Fuckin' ukuleles, how do they work?
June 3, 2010 5:15 AM   Subscribe

 
Previously.
posted by jbickers at 5:23 AM on June 3, 2010


I am really glad I saw that version before the ICP version…I like this one SO much better

(although the hand clasps were annoying)
posted by ShawnString at 5:41 AM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


"Magnets, how do they work? I don't want to talk to a scientist, I was never any good at phys-ics"

vs.

"Mutha Fuckin Magnets, how do they work? I don't want to talk to a scientist, muthafuckas lyin, gettin me pissed"

ICP wins, sorry.
posted by idiopath at 5:44 AM on June 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


this was cute but that song is still an abomination.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:58 AM on June 3, 2010


How a Song With No Brain Lost Its Spine.
posted by sourwookie at 6:00 AM on June 3, 2010 [12 favorites]


still waiting for someone to record a version with my improved lyrics. No Rights Reserved.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:14 AM on June 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


From the youtube comments (the gift that keeps on giving) ... "Fuckin hipsters, how do they work?"
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:23 AM on June 3, 2010 [7 favorites]


So ICP didn't write "Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles!" then?
posted by yeti at 6:27 AM on June 3, 2010


Also I never thought I'd prefer an ICP version of anything... muthafuckin' miracles keep on a-coming.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:28 AM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


That brought new meaning to the words "twee" and "cloying."
posted by ghastlyfop at 6:33 AM on June 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


Every time I've seen a link to anything having to do with 'Miracles' I wish it was this one.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:35 AM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


That brought new meaning to the words "twee" and "cloying."

You can add "fey" to that also. The real miracle was the lack of cupcakes. Where were the motherfucking cupcakes?
posted by sourwookie at 6:37 AM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Here's the thing. There are some songs that people think are shitty because they were released with shitty arrangements or performances. A cover of one of those can be better than the original. And then there are songs that are just shitty. You can't polish a turd. But you can smear it all over the walls. Which is what happened here.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:45 AM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Playing the song straight and twee is an opportunity to compound the self-parodying nature of ICP's lyrics, but censoring it blunts the joke. Taking out the bad word also eliminates the pointless, misdirected anger in the lyrics. "Fuckin' ___, how do they work" has become the snowclone of the moment among my friends; if you must, use "feckin'", "effin'", or something else, but "Magnets, how do they work?" doesn't go anywhere.

If you're going to pull that kind of stunt, follow Nina Gordon's lead on her version of "Straight Outta Compton".
posted by ardgedee at 6:47 AM on June 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


Come on internet! Can't you make a better cover/arrangement of that piece of shit song "Miracles" than this piece of shit attempt?! ICP 2, The Fields 0, SNL 0. :-(
posted by mrzer0 at 6:51 AM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]




I feel like these things all want to be Alanis's "My Humps," but that faux indie singer/songwriter cover worked/unlaced the original so devastatingly because she scaled the heights of fame and faux top-40 sincerity with Jagged Little Pill then fell from grace so so hard. We were ready to love Alanis (again?) by the time she was ready to tell us what she was going to do with all that ass inside them jeans. These guys make me want to smash their ukuleles & tambourines and Krazy Glue humping dog toys into the USB ports on their computers. I have enjoyed some tweeeeeee stuff in my time, but this doesn't rock in such a medium style. C'mon, kids.

Also: BEHOLD MY OPINIONS ABOUT MUSIC, INTERNET.
posted by mintcake! at 7:18 AM on June 3, 2010


Twee. Cloying. Fey. But please, for the children: it's wholesome.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 7:26 AM on June 3, 2010


I have to say I'm sort of bored of the shortcut that RE-ENTERPRET A SONG = PLAY IT ON A UKELELE has become.
posted by chococat at 7:28 AM on June 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


"Fuckin hipsters, how do they work?"

pretty sure they don't! oh. snap.

hipsters!
posted by Solon and Thanks at 7:46 AM on June 3, 2010


See also Jonathan Coulton's interpretation of "Baby Got Back." I'm sure that someone will be along with a toy-piano cover of "Me So Horny" eventually.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:53 AM on June 3, 2010


Y'know what? This negativity's killing me inside. You kids do whatever you like on my lawn. Please just put the PBR cans in the bin marked "aluminum" at the side of the house. *hugs*
posted by mintcake! at 7:59 AM on June 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


I sort of hate this you guys! Cross genre covers work either by being really good love letters to good songs (there were a number of those for Hey Ya, Cash's Hurt), or taking a song and doing it in a way that contrasts with the content of the song Dynomite Hack's boys in the hood. Now The thing with miracles is that it's already really weird! This is a sort of macho posturing hyper agressive song about the wonders of nature! That's a weird thing to do. It is like it already is in the second category! That's what made the original song funny! Miracles isn't supposed to be an ICP song! It is supposed to be a song on a religeous childrens tv program or something. So all this cover does is take something that is situationally and unintentionally funny and puts it in a situation where it is no longer funny and assumes it will be intentionally funny.

That isn't how anything works.
posted by I Foody at 8:15 AM on June 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


the Foody is wise.

The more I think about this the more I think this "indie" band is actually a christian rock band and they unironically agree with the moronic message of the song. TO THE BATCAVE
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:21 AM on June 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


Or even more appropriate, Jonathan Coulton's cover of "You Oughta Know."
posted by straight at 8:24 AM on June 3, 2010


"Fuckin hipsters, how do they work?"

pretty sure they don't! oh. snap.!



You just barely beat out a guy named 'boneration' on youtube with that joke. Well played, sir. Well played.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 8:41 AM on June 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


Solon and Thanks: ""Fuckin' hipsters, how do they work?""

After 1 PM.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 8:42 AM on June 3, 2010


This is why I don't go to open mics anymore.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 8:44 AM on June 3, 2010


This video is just missing the end part where IPC comes in and beats them to death with their own guitar, right?
posted by tula at 8:45 AM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


chococat: “I have to say I'm sort of bored of the shortcut that RE-ENTERPRET A SONG = PLAY IT ON A UKELELE has become.”

Absolutely. I'd go further, in fact: ukeleles were once sort of neat, but the cachet of cool has been all used up completely, and from henceforth if I hear anybody play a tune ironically on the "idiot guitar" (as I will be referring to the ukelele from now on) I will hit them with it.
posted by koeselitz at 8:52 AM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Music is magic. You can't even hold it.
posted by sanko at 9:43 AM on June 3, 2010


I think the ICP song is great.
posted by thescientificmethhead at 10:15 AM on June 3, 2010


Somehow Look at the Fields has managed to make themselves look even more stupid than ICP.
posted by mrnutty at 11:46 AM on June 3, 2010


Rumor is that ICP will be playing on June 5th in the Bay Area and the San Francisco hacker collective, Noisebridge, will be there to troll them with "Science for Juggalos". They will be outside the concert hall explaining to Juggalos how magnets work.
posted by amuseDetachment at 12:00 PM on June 3, 2010


amuseDetachment: "Noisebridge, will be there to troll them with "Science for Juggalos". They will be outside the concert hall explaining to Juggalos how magnets work."

Wow, that's even more annoying than people derailing the "boy born on a Tuesday" puzzle with birth-rate statistics.

You don't always have to win, guy. It's okay.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:24 PM on June 3, 2010


I was thinking about getting a ukulele until I saw this.
posted by statolith at 12:41 PM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


An ironic cover of rap song, featuring ukulele, handclaps, kalimba, tambourine, plaid shirts, and smug fucking half-embarassed grinning.
posted by Evstar at 12:53 PM on June 3, 2010


Go easy on Look at the Fields. They tried so hard.
posted by WeekendJen at 12:57 PM on June 3, 2010


roll truck roll said Wow, that's even more annoying than people derailing the "boy born on a Tuesday" puzzle with birth-rate statistics.

This is why we never invite you to our pranks/street theater meetings
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:42 PM on June 3, 2010


Look at the FAILeds
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:55 PM on June 3, 2010


This was mawkish and cloying. Hipsters ruin everything.
posted by joelf at 2:29 PM on June 3, 2010


Huggaloes!

(Wipes vomit off chin.)
posted by chavenet at 2:30 PM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


They will be outside the concert hall explaining to Juggalos how magnets work."

Pretty cheeky when Richard Feynman himself said he couldn't explain magnets in terms that a layman could understand.
posted by straight at 2:49 PM on June 3, 2010


Yeah I gotta admit fuckin magnets are fuckin complicated. But the idea that scientists are lying about the subject takes that icp song from 'amusingly annoying' to 'willfully ignorant mind-poison'.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:00 PM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Okay, that's it, cutesy indie folk versions of things are over. Put some bacon on the grave.
posted by tehloki at 9:22 PM on June 3, 2010


I'm glad to hear that ukuleles are uncool. Now it'll just be us Tiki freaks enjoying them once again. I hated teetering so close to the brink of cool for thinking Bruddah Iz's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was awesome.
posted by crataegus at 2:13 AM on June 7, 2010


I'm sort of bored of the shortcut that RE-ENTERPRET A SONG = PLAY IT ON A UKELELE has become

So bored that I can't spell interpret.
posted by chococat at 7:18 AM on June 7, 2010


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