Ukulele Madness Part 2

(Scott)-Make sure and give it up for Brian for continually finding esoterica like this, as well as combining it with the hard effort it takes to make cohesive, large-scale posts.....trust me it takes a lot of work, on his part, and the first part of THIS collection was recieved MUCH, MUCH better than I expected.......many of you requested more and here it is!

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Here is quite a swollen sequel to the Ukulele post. This'll probably be the last one for awhile; it's all the goodies I can find. First up are two more Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain albums...

The Secret Of Life is one of their studio releases. Many great covers that weren't on the two Live In London albums I gave you: "Le Freak", "MacArthur Park", "Je'Taime Mo Non Plus", "Only You"... There's also a great original song in the epic 7 minute title track. I put the Japanese cover here cuz I think it's cooler than the original.

The next UOOGB album was a completely mysterious unexpected score: it's a live album. It had no title, and the track listing doesn't match info on any of their other live albums. With hints given in the "Teenage Dirtbag" and "Ode To Joy" intros, it is from a recording made at The Royal Albert Hall for television broadcast. I just titled it Unknown Live. It sounds great @320, and it's sequenced properly. Features at least a couple songs that aren't on the other releases. I particularly like their playing of "Ode To Joy", where they have the audience play ukuleles with them. When the whole hall claps along on the last few choruses, I cried. Really.

While looking for more UOOGB stuff, I stumbled across a different Ukulele Orchestra - the Orchestra of jako Brno, in the Czech Republic. They're clearly inspired by the U.K. group - they even cover a few of the same songs. That's not to say it's a ripoff though... they do some other interesting covers, and it's definitely enjoyable music. I've included two albums - A Little Less Conversation and Live In Brno. Looking up info on the group, I found that two members - a father and son - were murdered in a spree killing a year or so ago. Eastern Europe is a rough room...

I should say right out that while Dent plays ukulele on almost all of these songs, it is by no means the focus of the music. This is just a great oddball modern pop record, with a lot of other instruments going on.

Practically every song reminds me of a different genre. I hear Dylan, ragtime, island music, Randy Newman, Vegas schmaltz, Pavement, the Phil Spector sound... and the guy sounds quite a bit like Morrissey. That's meant as a compliment.

This is one case where I wanna get the music out there, but I also want to encourage you guys to go buy something from him, too. He's got quite a few albums available on iTunes. Same for the UOOGB. Show the love, y'all!

Years ago, while listening to AOL Radio - wow, remember when that mattered? - I came across this album. It stayed in OOP expensive limbo for a long time before I scored it cheap on Amazon a few days ago. I've barely formed an opinion on it, but I do think it's good, it's really rare, and it's not posted anywhere else (I've looked), so here it is straight to your grubby little hands. "Flight Of the Bumblebee" and the Super Mario theme on ukulele!

Hope you guys dig this. I think this ukulele post is even better than the previous one. Certainly a bit more diverse. Give all these a listen, and when you see a Uke hanging on a wall in a store somewhere, you'll know some awesome ass music can be made on that thing! And if by a freakish chance you haven't hit post #1, please do.

The bonus link is a repost of another N-L album, the one that makes fun of Woodstock. It's a classic. Long live Megadeath!!!