The Online International Ukulele Orchestra came into existence one drunken night when Lisa ran into Mondo. Or, rather, Lisa's bike ran into Mondo's left thigh. Both of them went flying, landing squarely on their round parts.
Lady luck smiled on them, though. She may have even drooled a bit. Their ukuleles and their senses of humor emerged from the accident unscathed. The former stayed safely strapped to their backs, and the latter was only enhanced by the large quantities of alcohol consumed that evening.
Discovering that they both played the ukulele, they decided to form a band and start performing together, once the bruises and sprained wrists healed. However, the ladies lived more than 120 minutes apart. Undaunted by geographic distance or musical ineptitude, they were determined to make it work.
The solution? The Internet!
The ladies exchanged song chords and vegetarian recipes online and began building a repertoire of nearly four songs, all in the key of C. As long as the songs contained no E chords and the recipes contained no meat, they were in fricken heaven.
Friends swarmed out of the woodwork by the half-dozens, demanding to be included. The "orchestra" happily welcomed everyone. Once accepted, these new members figured they'd better go buy a ukulele and learn how to play.
The current roster boasts membership from four continents across 18 time zones. They all play soprano ukes (except for the ones who don't) and perform cover versions of a wide range of obscure songs from the 20th and 21st Centuries. Their favorite songs are the ones about robots, or the ones sung by Muppets.
While none of the members have actually performed on stage together, their roommates/boyfriends/husbands/cats think they're really good.
The online rehearsals are spent, for the most part, brainstorming song titles and generating album cover artwork for songs and albums they never intend to create.
