ukeamillion

tonight jessica and i were reviewing the ukeamillion archives...

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:21:28 -0500

tonight jessica and i were reviewing the ukeamillion archives and picking favorites to make a cd for a friend (shout out to jill…what what!) we decided to record a little something to see how we were sounding these days. here it is aretha franklin’s “respect” the abridged verson. also with all the soul sucked out of it and sung by two white girls!

enjoy.

here we are again…months in between posts EXCEPT this time...

Thu, 07 May 2009 17:22:19 -0500

here we are again…months in between posts EXCEPT this time with exciting news!

a ukeamillion / Some New Trend collaboration!

Some New Trend is a favorite site of mine put on by two amazing folks, Carrie Rollwagen and Kevin Wilder. They are writing a young adult novel and posting a new chapter each week. So far, it’s all you could hope for…the mall scene, teen angst, bad summer jobs, and love triangles. The cherry on this young-adult-novel-sundae (real flavor) is the illustration by John Yam to go along with each new chapter.

Check out their site to read the very nice words they had to say about ukeamillion and get sucked into Some New Trend.

- a little info on this song-

kevin asked for a cute love song. ben lee delivers big time with Red Slurpee. easy to play, fun to sing. cary was kind enough to play and sing with me on this one…its always better to share the ukeing.

its been too long, we can all agree on that. tonight on lpb/pbs...

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:51:00 -0500

its been too long, we can all agree on that.

tonight on lpb/pbs there was a show about the history of rockabilly (just fyi - they called it rockabilly long before they called it rock-n-roll) in which buddy holly’s career was reviewed. what a man, what a man. so anyway…i decided to break the silence after watching this program.

lately i’ve been missing the past i never knew, for shame!

so here it is. my father and i covering “oh boy” by buddy holly. (also featuring sadie on the squeaky toy briefly at the beginning)

side note: my dad showed interest in learning the ukulele. i’m excited about this and hoping he doesn’t bail on it.

i have spent my thanksgiving break in alabama and it has been...

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 23:38:00 -0600

i have spent my thanksgiving break in alabama and it has been very enjoyable. it also also resulted in this masterpiece of a collaboration. that’s right folks, ukesex has teamed up with Cat Steve Evans to record a song by the mr. t experience.

points of interest:

1) cary received a new ukulele for thanksgivchristmasfestivis and is now even better equipped to sweep your ears off their (your) feet, as you can bear witness to in this little tune.

2) kevin, the musical wonder male (as we affectionately call him), is front and center on this number. he is singing lead vocals, bgvs, and sharing the love of an occasionala cappella rendition of a fleetwood mac song on the out-takes. (you’ll have to join our elite membership club group to hear these archived treasures)

3) cary, myself, and kevin all gathered together to scream and wail for the bridge of this song. its hard to use your vocal instruments to recreate a powerful electric guitar ditty, but i think we have done our best.

4) we had a lot of fun doing this. hopefully, there will be more of this in the future.

here is a little number i recorded for cary today. a cover of...

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:22:00 -0600

here is a little number i recorded for cary today. a cover of sock hop originally by all-time quarterback.

some notes:

1) a capo really made this sound much better.

2) Em to Fmaj7 is not the easiest thing and i mess it up throughout this video but oh well

3) i got a hair cut. its this short now. i’m liking it.

another recording from the last time cary was in town. this was...

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:35:22 -0600

another recording from the last time cary was in town. this was actually none of my doing. cary recorded this as a mic check on the old microphone i got at a garage sale a while back. turns out the mic BLOWS. but it did result in this tiny wonder.

i like it. it makes me laugh. it sounds like some ridiculous, far-fetched, experimental piece.

ps. comments have been added to this blog. i figure people should have their say. power to the people!

when cary came in for the weekend he brought along his (handy...

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:36:17 -0600

when cary came in for the weekend he brought along his (handy dandy) cassette recorder. this was by special request from me so that we could record a cassette for my grandmother. her favorite song to hear is “howlin’ at the moon” but we recorded a couple of others to spice up her musical library. so here is five foot two as interpreted by cary and myself.

please note that cary learned and played and recorded this song in 24 hours. i’m just saying…

another impromtu sadie song. an outtake from a great uke session...

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:45:00 -0600

another impromtu sadie song. an outtake from a great uke session in the backyard with cary.

at the beginning you can hear cary making some nice sounds on the uke and then i come in with a ridiculous mini ballad about sadie searching for the squirrel.

so cary has been in town this weekend and its been great....

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 10:00:49 -0600

so cary has been in town this weekend and its been great. he’s allowing me to teach him how to play the uke a little, its going great. he already knows how to play 3 songs! i’m totally impressed with how quick he’s picking it up. the first song i taught him to play was damien jurado’s lovely number, matinee. we went as far to even get capos to be even more legit.

in a perfect world this would’ve turned out sounding way better than it did. but hey, this is ukeamillion and the bar has never been set that high anyway. we both know its not great but decided to post it anyway. i figured its following up the terrible uke/recorder song about sadie and it’ll pass as tolerable.

hopefully cary will frequent the collaborative group, ukesex, in the future.

see the ukeamillion shout out here http://electriclion.blogspot.com/

today jessica, my dear younger sister, brought a recorder home...

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:50:48 -0500

today jessica, my dear younger sister, brought a recorder home from school. apparently its that time in her life…that time when she is forced to learn how to play an instrument in order to earn a passing grade for a certain class.

i was overjoyed, of course, and i immediately forced her to try to play something with me. unfortunately, she only knows how to play a few chords right now. it is also unfortunate that the recorder is ear peircing and often times interpreted as painful and annoying.

while we were playing (at least attempting to play) our weiner dog, sadie, was very bothered by this sharp sound.

here is an impromtu song to sadie concerning this new addition to our family band.

and yes, we know its terrible.

i finally held up my end of the deal and finished this song. i...

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:45:00 -0500

i finally held up my end of the deal and finished this song.

i can’t even tell you HOW LONG this song has been talked about/been in the works. kevin is ever faithful and never gave up on me, which i truly appreciate. here is our version of hotel yorba, slowed down and kicked in the butt.

i’ve listened to it too many times to even enjoy it. which is sad, but here’s to hoping that one day i will appreciate this for what it is….another beautiful collaboration across state lines. thank you kevin for your brilliant representation of jack white, i was proud to be your non-drumming, weird bgvs meg white.

i highly support you checking out kevin’s spectacular soda review blog, weeklyfizz.blogspot.com

In other news, cary came to visit + my family uked for my birthday = cary took a photo and it came out amazing

so it finally happened...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:03:10 -0500

I got a job. I’m no longer unemployed. It was bound to happen at some point, right?

well this new development leaves me with less time to uke a million.
fear not! there is a ukesex collaboration in the works with the ever fabulous kevin (just waiting on some slow poke cough.me.cough).

so just heads up. employment means less ukeing. sadly. tragic. DEVASTATING…some might say.

thing is, i’m making the money and that is beneficial for future plans which include ukeamillion.

so it’ll happen when it happens…ukeamillion’s new motto.

so tonight was a family birthday dinner. cary is in town so he...

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:33:01 -0500

so tonight was a family birthday dinner. cary is in town so he was here to witness this little beaut. we were pressed for time and only recorded two songs, this is the one with the most comedic value for now. we began with me completely losing control of the song and how it goes…my faithful singers just tried to sing along in their “own special way” (as my dad calls it). the outcome for the first 20-30 seconds is PURE chaos and has been left in for humor only.

featured:

Mom, Dad, Jessica, Aunt Judy, Aunt Carolyn, Cary (in this song he was mostly taking photos for my Aunt Judy, you can hear her asking him to find the camera and take some photos throughout the song and at some point she says “thank you”).

anyway, here it is…runaway as interpreted by my family

i know that one day i will look back on these recordings and be...

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:35:06 -0500

i know that one day i will look back on these recordings and be so grateful that i have them.

to end the whirlwind family vacation, we decided to spend one...

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:31:31 -0500

to end the whirlwind family vacation, we decided to spend one more evening on the beach watching the sunset and have a uke sing-a-long.

this song is one of my mom’s favorites. when she first started listening to it she would go to work and ask her co-workers if they had ever heard of the postal service and this song.

so it seems that i have been in a car for over a week, well at...

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:50:00 -0500

so it seems that i have been in a car for over a week, well at least that is how it feels.

we recorded this beaut this afternoon using cary’s phone and my ukulele.

i uked a lot (some may say too much) on the car ride home from knoxville, tn. also, on this car ride back i reverted into total girl-dom by having to pee multiple times during the trip. after this song was finished i confessed that i had to stop for a bathroom break yet again! all was well as cary reassured me that “this song is worth your weight in piss”

uke sex collaboration last time i was in birmingham jimmy, alan...

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:10:00 -0500

uke sex collaboration

last time i was in birmingham jimmy, alan and i recorded a song (in alan’s sweet recording studio). alan suggested fake plastic trees as a radiohead cover so we gave it two takes.

the main highlight from the first take was alan’s vocal explosion, aside from that take one was ROUGH

not that take two is that much better, but to salvage the beauty of alan’s vocalizing i edited it in to this final mix.

wonderful music-ing by:

jimmy: superior guitar playing

alan: occasional outburst and consistent (barely audible) background singing

stephanie: ukulele, singing way too low for a girl and occasionally messing up the timing

great song. a strange ode to holly (mostly because this is a...

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:19:00 -0500

great song.

a strange ode to holly (mostly because this is a song she loves).

dear holly,

expect a cd of cover songs turned into baby lullabies for a shower gift.

IT IS TOTALLY HAPPENING!

notes: - recorded on friday evening on the back porch with my...

Sun, 11 May 2008 23:39:00 -0500

notes:

- recorded on friday evening on the back porch with my aunt and mom

- using my handy dandy (notebook) field recorder

- only have a mono mic now so get ready to listen through your left speaker

today i recorded myself playing on video. WOW. can i just say totally weird faces are made. there...

Tue, 06 May 2008 16:10:47 -0500

today i recorded myself playing on video.

WOW.

can i just say totally weird faces are made.

there will probably be documented proof posted at some point