By Chris Moore:

Mwa-ha-ha… And a good EVE to all joining me on this FRIGHTENING 31st of October, 2008.  This is All Hollow’s…

EVE!

And I think that, tonight, the title pretty much says it all.  What could be scarier, as Jim asked last night, than Chris Moore covering a Britney Spears song?  Well, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.  In my defense, I’m not exactly doing a Britney Spears cover.  Technically, this is a cover of the Fountains of Wayne arrangement of Britney’s hit single, first released on their “Out-of-State Plates” album, a collection of non-album tracks and previously unreleased material.  Now, these collections are usually hit-and-miss, but this is actually a really good one.  There’s a couple of new tracks (one of which, “The Girl I Can’t Forget,” is one of my favorites from them), some great live stuff (including a rare better-than-the-studio-album version of “She’s Got A Problem”), and crazy tracks like this, their arrangement of the classic “Hit me baby one more time!”

So, I know you can’t wait to listen, and I certainly want to rush back to the big Fusco-Moore Experience All Hallow’s Eve bash, with special guest (and Richard Simmons impersonator) Mike Fusco!  He really went all out — I’m talking head-to-toes, red tank top labeled “PUMPkin’ and SWEATin,’” leggings to disguise leg hair, and amazingly 80′s-esque velcro sneakers.  Thankfully, Jim and Becky have changed out of their terrifying, horrifying costumes… as Jim said, they wanted to be the scariest people he could think of… namely, John McCain and Sarah Palin.  Meanwhile, I’ve had a sudden urge to manage a beet farm and shun my co-workers (if you’re not an Office fan, I was Dwight Schrute tonight).  And, yes — it’s true: as part of his tip, I left our On the Border waiter a Schrute Buck.  He earned it for actually ensuring that the chips and salsa were bottomless.  With five hungry people at the table, this was no easy task!

In related news, we’re all too tired to record the Halloween WCJM show we had planned on doing, but I have the song list that I would have recommended to the boys (in reverse order):

6)  “Long Black Veil” – the Band’s version; not a halloween song per say, but a creepy one;

5)  “Heroes and Villains” – Brian Wilson’s SMiLE track; good for Halloween costumes;

4)  “Reflective Smile” – a Moody Blues poem set to music that begins “Your painted smile hides you…”;

3)  “Ninjas” – the Barenaked Ladies song from their new album that ends “If you take off their masks, they’ll be smiling”;

2)  “Brilliant Disguise” – classic Bruce Springsteen; again, not a Halloween song, but speaks for itself;

and…

1)  “Werewolves of London” – the quintessential Warren Zevon Halloween-worthy tune!!

For some reason, I’m filled with things I want to keep writing about, but we’re about to kick back and watch a flick — possibly North by Northwest.  Not exactly a scary movie, but a classic nonetheless.

I’ll leave you with a challenge to Jeff that Jim initiated last night — come on, Jeff, joing us in lady land.  And I’m not making a Jimi Hendrix reference.  No, I’m referring to the fact that this is my third cover song in a row that was originally sung by a female singer, and Jim shared an incredible Diana Ross interpretation.  Jump on the bandwagon!

Regardless of the gender of tomorrow’s session, I hope you’ll come back for some amaze-za-zing videos by Jeff and Jim.

See you next session!

By Chris Moore:

And welcome once again, one and all, to the most recent installment of new, original music here at the Laptop Sessions music blog.  We like to call this “Original Wednesday,” as we take a break from our daily acoustic covers to air a song written by one of us.

Today’s selection is the second in my “New Album Preview Project.”  Each time I post an original song, I will record the next song in order of my preliminary track listing for my new album.  From now until I’ve posted them all, I’ll be continuing this project, and hopefully it won’t be long after I finish this little side project that I will finish recording the actual album.

Probably the most difficult part of this project is that I needed to come up with a track listing now, as opposed to when I usually do — after I’ve recorded the principal tracks for an album.  To be honest, this order may change by the time I actually release the album, but it’ll be interesting to see how close I came to estimating what the final product will look like.

“No More” is going to be the second track on the album — one with strong guitars up in the mix and an energetic, driving beat.  The song is fairly self-explanatory, particularly in the first verse or so.  What I like about the song (and another reason why I like having the track so early on the album) is that the second half can be interpreted in a few different ways.  This works, as I hope you will see when it is released, for the album concept as a whole.

On the heels of Jim’s big announcement today, I’m definitely getting the itch to see my numbers going more quickly in an upwards direction, so I hope to come back with good news and milestones in the weeks and months ahead, to join him in these exciting times for the music blog.

Thank you, as always, to our loyal viewers (and, if you aren’t one, I hope you will be one starting now!).  This is really only the second or third time I’ve played this song in full since I finished writing it, so it’s just a starting poing.  I hope you enjoy it and see the potential in it.  That’ll be it for me for now, but stay tuned for Jeff and then Jim and then I’ll be back on Saturday.

See you next session!

Gotta love a milestone day.  I just predicted it would happen yesterday, as I had 397 subscribers.  Even as I write this now, I’m already up to 404!  Talk about progress- that’s 404 people that took the time to watch one of my videos and decided they needed to be updated every time I post one!  It’s so exciting to think about that, because I’m sure I don’t know anywhere close to 404 people…let alone 404 that ever gave our music the time of day here in CT.  So, I’m very proud of our worldwide success.

I’m looking forward to more milestones in the near future, as these things seem to happen exponentially.  So, we’ll look forward to the next great milestone very soon!

By Jim Fusco:

Wow, “Tuesday Afternoon” posted on a Tuesday afternoon!  Okay, well, a Tuesday evening, but still.  I swear I didn’t even plan it and even just realized as I was beginning to type my post.  But, it fits so well!

I love this song and the Moody Blues, of course.  “Tuesday Afternoon” is the afternoon section of the Moodies’ first album with their second lineup (after the addition of Justin Hayward and John Lodge and the subtraction of Denny Laine and Clint Warwick).  The album is “Days of Future Passed” and stands as one of the classics.  It has reached classic status because it’s one of the first true concept albums.  It also is the first real fusion of a rock band with a classical orchestra.  It’s almost surreal listening to the album.  This album alone (not to mention the ten great albums they did AFTER this one) should’ve given them a one-way ticket into the Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame.  It’s so stupid that they’re not in.  I heard that the Hall doesn’t consider them a “rock” group.  Are you serious?  Have they ever even heard “Story in Your Eyes”?  Or, I don’t know, “I’m Just a Singer in A Rock’n'Roll Band”????  That doesn’t give it away?   My God, and they’re discounting the fact that the Moody Blues had some of the best musicians ever in Justin Hayward on guitar, John Lodge on bass, Graeme Edge on drums, Mike Pinder on piano and mellotron (which he truly pioneered as an instrument rather than just an effects machine), and Ray Thomas, who played a brilliant flute.  This issue always makes me so angry.  The Hall of Fame uses the same argument for not letting Chicago in.  Are you freakin’ serious?  Those guys had more hits than Muhammed Ali!  I just don’t get it.

Anyway, this song falls in the mid-point of the album, as the album takes the listener on a trip throughout an entire day.  I love that concept.  It’s so original.  Of course, the album ends with one of the all-time great songs in “Nights in White Satin”, but “Tuesday Afternoon” was a big hit in its own right.  In fact, I even heard it today while waiting in line at Subway for lunch.

By the way, in case anyone’s being keeping track, I got a new job.  It’s great: a nice atmosphere, professional collegues (what a change from my last job), and I’m getting paid 33% more than I ever have.  It took me three long months to land it, and I know I won’t let anything screw it up this time around.  I have a nice outlook now, especially because it’s good to be a part of a company that’s actually hiring in these economic times.  That’s a good sign for me…and for getting my loved ones Christmas presents, too!  I’m looking forward to a nice holiday season now.

I hope you enjoy this video as another Tuesday afternoon passes us by.  I’ll be back on Friday for yet another acoustic cover song from the Beach Boys, whom I haven’t covered in a very long time.  This song is from a composer, though, that I haven’t covered yet!  So, I’ll keep you guessing on that one for a couple days and to pacify you in the meantime, I present Chris and Jeff tomorrow and Thumpin’ Thursday (TM).  I’ll also be back (hopefully sooner than Friday) to announce yet another big milestone, so stay tuned!