Uke-Hunt in Canada!
Uke-Hunt is the latest musical endeavor from Spike Slawson (whose past gigs include slinging bass for Swingin’ Utters and providing lead vocals for Me First and the Gimme Gimmes). Initially conceived as a straightforward project combining only ukulele and voice, this luau gradually evolved into much more than a party of one.
About a dozen years after picking up Hawaii’s diminutive answer to the guitar —years during which he often strummed one while serenading his family with classics and Italian lullabies—Slawson lit on the idea of Uke-Hunt as a vehicle to deliver heartfelt and personal renditions of some of his favorite tunes interpreted through ukulele. As he experimented with the medium and expanded his repertoire, he asked some of his talented Bay Area buddies (veterans of Filthy Thieving Bastards, Real McKenzies, The Ramshackle Romeos, RKL, and other projects) to join him on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf for a little busking around, 808-style.
With a debut album containing ten cover songs spanning many genres and generations, it would be easy to peg this project as a takeoff on Slawson’s esteemed all-star tribute band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, but it would also be a pretty damn lazy assumption. Whereas Me First is a punk rock cover band, Uke-Hunt treats its source material more tenderly, with more individual panache, and with more emotional depth than anything you’ve heard from Slawson to date. He holds these songs close to his heart, and through his delivery, he invites you to also make a deeper connection with them—and him.
From standards like “Green, Green Grass of Home” to modern new wave classics like Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence,” there’s a notable lack of wink-wink nudge-nudge in these interpretations, even if some of them have risible connotations. When asked about tracks with particular emotional resonance, Spike brings up Barry Manilow’s “Ready to Take a Chance Again,” which he notes “…adds considerable emotional depth to the opening sequence of the [1978 Chevy Chase/Goldie Hawn] movie Foul Play (“You get what you get when you go for it.” So true!).” He’s quick to note, though, that “the somewhat swarthier ballad, “Fascination” is no slouch in the emotions department, either.”
TOUR DATES :
06/01/15 Uke-Hunt @ Call The Office in London, ON . 06/02/15 Uke-Hunt @ The Bovine Sex Club in Toronto, ON . 06/03/15 Uke-Hunt @ Bar Le Ritz in Montreal, QC, 06/04/15 Uke-Hunt @ L’Agitée in Bar-coop in Quebec, QC, 06/05/15 Uke-Hunt @ Ritual in Ottawa, ON . Check out a song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW53xYP9NYY
Band photo : http://www.fatwreck.com/artist/large_photo/113/uke-5.jpg
For more information or to book an interview please contact Melanie at : info@melaniekayepr.com