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Saveincubus plays "(Nothing But) Flowers" on ukulele

Mark Frauenfelder at 1:24 pm Sun, Jul 15, 2012

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[Video Link] Here's Saveincubus playing the Talking Heads' "(Nothing But) Flowers" on ukulele.

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Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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  • Bucket

    Just say no to vertical video syndrome:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA

    • http://profiles.google.com/stephen.schenck Stephen Schenck

      Why? How is that any more or less a legitimate choice than a landscape-orientation rectangle? At least it’s in the correct aspect ratio and nearly in-sync.

      • http://twitter.com/Epers Eddie Perkins

        If you watch the video all the way though they explain it very well. 

        VVS aside, I really enjoyed this cover. Very nice. 

  • http://txhoudini.com txhoudini

    One of the most underrated Talking Heads songs.

    • garyg2

      Definitely, and from an underrated album too. I think a lot of people thought TH were done with Little Creatures and (especially) True Stories and gave Blind a miss…

      • dculberson

         You guys made me dig up my Talking Heads CDs when I realized I didn’t have all of them on my current laptop and mp3 player.  The crime of missing this CD!  It was awful.  Thanks for the heads up!!

  • http://twitter.com/Skyhawk1 skyhawk1

    Cute.

  • Calimecita

    I’m listening here at home, and my boyfriend’s sitting beside me at his computer, and we both like this version! Two thumbs up :-)

  • http://twitter.com/DonCarlitos Charlie McHenry

    Interesting that the Ukulele is the instrument most associated with the millennial generation. 

  • Professor59

    Just goes to show that pretty girls can get away with a lot.

  • http://profiles.google.com/stephen.schenck Stephen Schenck

    Makes me want to go drive around Middletown, NJ, Clerks-2-credits style.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=749997097 Rosin Ffield

    Pure nausea! What the hell happened to those passionate beings from my America who could sing like this (feelingwise, no “productionwise”):
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frGt_muCRs8

    No one can sing like this today (except Rob Dougan probably haha)
    What phenomenon produced these generation upon generations of paddle-shallow, superficial phoneys like this one in the vid who’s only ability is to pose and make facial expressions. What produced the pukes of your America? Is it some long term dumbing project as in the Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars paper? Is it the sickening TV series of passionless, young egomaniacs endlessly hurting and scorning eachother. Or is it the cult of “appearing”, making manners with nothing underneath. I make this long discourse because the one on the vid is like clone–there are so many like her and none like Grace Slick, Jimi Hendrix, JJoplin, thousands…what has you, anyone from before puke-era.

    • http://profiles.google.com/stephen.schenck Stephen Schenck

       You seem fun to hang out with.

    • Mark_Frauenfelder

      You need a hug.

    • http://instantaneousinstances.com/ Spieguh

       Goddamn, is there a specific age I can watch out for where the switch is flipped and the “everything newer than when I was a teen is shit” attitude takes over? Because when that happens, I’m checking out.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        I’m 54 and it hasn’t happened yet.  Although Biebz is beyond my limits.

        • Shane Simmons

          I’m only 37, but run into music that I don’t like.  When I do, I listen to something else.  There’s lots of good stuff out there.

          Honestly, I listened for a few seconds, hit Pause, and moved on to the comments.  I don’t feel the need to be rude about it.  I saw that Mark had posted a video of a girl playing a ukelele, I knew it would be a love- and hate-fest.

          It’s not my cup of tea.  It’s okay.  I’ll move along as soon as I speak my mind.

          Chill, people.  It’s just some person singing a song.  There’s thousands of these on Youtube.  Thousands.  Give some of them a shot, though; there’s honestly some really good stuff on Youtube.  And, there’s lots of people who aren’t so hot, but want to share anyway.  If I had a choice between listening to the person in this video, or most top-40 dreck, I think I’d pick this.

    • humanresource

      Forget it, Rosin. Any hot girl with a ukulele is guaranteed to be adored around here.

    • dculberson

      See, my problem with comments like this one is – beyond being rude, dismissive, and full of hyperbole – they explicitly lay out a case for nobody but the absolute best at everything ever getting exposure.  Like, if you’re not on par with Grace Slick you shouldn’t ever sing and definitely shouldn’t post a video of yourself doing it and Mark shouldn’t ever enjoy the honesty and sincerity of an amateur doing something they love.  I wholeheartedly reject that position.  Sure, Grace Slick is great, but so is Savincubus and so is my friend Jimmy that plays drums and sings in a local rockabilly band.  In fact if you pulled this shit at one of his shows I would make sure you left there with a bloody nose – if he didn’t do it first.

      • garyg2

        My problem with this post is that Grace Slick is being held up as some benchmark for ‘good singing’. She’s cool enough but no Janis Joplin. IMHO of course.

        • dragonfrog

          Janis Joplin?  Faugh!  No human has been entitled to sing since Hildegaard von Bingen.

    • Boundegar

      You kids get off my lawn!

  • ukegap

    I have only one rule about ukulele playing: no picks. I hate the way it sounds and you lose all the wonderful possibilities of the right hand. 

    • Bodhipaksa

      “…the wonderful possibilities of the right hand.” (Ahem!)

  • BigJay

    Keep practicing , you are about 50 per cent there.

  • subhan

    I like the Uke version, but she’d be better off spending less time working on her ‘cute girl’ faces and more on her vocal pitch.  I’d suggest some time training with a N Indian vocal raga teacher if you can find one.  

  • dculberson

    I listened to this video with my eyes closed and mind open. She has a wonderful voice with a lot of feeling behind it. Yes she made a few errors but Byrne himself is not the strongest singer and admits a much and e en goes so far as to say it is what makes him so endearing and relatable.

    I was hesitant to read the comments since listening to this put me in such a good mood. Sadly I did read them. So many sour people out there. :(

    I’ll just listen again and cheer back up.

  • beerwhisperer

    Sorry, no.  Too much hipster going on here.  Uke, heads, cute girl.  Great, enjoy your talent, but this is just grandstanding.  I hate to be critical, but is this really necessary?   Great song, sure, but that’s because it’s the heads.  What next, Bananarama on toy keyboard by your cousin? 

    • Mark_Frauenfelder

      Thanks for steering us straight. I won’t enjoy anything without asking you first from now on.

    • valiant66

      Is your cousin any good? Because Bananarama on toy keyboards sounds like a great idea!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=120102 Karl Brown

    Could you spell her name correctly: Saveincubus?

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

    It works for me.

    This song was (one of) the anthems of my college science fiction club. 

  • chasuk

    No ukele, but I love the honest vocals:

    http://brennadunn.bandcamp.com/track/if-a-tree-has-found-its-worth?permalink

  • jimbuck

    Isn’t Byrne known to be a BB reader?  Maybe he can chime in here and tell us if this was ok enough to let this young woman see another day.

  • Mike Norman

    This seems a very appropriate chaser for “Camp stove generates electricity to charge gadgets.” Or vice versa.

  • 10xor01

    Love the uke, but prefer Byrne’s more relaxed lyrical style on this song.  Covers of great songs performed by incredible bands are hard to pull off.  But then again, who am I to have an opinion?  Just another shmuck who should shut up and enjoy nice free entertainment.

  • DreamboatSkanky

    The best part was when she played “Nothing But Flowers” on the ukelele.  I really dug it.

  • http://twitter.com/Stefing Stef of Ing

    Ukulele Punk – yes, it’s a thing!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF4e6jGbjxA