The Laptop Sessions: “Stage Fright” (The Band Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

By Chris Moore:

I’m proud to present the first in a week-long event here at http://LaptopSessions.com entitled “Title Tracks Week”!! Each day this week, we’ll unveil a new session devoted to a song whose title is the same as the album it was on. For instance, I chose a song from the Band’s 1970 album Stage Fright called — well, you may have guessed it already — “Stage Fright.”

This is an interesting song to me, as I’ve heard and read rumors over the years that this song was written by the Band’s Robbie Robertson in reference to Bob Dylan. If anyone would know, it would be someone like Robertson, who has played many shows with Dylan over the years, most often as his lead guitarist. (He’s particularly well-known for being the electric guitarist that powered Dylan’s sound in the mid-60s, when he first “went electric.”)

For anyone who’s seen Dylan play on stage, it does make sense that he might suffer from a form of stage fright…

So, without further ado, here’s the first of seven title tracks this week — even Original Wednesday this week will be a title track. I hope you’ll check back tomorrow for Jeff’s installment!

See you next session!

Insight on acoustic video covers for the Laptop Sessions

Saturday, May 24th, 2008

By Jeff Copperthite:

When the idea came across to do The Laptop Sessions as a free video series, Jim started it all off by watching a video of Let It Be that was covered highly incorrectly, and Jim recorded himself playing it correctly. He wanted to put a good name to music covers on Youtube – especially covers of one of his favorite bands The Beatles. Also, in spirit of “The Bathroom Sessions”, which was a free music video series by two members of Barenaked Ladies, I helped coin the term “Laptop Sessions”, since Jim was using the camera on his laptop to record the video.

After the positive response to sessions that Jim put out, Chris and I decided to help Jim with the “Session a day” project starting in 2008. Initially, Jim enlisted Chris to put up one video between each of them, so that the site had a new music video each day. I had tried ten sessions in late 2007, but I had stopped doing them due to the low quality web camera I owned. In general, I was still new to the realm of video as well.

After nearly 60 new video sessions recorded for The Laptop Sessions this year, I have recording videos down to a science. Here is a typical rundown of what it takes for me to make each session.

1) Practice the song

This is the obvious one. As a songwriter, I know the more comfortable I am with the song, the better the video will come out. I grew up hearing a lot of music in the 90’s, so I tend to be most comfortable when I decide to do a song by bands such as Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Radiohead. However we do try to diversify our recordings across the years, and I know I cannot limit myself to alternative music bands. Therefore, some songs require up to a week of practice. Others I can learn and play comfortably in an hour or two. I will usually begin practicing the song regularly up to two-three days before I record it.

2) Set up the video recording station

Lately I have four common locations for my videos. The biggest problem I have is that I do not have a tripod for my camera (yet – I do plan to buy one). Therefore, I have to rest my camera on a makeshift stand. I also have to make sure there is enough light. Even during the day, I have to have at least one lamp on so the video doesn’t come out dark. After that, I position the camera, set the zoom, tune the guitar, and do a practice run of the song on the acoustic. Music tends to be easy for me – it’s singing and remembering lyrics that is the most difficult. For this reason, I have to put a small sheet of “notes” that remind me what verse or line to sing next. Sometimes, I have to include the entire lyric sheet, but that is rare. “Round Here” comes to mind as a song I just needed that entire lyric sheet by the camera for.

3) Record the video

When I am satisfied that I can record the song, I psych up for the performance. Lately, I have been able to record the song in about three or four takes. I don’t worry about what happens before or after the performance, since I can edit that out in the next step. As you have seen on our site, recording acoustic guitar video covers is real easy some days, other days you want to throw your guitar against the wall because something minor keeps messing takes up. “Jane” comes to mind with this (despite it being a piano cover). I had played it on the first take and was very happy to have satisfactorily made it through the song. That is, until I discovered the battery had died in the middle of the recording. I charged the battery, and then it took me another 20 or so takes to get it again. Other times, the performance comes so naturally you wonder why you practiced the song so much beforehand.

4) Edit the Video

This is probably the easiest step, despite it taking up to 30 minutes. I transfer the video to my laptop (as you can tell, I don’t own a laptop with a built-in camera, so technically I should be doing “The Powershot Sessions”). Once the video is transferred, I split the clip to the parts I want (usually this involves trimming out the beginning and end of the clip), then add on two title screens and a credit roll. Then, depending on the length of the performance, I render the video, which can take up to 12 minutes for long songs.

5) Write the description, and upload the video.

While the video renders, I write the Youtube description and tags. Usually I will comment on the song I chose, why I chose it, the album it is from, and any comments on the performance itself. I will also usually throw in some current news and other tidbits of info. My descriptions tend to be at least 100 words long. I can usually get both descriptions on the blog and Youtube before the video finishes rendering. Then I upload the video, copy the embedding information onto the blog, and publish!

What keeps me fresh for the sessions is when I try to listen to new music that I may like to cover. I found on Chris and Jim to introduce me to bands and songs I’d otherwise not know, but some people I know also help me out in that department. It is also fun to use this as a springboard to get people to hear our independent music. That is why we do “Original Wednesday”, and slowly we are building up some excitement from our subscribers when that day rolls around. At least we know everyone watching will be listening to something they’ve never heard before.

I hope you enjoyed getting some insight on the process on my end. As always, if you have questions please email admin@fusco-moore.com, and direct your questions to me, Jeff Copperthite. Have a great evening!

Happy Birthday to Bob Dylan, Songwriter Extraordinaire!

Saturday, May 24th, 2008

By Chris Moore:

Well, it’s not my day to post a video blog, but I couldn’t let it slip by without acknowledging my favorite songwriter’s 67th birthday. I’m referring to Bob Dylan, of course! We’ve recorded a good deal of acoustic covers of his songs already (just select “Bob Dylan” in the “categories” list to your left), and I look forward to playing many more. In fact, we’re planning a “Triple Threat Tuesday” soon for his Nashville Skyline tune “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You.”

So, as the day comes to a close, I hope you’ve had a chance to listen to your favorite Dylan song or, (for the die hard fans) read your favorite poem from Tarantula!

See you tomorrow for my video blog post — the first acoustic cover of a new theme-based week!

The Laptop Sessions: “Congratulations” (The Traveling Wilburys Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Saturday, May 24th, 2008

By Jim Fusco: Well, it’s my day again already, huh?

Seems we’ve bee doing so much promotion between the friend requests, SEO work, and such that it really is getting harder and harder to keep on the “every third day” schedule. And now, we have a Members-Only section on the blog, which will have exclusive, not-on-YouTube, videos. So, that’s even more to do!

I’m hoping with the long weekend that I can record a bunch of Sessions and then focus on promoting what we already have for awhile.

Now, getting on to today’s Laptop Session:

“Congratulations” is a Traveling Wilburys song that my brother Mike and I would always kinda make fun of when we were younger. I mean, the album came out when I was four and my family loved it, so we always listened to it. Plus, when you’re a little kid, Bob Dylan’s incredibly raspy voice is pretty funny.

But, years later, after my 1000th listen, I began to realize that this really is a good song. I think the whole band contributed and the actual tune of the song (stripped of Dylan’s raspiness or not) is great.

The song is sad and emotional, which is probably why they chose Dylan to sing it in the first place, but I thought I would give it a more “pure” treatment.

This was done in one take, so you know I was dead-on. Jeff, Chris, and I are doing a lot more of that lately- partially because of time constraints, but partially because we’re just getting so good at doing this. My skills have been increasing steadily with my view count and subscriber numbers, which are nearing 200 now!

I will meet my goal of 55,000 views by the end of the month and now the only question is: how many more will I get? The Laptop Sessions site is poised for a BOOM in popularity, so stay tuned, as you may have already stumbled upon the Next Big Thing in music!

The Laptop Sessions: “Black” (Pearl Jam Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening! Welcome to your Friday installment of The Laptop Sessions. I hope you are ready to celebrate a three-day weekend, and plan on seeing family, friends, and perhaps enjoy a nice cookout or two in the process.

Meanwhile, I get to bring to you one of my favorite songs. It’s Pearl Jam tonight with a song from their first album Ten. Track #5 is Black from that album and that is the song I bring to you tonight.

It has a great background electric guitar and Eddie Vedder sings a wonderful vocal melody in the entire song. Vedder is known to go in between styles back and forth and this song showcases that talent of his. From the soft verses to the emotional outro of the song, I attempt to emulate what Eddie can do. I think I do a good job, but then again i’m no Eddie Vedder. I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Also, this song translates wonderfully to acoustic guitar, and I substitute a minor change in the guitar part at the end of the song instead of the vocal “do do doo doo do do dooo” that the recording has. And as with all songs that fade out, I picked the chord that sounded best to end on and went with that.

I want to thank all of you for visiting, commenting, rating, and subscribing. This is among the sessions I am most proud of.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Jim’s latest session, then come Sunday we bring another special week of songs to you. You’ll have to check out Chris’s session on Sunday to find out just what that is!

The Laptop Sessions: “Do You Remember?” (Jack Johnson Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

By Chris Moore:

Tonight, I introduce an artist that Jim has been asking for weeks why we haven’t covered before…Jack Johnson! This is a song from his last album, In Between Dreams, titled “Do You Remember?” It’s a great acoustic number from this great album, and it’s a perfect fit for this series.

On a side note, if I’ve counted correctly, this is my 60th Laptop Session! What a trip it’s been, and we’re not even halfway through the session-a-day commitment for 2008. It’s a bit daunting, but I hope that our viewership only continues to rise. Help spread the word — send your friends to http://LaptopSessions.com !

Be sure to come back tomorrow for another quality video from Jeff.

See you next session!