course, you won't be able to water the lawn with it...
July 30, 2010 7:40 PM   Subscribe

So, you always wanted to be a musician, but your pops wouldn't send you to music school? And you can't afford a decent instrument? Aw, quit yer whining and go get a garden hose.
posted by flapjax at midnite (24 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Thanks to Mefi's own beloved nickyskye, for posting this to her Facebook wall. Nice find, nicky!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:41 PM on July 30, 2010


P.D.Q. Bach wrote at least one tune incorporating the garden hose...
posted by lekvar at 8:03 PM on July 30, 2010


Ah, yes, the revered P.D.Q.!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:08 PM on July 30, 2010


Why didn't Spike Jones think of this?
posted by TwelveTwo at 8:35 PM on July 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Wow. Way to make me feel like I haven't managed to accomplish jack shit. Thanks, buddy.

Seriously, great post -- those were amazing sounds to be getting out of a garden hose.
posted by Forktine at 9:49 PM on July 30, 2010


The sirens were suspiciously sync'd with the music.

One can only imagine that San Francisco emergency services drivers are mostly former musicians, trying to keep up their chops.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:10 PM on July 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


It apparently used to be said that Charlie Parker could have played a hose, and he did play a plastic sax at Massey Hall...
posted by Camofrog at 10:20 PM on July 30, 2010


OOOhh! A garden hose? You lucky bastard. All I had for musical instruments when I was a boy was dried out bits of cow dung. Damned difficult to keep in tune, they were.
posted by DaddyNewt at 10:40 PM on July 30, 2010


Yeah, sorry. Seems overdubbed. The accompaniment is too consistent in its mix, the hose keeps a constant tone as it moves closer and further from the mic, the crowd noise sounds canned.
posted by klangklangston at 11:38 PM on July 30, 2010


Hmm... I hear you, klang, on the mic level vs. distance from the mic, that's a little iffy, but I'm not agreeing on any other point. You really think someone went to the trouble of locking new audio to this thing? Note the siren (whoop whoop) as the red emergency truck passes... also, not sure why you think the audience sound is canned. I'd say if anything it's more likely that the backing track he's playing to already contained the flute/garden hose part, and he might therefore be um, hose-synching...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:13 AM on July 31, 2010




All I had for musical instruments when I was a boy was dried out bits of cow dung

Must've been some pretty shitty music.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:29 AM on July 31, 2010


Well, it was no garden hose.
posted by DaddyNewt at 12:46 AM on July 31, 2010


Well, hey, they never promised you a rose garden hose, right?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:52 AM on July 31, 2010


I think I've seen this guy on Market Street in SF. If this is the same guy that plays with water bowls and - of all things - a stringed instrument made out metal tube of a leaf blower with the gas engine still attached - I fully believe he can play a garden hose.

The sound quality may be explained by this: Every time I've seen him play he has some little portable amplifier cranked up to 11. You can hear him from 6th Street to Powell in the middle of the day over the din of 4 lanes of traffic and about 8 intersections. It's really impressive how loud he is.

So if it's a recording from an open air microphone on a camcorder that close it's probably so loud where they're standing it's clipping and the mic is being overwhelmed.
posted by loquacious at 1:12 AM on July 31, 2010


If this is the same guy that plays with water bowls and - of all things - a stringed instrument made out metal tube of a leaf blower with the gas engine still attached - I fully believe he can play a garden hose.

It's the same guy. He plays both instruments you mentioned in the video I linked to just upthread (same guy, from same YouTube poster), and the garden hose is visible in that clip as well.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:17 AM on July 31, 2010


My favorite part was when he was jamming with the sirens.
posted by mannequito at 3:51 AM on July 31, 2010


jamming with the sirens

tie me to the mast
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:35 AM on July 31, 2010 [4 favorites]




I like the part around 1:35 where he changes the sound by moving his fingers near the instrument, as if it was a Theremin.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:48 PM on July 31, 2010


All I had for musical instruments when I was a boy was dried out bits of cow dung.

Cow dung...we dreamed of cow dung. Our father sold us as cow fodder then when the cow shat us out he'd slit us open, and make us play 'smells like teen spirit' on our own entrails.
posted by Not Supplied at 2:36 PM on July 31, 2010


mcarlson85, thanks for that "making of" clip. Nice find!

And here's more (in Vietnamese) on this guy. He's pretty amazing.

klang, brother, sorry, but I think you were pretty wrong there.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:43 AM on August 1, 2010


Whoops. Forgot the link. here's more.

And more still, on his cola bottle flute.

Google search results for Mai Đình Tới
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:48 AM on August 1, 2010


I can name that tune in four sprinkles:

Perez Prado, "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White."
posted by planetkyoto at 5:36 AM on August 2, 2010


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