Hey ‘Spillers! Here’s a wee photo of the fun I had once I took up the ukelele! Just kidding, that’s obviously Elvis (I’m on the right, in the blue cossie). Some of you may know that I have ditched a lifetime’s worth of pain via guitar for something simpler, more fun, the people’s instrument, if you will. I’ve had my uke for a few weeks now, and it’s so jolly that I don’t get shouted at any more, like I did whenever I picked up my guitar. We’ve even had singalongs in the house to Noah & The Whale and the Adventure Time theme song.
I’ve become kinda fascinated with the youtube clips that folks record in their bedrooms, there’s some remarkable talent out there, not to mention a weird voyeuristic peeks into people’s homes and lives across the world. So, here’s my top 5 favourite youtube uke covers.
1. “The First Of The Gang To Die” – originally by Morrissey, covered by Mandy Nikko. I think a big pop star in Malaysia may have covered this, which then led to other people covering her cover. Regardless, I really like this rendition (the chorus is to die for), it takes it back to days of old a wee bit, and shows up the amazing Moz songwriting really rather well. My children call this “The Hector song”, as this is where the family dog got his name from.
2. “Kids” – orig. MGMT covered by Ooks Of Hazzard. Not a bedroom clip at all, but I just love the way they’re all sat in a row with their ukes, all having a wee shot on the vocals, their version really brings out the pathos & yearning that was kinda hidden in the original.
Three more after the jump….
3. “Jesus Don’t Want Me For A Sunbeam” – orig Vaselines, covered by youtube user dahlialee1. I think this cover is way more in keeping with the spirit of the ramshackle crapness/beauty dualism that made the Vaselines one of my favourite bands, than any of the covers Nirvana did. Don’t have an accordion handy? Use a kazoo. Genius. I’m now a firm believer that if Kurt had a uke & a kazoo, his life would have been a hell of a lot more jolly, and he might still be with us.
4. “Fake Plastic Trees” orig Radiohead, covered by Julien Cloud. I just love the thought that, once, on a beach in Morocco somewhere, there’s a guy that sang like Thom Yorke, as the sun went down.
5. “Tonight You Belong To Me”, another beach uke rendition. I think it was this hipster “Jerk” that started the whole trend off in the first place…..
I was going to post the Zooey Deschanel version, but she’s not been returning my phone calls lately, so. . .
Cheers! And if there’s any good stuff like this you’ve come across, please put the clips in the comments. Thanks xx
I still have to learn how to play mine – I was just buying the two year old his Christmas one this afternoon (£14.99 from Sue Rider – not the best sound BUT HE’S TWO – and it’s for a worthy cause)…
not a cover – but everyone needs ‘Henry Rollins Don’t Dance’ in their lives:
Love it! I think I have seen them play this live before – but not at The Duke of Uke – Mecca no less!!
Everyone of all ages should have a Uke – nice work Shane!
I like the camera work on this – who ever is filming is trying so hard not to just focus on the woman dancing right in the front – but they fail – we know they have the hots for her… but they do manage remarkable well to keep allo, darlin’ in shot too.
Allo Darlin indeed!
“Do you want to see a twee band play in a ukelele shop” is on a par with the “Devandra Banhart is playing in a dumpster on 4th street” line from Indie Clerks.
El Blimpo: I’ve been waiting for you to show your face. Of late I’ve been poking through the archives and very interesting it’s been though I’ve been limited to the files there on the right, going back only to Jan. 2008. I’d recommend this to all current Spillers, particularly all these new lads, who might be surprised by the range of topics that Spillers originally delved into. My question is, when did it all start over on Blogspot and who were the original suspects? Are those files still available? Hope so.
Gf -
They are indeed -
http://readersrecommend.blogspot.com/
HI GF, good to hear from you. All the old posts were meant to have “ported” over when the Spill moved from blogspot to wordpress in March 2010. Though a lot of the comments went missing, which is a real shame. As Amy mentioned, the old blog is still up, with comments intact going back to January 2008, when it started. I know our header says “since 2007″ but that is slightly misleading I guess. The blogroll from 2010 has these names on it:
rwrrwr
maddy costa
el derino
bishbosh
DR
BeltwayBandit
Tim (Kalyr)
swissphil
goneforeign
tincanman
ShivSidecar
fourfoot
barbryn
magicman
BloodyParadise
SatanKidneyPie
cauliflower
AliMunday
TatankaYotanka
snadfrod
Noodsy
gremlinfc
Proudfoot
Zephirine
tarxien
Catcher
nilpferd
GarethI
sourpus
severin
tincanman2010
Makinavaja
Dominia
Exodus
junks
SkippyisaCult
ejaydee
SwiftyBoy
Marconius7
CB
scarymonster
treefrogdemon
ShariVari
TracyK
….
Blimpy
Tempusfugit
Mnemonic
debbym
DarceysDad
Fintan28
Brian Speng
Shoegazer
glasshalfempty
gordonimmel
May1366
BalearicBeat
Sarah G
CaroleBristol
Dangerpuss
d33pf1x
steenbeck
TatankaYotanka
saneshane
2JokersInEveryPack
ToffeeBoy
Abahachi
TonNL
That’s peculiar, I thought I joined up quite early (although I didn’t contribute much).
Anyway, ukuleles, have you made a video of yourself yet I think we should see! My son’s school get year 7s to learn to play them which I think is a great thing. We listened to quite a lot of ukulele music when he was doing that. Has anyone else experienced Amanda Palmer’s ep of Radiohead covers? My favourite is
Creep
Also I expect everyone is aware of Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole’s cover of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Jake Shimabukuro’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps and of course the lovely Tiny Tim, Livin’ In the Sunlight being my earworm. I put some together in a Spotify playlist
[spotify id="spotify:user:xseawitch:playlist:4nN31UT6flwO9F5RySn3dX" width="300" height="380" /]
http://open.spotify.com/user/xseawitch/playlist/4nN31UT6flwO9F5RySn3dX
This link might be better.
Nice one! Will check these out when I have a spare minute!
Ever the voice of unreason I have to say that, while fun, I am beginning to find the use of the Ukulele in “post-ironic” cover versions somewhat offensive.
Many moons ago I wrote a letter defending the Uke when it was derided in by Guitar Player magazine ( won me a delay pedal too !) and I used the argument, which I consider perfectly reasonable that the Uke is NOT some kind of easy to play mini guitar. It’s a perfectly serious instrument to the Hawaiians.
One doesn’t disrespect a violin because it’s smaller than a cello, does one.
Have some respect Ironic indie kids lest the wrath of Pele ( Godess not football player) be upon your elaborately coiffured head.
Hi Pair, I know what you mean about the hipster uke ironism, this I am not interested in and I don’t think any of the clips I posted fit into that category. Then again, it has been said “a gentleman knows how to play the ukelele, but chooses not to”. I like the uke because it’s easy and fun to play. Though how seriously did the Hawaiians take it, when the instrument rocked up on their shores in the hands of a Portugese immigrant that they dubbed it “jumping flea”?
I’m fairly sure most Hawaiians are far too laid back to care what anyone else does with “their” instrument.
I’d just like to see a little more “serious” uke music touted instead of George Formby lite stuff which seems, to me, to have become the default position.
True that, Pair, every time I’ve mentioned taking up the uke, I have had a lot of “when I’m cleaning windows” type comments.
Still, the Arctic Monkeys managed to launch their career of the back of Formby, if you ask me.
p.s.
The last comment may , possibly, be influenced by me having to sit through a set by a friend of my wife’s amateur Ukulele orchestra the other week, an event that made me wish I had been born without ears.
I think ‘not so ironic’ (they love it – what’s ironic?) indie kids picking up different instruments and expressing themselves is fantastic – being inspired by any culture is also incredible – it makes people look at that culture different from their own and take notice – making them less prejudice and giving them an interest in things that are not so bloody blinkered – no one doing a cover of Creep hasn’t now been ‘subjected’ to (haha) ‘authentic’ (haha) uke playing while surfing youtube.
In the same way those brilliant j-pop stars will have been ‘subjected’ to ABBA or S.A.W and the j-punk stars will have come across pebbles collections or the pistols. It all get’s channelled and comes out unique (if they have any imagination)…
Your Quote on the Gabriel post was telling:
“Sorry but if I want to hear “world” sounds I’ll go to the source , which , these days, is easily accessible with a little effort”
That to me is the blinkered view, one I accept you hold – and hide behind with “Ever the voice of unreason” statements – The Bhundu Boys were totally unique authentic Africans, that most Africans can’t live up to, let alone Paul Simon or Vampire Weekend – their sound was inspired by rock and roll 45′s on the Jukebox from America – where’s the source? Where is the j-pop/punk source?
Amateur Ukulele orchestra’s can be offensive – bad bands can be offensive to others ears – so, don’t listen – but don’t taint all people trying to enjoy/play music as offensive – just because of an instrument being ubiquitous. My dad would say the same about the ubiquitous samplers in the late 80′s – there was crap sampling and good sampling – we ‘found’ the £3 grand to get one – wish it had been £30 uke then – so much easier to afford. We still would have used the same imagination to muck about on it.
Ukulele’s are not being disrespected – they are being embraced… sometimes badly – but still, I think it’s brilliant.
“That to me is the blinkered view, one I accept you hold ”
Gee, thanks ! I’ll put that in my “Don’t give a toss” folder.
sorry – badly worded – what I mean is you champion a narrow furrow of your own distinct taste – that can come across as blinkered… the reason they are interesting to read is the passion and strongly held definitiveness of those views …
If those can’t be commented on – I wont.
I still love the Ukelele Orchestra of GB that someone posted here awhile ago (Tempus? GHE? can’t remember)
I really enjoyed the post and thought the tracks were great.
I really like the Ukulele and it does have a distinct sound which I find really attractive.
My favourite is Jake Shimabukuro. I wrote a post about him her some time ago actually.
This is my favourite by him
That was lovely. You can’t beat an idle moment, sitting on a pier, strumming a ukelele.
Oh I forgot to say I thought Jesus Dont Want For A Sunbeam was a really great version ! ! !
I love it!
Blimpy: Thanks for those comments but what I actually was interested in was a specific date for when The Spill began plus the original cast of characters, I seem to recall there being half a dozen or so, do you remember such things? Comments welcomed from any other original or early Splillers. I was hoping that there would be more of the early posts, ie prior to Jan 2008.
Hi GF, there wasn’t anything prior to Jan 2008, only on RR on the Guardian site. The ‘Spill header may say 2007, but it’s slightly misleading. The names are the same; ejaydee, mnemonic, frogprincess, kalyr, barbryn, gordonimmel, darceysdad, steenebck, yourself, nilpferd, elderino, shane, fourfoot, beltwaybandit, mr dna, zepherine, debbym, tonNL et al.
I hope this doesn’t count as “post ironic” or offensive.
Maybe it does but I just like the sound of it and whatever the silly shenanigans at least one of them is treating the instrument pretty seriously.- and demonstrating what can be done with it.
Baby Got Back
They can play! And they’re having fun with it, which is the main thing!
I really enjoyed those – First of the Gang to Die and Kids especially.
We have a couple of ukes knocking around which the girls enjoy playing – I’ve been kind of meaning to learn, but since I feel much more at home on the guitar, I’m not sure if there’s any great point.
That said, I see Shane’s already mentioned Allo Darlin’… My approximately fifth favourite song of this year is a uke solo:
I also recently came across this video of Jens Lekman doing “A Postcard for Nina” on a uke while having technical difficulties at a gig:
Good as it is, I didn’t mean to post the same song twice. Here’s Jens (note that he can’t really play the chorus on the ukulele):
A lovely song from Allo Darlin. Thanks Barbryn.