December 18, 2007

Rubberbandjo.

I just noticed it would be really easy to become the #1 Google search result for "rubberbandjo." But if you really want to make a rubberbandjo, this looks like a plausible method. Or do you think "rubberbanjo" is a better spelling? Might as well capture the #1 for that too. Aw, come on. Don't tell me you're not fiddling with the office supplies as we wind down toward Christmas. Hmmm.... fiddling.... what have we got here....

IN THE COMMENTS: There's an effort to assemble the Alt House Band with everyone playing instruments concocted out of various items. I mention the washtub bass, and then matthew points us to the gas tank bass:



Loved it! Let me offer up one of my favorite songs with some of my favorite washtub bass:



AND: Let's have some whamola in this band:



MORE: Here.

40 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

There's also the washtub bass, which has always been a nice part of a jug band. (Remember Fritz Richmond?) And -- I just noticed this -- the whamola.

Ron said...

Maybe we can build an Alt House Band!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I'm Full of Soup said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
jeff said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jib said...

I've been the number one Google return on "killer duck billed platypus" for some time. I can't wait for the day one goes on a rampage.

Ann Althouse said...

Please don't engage with christopher. He's a banned commenter.

rhhardin said...

Washtub vase

Paddy O said...

I have my PVC didgeridoo out and ready for the Alt House Band.

IgnatzEsq said...

Why settle for a washtub bass when you can make one from a gas tank and the string from a weedwacker.

Ann Althouse said...

thanks, matthew. that was great!

reader_iam said...

Don't know if this is OT or not, but in one of my husbands former bands, the drummer liked the sound he got for a particular song from a collection of Minwax cans (empty, full and in-between), no substitutions need apply. They credited Minwax (TM) on the recording, even. Still makes me chuckle.

Eli Blake said...

Fiddlesticks!

I remember when I lived in Montana there used to be a group of loggers who carefully tuned their chain saws (and carefully selected their wood before each performance) and they could play music by using their chain saws in an obviously rehearsed sequence.

Here's a search term: "Five piece rubber band"

blake said...

MAKE magazine had instructions on how to build a "boing box" from a cigar box and some wire.

(I'm a strings guy.)

Eli Blake said...

One time we went to Universal Studios and we went into a show where they were showing how they get all kinds of sound effects in the movies. They 'filmed' a short segment in which kids selected from the audience created various sounds on cue. One of my daughters even got to use the original chimes that were used in the original filming of the Peter Pan cartoon to make the Tinkerbell sound.

It was a fascinating demonstration. To make thunder they rattled a big metal sheet and to make the sound of horses hooves they had two kids beating on a large hollow wooden basin at the same time.

AllenS said...

Ann,

Could I introduce two background singers? My two John Deere tractors, when idling low, say, with a non stop constant beat: "potato potato". Could we work that in somewhere?

Eli Blake said...

This post nails not one, not two but three of your comment threads for today.

I have a #1. It's on Google image search. For 'McCain Bush hug'

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=McCain+Bush+hug&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

And it's for a post containing a picture that made John McCain look really, really bad.

Do I win the trifecta award for the day?

reader_iam said...

While you all are putting together your band, I will be making styrofoam-plate speakers, the better to amplify the results of your music-making!

rhhardin said...

You need Rolf Harris and his board in any band. Also features a digeridoo.

Susan said...

How about gourds like the Richmond
Indigenous Gourd Orchestra
uses?

John Burgess said...

For lack of competition, I'll take care of jug, kazoo, and ocarina.

Mr. Forward said...

Here's the playlist:

"Rock the Althouse"

"Be Kind to your Web-booted Friends"

"When the Blogroll is Called up Yonder"

Ron said...

Clearly Bones are needed for the rhythm section!

to wit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU31eqwC3w4

Trooper York said...

Whew, that's a relief. I am gland you explained what rubberbandjo means. When I first read the title, I thought it might be one of Titus's more obscure sexual practices.

Ron said...

It would be hilarious to have a post/comment section mirror a lead/chorus of a song!

Ann "sings lead" (writes post) while the commenters "sing backup."

If we could just get it all to rhyme...

Trooper York said...

Confess Ron, you always wanted to be a Pip.

Chip Ahoy said...

I know a drummer. He bangs on anything hollow including this giant cow which is 1/2 block from where I live.

Chip Ahoy said...

apologies this

Ann Althouse said...

trooper york said..."Whew, that's a relief. I am gland you explained what rubberbandjo means. When I first read the title, I thought it might be one of Titus's more obscure sexual practices."

That made me remember this old song lyric, the only one I know that refers to a rubber band:

Well, I got a girl that's so darn thin
There ain't much of her but bones and skin
One thing about her I can understand
She wraps all around me like a rubber band

Caroline said...

A blast from the past with a rubber band theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce8nfWyX7P4

Stick around for when they pull out the rubber bands and start dancing with them. I can remember watching this on tv.

A more recent incarnation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc_O5CdS9cI&feature=related

Anonymous said...

Spent a week in Colonial Williamsburg at the start of the month, and attended a concert that included a Jew's harp, a saw, a hurdy gurdy, a washtub bass, a cigar fiddle, bottles, and a rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer with a yodel solo included. I'm sure we can top that.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of ruuberbandjos, how about Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband? If you care to visit Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour, you can download the podcast (#385) and listen to them.

Ron said...

Trooper, I thought more Paul and George to Ann's John!

Analogizing Ann to Gladys Knight? Neva!

IgnatzEsq said...

Caroline, my favorite version of this song was also on T.V., but has alot more muppets involved than your version. And Lynda Carter too.

reader_iam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
reader_iam said...

Caroline: There are some things about early high-school which I'd prefer not to recall, thank you very much (LOL). Even if I still remember how to do the Wagner Walk, and, worse, remember doing it to that song, in particular, at the EG (Electric Gramophone) teen disco at the relevant time in Stanton, Delaware. God help me.

Caroline said...

Matthew: Thanks! I'd never seen that episode. Funny as hell!

Reader_Iam: Ah yes; teen disco's. I remember them well! Donna Summer's "Last Dance" signaled the end of the evening, circa 1978. I don't know the name of the dance, but I remember striking this iconic pose on more than one occasion, to my everlasting shame. LOL!

That movie was filmed in my neighborhood, so for a time, we kids in Brooklyn thought we were oh so cool... until disco sucked. ;D

Hazy Dave said...

Seems to me that an An All Girl Jug Band would be a fine Alt House Band if enough female Commentarians could be recruited...

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trooper York said...

It also kind of depends on what kind of jugs we are talking about.