A Ukulele Views
Inside the upscale house, the most mind-opening part was a rather explicit makeshift museum celebrating the female anatomy. Outside, New Age types in their 30s and 40s mingled flirtatiously around a lavish yard featuring a trickling Zen waterfall, floor pillows and artificial grass. Most guests, however, were crammed in the backhouse, where they cheered ukulele cover band the Ooks of Hazzard as the nine musicians headed toward a Purple Rain finale.
We've got tiny guitars! Ooks member Charlie Diaz yelled out, rallying the crowd. The more audience members drank, the louder they sang along, drowning out the band's renditions of songs by, among others, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Radiohead, Sublime, Aretha Franklin and Merle Haggard. You show up with ukuleles and people think, 'Here we're going to have some Hawaiian music or Tiny Tim,' says the Ooks' Patrick Hildebrand. Then you break out rock songs and soul songs and Pink Floyd.
Covering the right song at the right moment is a cover band's mission. On April 19, the Ooks of Hazzard got lucky in that respect, making its YouTube debut with New York art rock band MGMT's biggest hit, Kids. Coincidentally, MGMT had excluded Kids from its performance at the Coachella Valley Music Arts Festival that same weekend, and disappointed fans began speculating on why the band had stricken the song from its repertoire. As if on cue, the ukulele cover band from Venice Beach stepped in to help.
The group recorded the Kids video in hopes of snagging a gig with it, says Diaz, who once charmed his way out of a ticket by playing ukulele for cops. We decided to just put it on YouTube while we were finishing the mix, and it got 15,000 hits in the first few days. Ten days later it was at 125,000, and it has now surpassed 250,000 plays.
A Ukulele Images
