Ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro on NPR radio today
While I drove Paige to Ramona this morning, I was listening to NPR and a story came up with an interview with uke master Jake Shimabukuro. It was a great, fun, informative interview, and so I thought I'd share it with you.
So, click on this link, and then click on the "Listen" link under the "In the Hands of a Master, the Ukulele is No Toy" title to hear the 7:15 interview.
His new CD, "Gently Weeps" was released this week. You can hear snippets of that and buy it if you want from the NPR page.
Oh, and in case you don't know who Jake is, or maybe want a reminder, here's a YouTube video of his version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (I'll bet this video has really helped spread knowledge of Mr. Shimabukuro):
"the Munsters" theme played by Rob Zombie on YouTube
Halloween's a-comin' and I thought I'd share this song I found on YouTube. I've always liked the way the Munsters theme mixed surf and spooky, and Fred Gwynne was brilliant.
A Spongebob Week: The Best "The Best Day Ever" Day Ever!
Okay, not necessarily the _best_ "The Best Day Ever" Day _Ever_, I just hadda say it that way.
It's just been " a very spongebob week" as this cool album was released. A lot of people were involved that Kyle has introduced us to, including Kyle, Gruber (The Naked Trucker), Jillinda (keyboard player of "The Breakups" in L.A. and Foley / Sound Effects artist for the series), Andy Paley (the drummer with "the dick-around gang", Naked Trucker's house band, but more importantly an amazing musician), and others.
The first time I heard "The Best Day Ever" and learned a little about Andy Paley, I was amazed. When Andy was younger, he had a group with his brother called (naturally) The Paley Brothers. They did cool new-wave music similar to the Ramones. They also played with The Ramones. Andy's done a lot and can play just about every instrument except maybe brass and woodwinds, and he also helped Brian Wilson (of The Beach Boys) on his comeback tour a few years ago. Knowing that connection, it's amazing how "The Best Day Ever" sounds like a Beach Boys song! Brian sang backup vocals on a song on this new Spongebob album, and it definitely shows. The last remaining Ramone (Tommy) also played on one song. All in all, if you can get past the lead vocals by Spongebob (Tom Kenny), this is really a cool album.
(On "The Best Day Ever," besides writing (with Tom Kenny) all the songs, singing background vocals and producing the recording, Andy plays guitar, bass, drums, percussion, piano and organ, stringed guitar-family instruments, clavioline, marxophone, marimba, vibes and harmonicas.)
It was unusually fun to see the final product after listening to folks discussing aspects of it all summer.
I HAD posted a YouTube video of it below mainly so you could hear the song (the video is just a bunch of Spongebob clips put together by some fan, I guess), but I see that YouTube has removed it because of a "terms of use violation". I guess the "violation" had to do with the images, because I was able to find a kid doing a lip-synch to it, which you can watch below. The older one was a montage from the cartoon series, but this is fine for just hearing the song if you want.
We also got to see some "behind the scenes" footage related to this album that was pretty cool (including a fake lip-synched "session" with Andy, Tom, Jillinda and others), and then the Spongebob Movie just happened (?) to show on Encore this week, so now I've seen that movie (which is pretty radical at points; Spongebob and Patrick almost die a couple of times!).
Ah well, now back to reality, I just thought I'd share this unique moment of ours with you. If you'd like to read Kyle's detailed (and admittedly biased) review of this record, click here.
Çlick the "play" button to hear the song and watch the kid (wasn't he on "Roseanne?") lipsynch to it:
Our friend Ernie Fosselius and his "Mechalodeon" mechanical theater are featured on today's Rocketboom vlog! He even demonstrates an automaton of his (and our) friend Amelia!
Way cool, Ernie!
(Nice Sonoma County beauty in the background...)
For some great close-ups of the automatons, look here.
If you have a broadband (DSL, etc) connection and you're interested in how the Hammond organ fits in to funky groove-oriented music like Santana's and Tower of Power's, here's a real treat for you: This month Keyboard Magazine is featuring a short series of videos of Chester Thompson, TOP's (and Santana's) Hammond player, showing us how it's done.
Here are some things I noticed:
- Man, is he fonkay!! This is about the funkiest Hammond playing I've ever heard. Not fast, just cool. - his drawbar settings are not just the typical "Jimmy Smith" settings, but a bit more, and they're laid out to see in the video. - His backbeats against his left-hand bass lines are impeccable, as are his chord voicings. - He plays marcato, leaving plenty of silent spots in there. That can make a huge difference, by the way. - Nice use of subtle volume-pedal and drawbar-setting moves to create dynamics. - Notice that he plays two organs; on the "The TOP Groove" and most other spots, he's playing a B3 (chopped by Oakland's world-class Hammond tech Bob Schleicher), which sounds just perfect to me (it gives me a bit of organ lust, heh). On other spots including "Only So Much Oil" and others, he's playing a more recent Hammond-Suzuki XK3 digital emulation, which to my ear, just doesn't quite sound as cool. You can tell them apart by looking at the right end of the drawbar area (just above the top keyboard); the digital unit has a "HAMMOND" logo at the far right end.
For those of you who have asked me how to help other keyboard players play funkier or "rock"-ier, I'd say if they could study these videos it might help them quite a bit!
To view these gems (and I sure hope you do), go to http://www.keyboardmag.tv and then click on "How to Play" and then watch all the videos starting with "CT:" .
I am posting this from within Google Video... we'll see how this works.
This girl's speedy skill just messes with my meager mind.
I never heard of cup stacking -- "speed stacking," it's called, and it seems kind of contrived and commercial, but good because it's a competition of speed, and not in direct opposition with someone. I don't know exactly what permutation pattern Emily Fox is running through here, but it seems fairly comprehensive. She'd be wicked at the cup-and-ball game, I think.
Anyway, I thought you might enjoy this.
This is the amazing video of Emily Fox's world record cup stacking time of 7.43 seconds. Provided by www.speedstacks.com
Okay, yeah, this is yet another Tally Hall post, but this is big news for them! The band is currently featured on MTV's "You Hear It First." You can look for them on MTVu and plain ol' MTV. Yesterday, MTV aired their segment at 5:50am, 6:50am, 7:50am, 9:50am and 12:50pm.
But the easiest way for us mere non-teen mortals to see the feature is online here.
MTV compares their music to Queen, The Beatles, and Weezer, which I think is somewhat apt but also kinda shallow. Nevertheless, the whole segment is complimentary, and you'll get a good look at them and a nice quick summary of their music.
I hope you can view this and enjoy it, and I hope it acts to accelerate the band's popularity!
