat check line. I didn't think I had heard in about 10-15 years. There are only 2 chords in this song. When I got to the coat check, they couldn't find my coat, and then I yelled at a big bald Russian man named Rubin to find my coat. After about 5 long chaotic minutes of yelling at Rubin, and looking through the coat check myself, I found my coat. Good thing, because my car keys were inside of the pocket! Be careful of your coat at the Samovar room is the moral of this aside...Sorry I yelled at you Rubin, but you have to get your coat check people to get their act together.

Shell Shock - New Order cover by iloveuke

For Shell Shock, I only play two chords here because that's all I think it needs. In Garage Band I treated the track with a Flanger effect to bring it back to the 80s

Just remember...It's never enough until your heart stops beating, the deeper you get the sweeter the pain.

AJL

Hawaii-Five-O / I'll Melt With You / Jailhouse Rock

At themes night at the Corktown Ukulele Jam I brought these 3 out because I couldn't decide what I wanted to play. It was a stretch to mash these up but they have a common chord so here they are.

Hawaii-Five-O / I'll Melt With you / Jailhouse Rock by iloveuke

House of the Rising Sun / Amazing Grace

This is a song that Adam taught me when we were in the hostel band together that included Grace. Our band was called BigAss. Some of my fondest memories were jamming and recording tracks by cassette. Back in the day, I played guitar, but it was the seed that sprouted my love for socializing with music. If I knew to play it then, it would've been on every song of ours. Sometime I'll still sing some of the tunes that Adam and Grace wrote with my uke. Such good songs...Anyway, we used to sing this song when we were in BigAss.

As the story goes, Adam saw it performed on a Jerry Lewis telethon. There was a lady that didn't like the lyrics to the House of the Rising Sun, and so she sang Amazing Grace to the tune of the House of the Rising Sun.

I'm going to take it a step further, mashing up the two songs lyrics. The result is a story of a girl who goes down to New Orleans who has found religion and you get the sense that she's going to do something drastic.

House of the Rising Sun / Amazing Grace by iloveuke

Here She Comes Now - Slowdive

I saw The Magnetic Fields last night. I love the slow melancholy...

In keeping in the Shoegazer theme, here's a Slowdive song. Before a few members dropped out and they became Mojave 3, Slowdive was perfect slow melancholy.

Here's one that I recorded about a month ago. I put a bit of echo on it just to make it seem more isolated. I have a tendency to rush things so it ends a bit faster than it starts.

Here she comes now by iloveuke

Aquatic Pingpong by iloveuke

After a long absence of using it, I got my M-Audio Ozone keyboard hooked up to my Mac and started playing around with the layers and Garage Band. This track uses the wah knob on the keyboard for the whole notes, but all other layers are from my Mahalo 'Les Paul' Style ukulele that comes with a pickup. The uke was fed in through the M-Audio mic and mixed with Garage Band effects. The result is an original song which is more dreamy...

Aquatic Pingpong  by  iloveuke

Sweet child o mine 2 by iloveuke

Everyone who knows me knows that this is probably my favorite song to sing on the uke. Here I am joined by Alexis and Katie. The three of us make up the Corktown Ukettes. Listening to it, I can hear the parts I am flat but heck, you want perfection from one take?

Sweet child o mine 2  by  iloveuke

Why I play the ukulele

I'm starting this blog because I play the uke almost every day. It's the right tool for me to express and interpret music. 

• It's portable. 
• If I fall asleep with it in my bed it doesn't hog the bed unlike some dogs and people I know.
• It can be played while sitting at a stoplight.
• It's easy to play, some chords use a single finger on a single fret. 
• It's forgiving, you don't have to be awesome at it. 
• The notes float high. It can sound plucky, bright, or whimsical sad.
• It makes me friends
• You can still rock out.

I played the guitar for years, but it's just not as satisfying as the ukulele. The guitar demands a perfection that my small hands could never reach and a seriousness that I never wanted to wear. I took the piano as a kid, and the cello in junior high. I'm also learning the accordion. Some of these instruments may appear. I've also been fooling around with garageband so we'll see what comes of that. 

This blog is about me and my ukes, and what the world is like in my head and the music I hear. I like to play, but I am not a "Know everything about the uke person". There is a geekiness to it that I will leave to other bloggers for music theory, collectors items, tablature. I am a child of the 80s and 90s so you'll likely see a lot of songs shared in that era here. I am challenging myself to put up at least one MP3 per week. Some will be better than others so be gentle with me. 

A.