Season 112 of the Ukulele: The Primate House

Happy Season to you, you live in UU, you look like a monkey, you strum like one too!


This week we're doing primates! Have a banana smoothie and enjoy!


These Are Your Song Options:

1. Any song with a non-human primate in the title: monkey, gorilla, ape, baboon, lemur, tarsier, etc.

2. A song that is significantly about non-human primates. It is not enough to just mention a primate in passing. Examples: "I Wanna Be Like You" from Jungle Book or Bow Wow Wow's "King Kong" are okay. "The Unicorn Song" ("humpty backed camels and chimpanzees") and Genesis' "Tonight Tonight Tonight" ("I'm coming down like a monkey") are not okay.

3. A song by the Monkees, Arctic Monkeys, or Gorillaz. Only these three.

4. "I like to move it, move it" from Madagascar is okay. Just because I like it.


Rules:

• The video must be a new video recorded for this contest.

• This time around, I'm going to say okay to multitracking. Seasonistas produce some amazing videos and I don't want to stand in the way of genius. But I want to see you playing ukulele in the video. Don't hide behind a bunch of Jane Goodall footage. I'm more interested in seeing your performance. At least have a decent-sized inset box in the picture that shows you performing the song.

• The video must say at the beginning that it is for the 112th Season of the Ukulele. If you forget to say it before your best take of the song, it is okay to insert a short separate video clip or title placard that says this.

• Videos must be posted to this thread. Do not post any until midnight tonight Hawaii time.

• The contest ends at midnight Hawaiian time on Sunday night, April 13.

• Each person/duet/trio can make one official entry for the week. I will consider your first video your official entry unless you tell me otherwise.

• You can make as many bonus tracks as you want. Bonus tracks can have lip synching, rapid-fire edits, defy the laws of physics, whatever.

• On working days, I will only be able to watch videos in the evening, eastern U.S. time. So that will be when I'm commenting on the videos. If we have one of those weeks with over 100 videos, it may take me more than a day to get to all the bonus tracks. But I made sure to do my taxes promptly this year so I'd have my time free this week.


Judging:

Three winners will be chosen randomly. Each person who submits an eligible entry will get
one entry in the drawing. The prizes will be T-shirts and the like. I will have another option for people who don't like to wear T-shirts.


PLAYLIST


BONUS TRACKS

This guy, Ze Frank, does these videos in a fake Morgan Freeman voice. I went to the movies and saw a preview for the new Lemurs of Madagascar movie, which is narrated by Morgan Freeman. The trailer narration sounded like Ze Frank doing his Freeman voice.

This sounds like a really fun week Uke4ia. I hope I can get one entry in but my arms are still full of little ones so we'll see I will be watching though!

lelouden said:

This sounds like a really fun week Uke4ia. I hope I can get one entry in but my arms are still full of little ones so we'll see I will be watching though!

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Five Little Monkeys would be a great song to play and sing to your grandkids...

I had a song that I'd planned to open this Season with, but I spent too much time playing Split Enz songs this past week instead of learning it. So far, I can't play and sing it at the same time. So instead, here's the ending of the Genesis song "Wot Gorilla?".

myrnaukelele said:

Five Little Monkeys would be a great song to play and sing to your grandkids...

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That crossed my mind too Myrna

What about the Monkees as solo artists?

I love this week because a few years ago I ran across an article about a chimp and her uke and I thought "Yes!, Ukes for all chimps!" let's start a movement!!

Here's the article:
Back in 1917, the New York Times published a story about a chimp (called “a monkey” in the headline) at the Bronx Zoo named Fannie who was crazy about the ukulele.

She was given the ukulele by a little girl, and evidently loved to play it. The other apes in the zoo, however, weren’t as fond of the sound of Fannie playing as she was, and one of them, an orangutan named Gumbo, stole it away. (Simply jealous, I’m sure.) But when the keepers recovered it for her after a five-minute chase, Fannie was overjoyed:

Her joy,” said the keeper, “was marked. She hugged her beloved ukulele to her breast, and, taking it into a secluded corner, began to go over it with her paws. Satisfied that it was not broken, she began to test each string, and as each note sounded out she grunted her satisfaction.”

Here is another chimp enjoying uke time

Looking forward to lots of tarsier tunes and plenty of reggaye aye this week. Fun one, Jim. Ook ook.

great theme and super vids people have posted! the chimp - aw! distinctive playing style, not unlike my upstrum - and when she cleaned the uke! AW+++++++++ !

As I don't think there is a U2 song that matches this season I went with this one. Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone

One Monkey - Gillian Welch

At first I thought 'Oh'. Then I thought "OOh!" So, I've already got mine lined up - might even try my hand at some multi-tracking this week

southside mike said:

What about the Monkees as solo artists?

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I've got to say no. A Nesmith is not a Monkee. And way too many people have had a hand in Gorillaz to extend this to their outside projects, that would be about 50 different bands/projects for Danger Mouse alone.

xommen - Cornerstone (Arctic Monkeys) - Thanks for a great start-off for the week, Wim. Some nice, subtle playing there. I really like the way you flip the video filters between verses. It fits well with the lyrics, the singer flipping between different women who remind him of his lost love. I don't know what "cornerstone" means in this context, even after Googling for slang meanings. Corner store?

pabrizzer - One Monkey (Gillian Welch) - Wow, that's some impressive multitracking to put together so quickly, Pa. Is that you singing the backing vocal? I don't recall hearing you sing in that register before. I'd never heard the phrase "one monkey don't stop the show" before, but the video links to the right lead to three different songs with that title, and Google mentions some more.


I'm greatly impressed by the skills the Seasonistas have that I don't share, like Wim's video editing and Pa's multitracking.

For some reason recording straight to YouTube yields better results in my playing…. Perhaps because I know I have to get it right? Just wish the sound quality was better. Here's Mardy Bum by the Arctic Monkeys. No cool multi tracking or video editing unfortunately. This'll be my official entry too.

And here's something I quickly knocked together… It's not perfect but I doubt it'll get much better. Jimmy the Exploder by the White Stripes, I'll leave to you to decide whether it counts Jim but it's not my official entry anyway.

Love all the Arctic Monkeys covers! Those are one of those bands that I listened to the album for a straight month. They are really great!

I dunno what to pick this week...I love all three of the approved bands...gonna be a tough choice!!

Can't believe I went 111 weeks without singing a Pixies song.



Ah, now I feel better.

TheOnlyUkeThatMatters said:

Can't believe I went 111 weeks without singing a Pixies song.



Ah, now I feel better.

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Yessss! Best Pixies song EVERRRR! Nicely done!