The Laptop Sessions: “…Baby One More Time” (A Fountains of Wayne Acoustic Rock Cover Song of a Britney Spears Pop Song)

Friday, October 31st, 2008

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!

The Laptop Sessions: “Come See About Me” (Diana Ross & the Supremes Acoustic Cover Song)

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to your “Thumpin’ Thursday ™®©” video with me, the “special character using” Jim Fusco!

Tonight, I continue Chris’ trend of female vocalists with a song from yet another “new” artist to the series: Diana Ross and the Sumpremes!  I hope Jeff will follow with another woman-sung song this weekend.  Will he come through?  Hey, I’m sure he never thought I’d actually use the special symbols for Thumpin’ Thursday!

Diana Ross and the Sumpremes had so many hits- and listening back to them, there were quite a few that I really loved growing up.  She had such a great voice in the 60s.  I usually find something I don’t like about women’s voices (ie, the INCREDIBLY annoying voices of Tegan and Sarah), but Diana Ross actually sits in the very exclusive category of women singers I like, which also incudes Brian Wilson’s daughters, Carnie and Wendy.

And, yes, I’m keeping the streak alive: not only have I done every single Laptop Sessions video in the original key, I’ve also done each video in the original OCTAVE, too!  For this reason, I think this video came out especially great- one take, and a chance to really falsetto-it-up.  I think it’s a really natural performance, too, which helps.  That makes two videos in a row that I’m especially proud of.

I never thought I would do a song from Diana Ross, but I’ve always found that the best videos (and the ones that get us the most YouTube hits) are the ones where we take a song and really make it our own.  No one would ever expect me to bust out a Motown hit from a 60s female singer.  But, I did it and I’m proud of it!

Now, as a final note- I’ll be posting on Sunday for the start of the week, but my Original Wednesday song will be the first one after the big presidential election Tuesday night.  I’m so anxious/nervous/hopeful and I’m looking forward to posting a video knowing who our next President will be.  So, we’ll see what happens.  I hope you have a good night and a great Halloween.  Maybe Chris will sing a Cher song or something truly scary to match his equally scary choice of a Tegan and Sarah song two days ago!

The Laptop Sessions: “Easy” (Jeff Copperthite Original Acoustic Cover Song)

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to Original Wednesday!  It’s Jeff today giving you an original song for our Wednesday edition.  It’s our favorite day of the week here.

Today I bring you yet another video from my 2008 album “Greenlight”.  The song is the last track of the album and is called “Easy”.  Jim was so kind to enlighten me that on Greenlight, I have two songs that are also Barenaked Ladies songs.  I think i’ll have to see if they are coverable songs and do them for kicks.

Of the songs I wrote for Greenlight, this was the first one I wrote in 2007, which was 2 years after another song on the album (”$500).  It set off a nice set of songwriting for me - probably the best of my life.  This song got written in two parts - 1st verse while I was in the old apartment, 2nd verse while in our new condo.  It was also the song that convinced Jim that I should consider recording a new album (which happened thankfully - that was a lot of fun).

I only have a few more Original Wednesdays left in the year, and I will be providing you with three all new songs - I PROMISE!  And yes, if I can get some more solid songs together, another album in the future is certainly a possibility.

Tomorrow Jim will do his best impression of a Thumpin’ Thursday™®© video.  But if it doesn’t have my special characters, then…well, it’s just another video (Just kidding Jim - it will be awesome i’m sure!).

The Laptop Sessions: “You Wouldn’t Like Me” (Tegan & Sara Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to your Tuesday edition of the Laptop Sessions.  After my quite lengthy post last time, I’m going to keep this one fairly brief — not because I want to be lazy and write less, but because I still have a lot of work to finish before tomorrow morning.

Tonight, I’m pleased to present my second video in a three-part series where I present a song from not only a new band to the Laptop Sessions, but also originally done by a female lead singer.  Now, if you’ve come to the music blog before, then you know that my vocal range does not exactly lend itself to great heights…  But, even though I had to drop an octave for this song tonight, I’ve been true to the Laptop Sessions promise to always record in the original key!  Indeed, that’s one of the reasons that Jim started the Laptop Sessions — to create an alternative to carelessly and ineffectively recorded cover songs on YouTube.

While I don’t expect anyone to be wowed by my Johnny Cash-like adaptation tonight (I’m exaggerating with this description, of course!), it was interesting to record for a couple reasons.  The biggest one is the rhythm of the first verse.  It was difficult at first to keep the rhythm of the guitar, while at the same time being true to the tune and timing of the verse.  As with any acoustic cover I’ve recorded, though, I took the time to practice this opening over and over, beginning a few months ago and then coming back to it tonight.  In the end, it’s exciting to see the playback and know that, if only in baby steps, my abilities and stylistic experimentations are expanding because of this session-a-day project.

I first saw Tegan and Sara when they warmed up for Ben Folds in concert.  There was something about the duo that I liked, and even though they are twins, I’ve always liked the quiet, calming presence of Sara.  Which is odd, since I’m usually most interested in the lead singer or songwriter of a band.  Anyway, I bought their 2004 album So Jealous, and although I found a lot of the songs to be repetitive within themselves (i.e. a lack of new lyrical material past the halfway point of any given song), I also found the album really catchy.  I liked the upbeat sound and their vocal harmonies are really great.  They’re not exactly the Beach Boys by any stretch of the imagination, but they’ve found their own niche.  One of my favorite memories of this album is when I first bought it and played it for my sister, who liked it very much.  I just remember sitting in the basement rocking out to it with her.  We don’t exactly have the same tastes in music, so it’s exciting when we find some legitimate crossover!

Anyway, this song — “You Wouldn’t Like Me” — is the first track from the album.  When I did my usual Wikipedia/google run tonight, I didn’t learn all that much new about the band.  However, one thing I didn’t know was that the White Stripes recorded another track, “Walking With A Ghost,” from this 2004 album.

Okay, without further ado, here’s my version of their song.  Keep coming back to the best acoustic cover song music blog on the web, as you don’t want to miss Jeff’s original song tomorrow or Jim’s “Thumpin’ Thursday,” as Jeff would say.  And, of course, I’ll be back on Friday — this time, with a song that I can guarantee you know (but probably not the version that you’re familiar with)…

See you next session!

The Laptop Sessions: “America” (Simon & Garfunkel Acoustic Cover Song)

Monday, October 27th, 2008

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to yet another edition of the Laptop Sessions here with me, Jim Fusco!

Oh, yeah, keeping the dream alive tonight with yet ANOTHER “new” band to the Laptop Sessions.  This one is probably the biggest shame left that we haven’t covered because…they’re ACOUSTIC!  Simon and Garfunkel stand as one of the most influential and popular acts of all time.  I was just talking to my father about them the other day.  He pointed out that they’re the best of friends, but just can’t seem to work together.  That’s the way it’s always been with my brother Mike and I.  We get along so well…as long as we’re not working on anything together.  I ‘m always so steadfast in realizing this fact, but Mike tends to either forget or just disregard it.  Thus, we end up working together again and the whole cycle begins.

Anyway, even though Paul Simon went on to some more, let’s say, interesting works in his later career (still waiting for his big rock comeback album), he did some pop classics with Art Garfunkel, also known as the luckiest man in the music business.  I mean, the man not only didn’t write any of S&G’s songs, he didn’t even play the guitar in the band!

I heard this song again while listening the WCJM Free Internet Radio show, “The All-American Show”.  I realized how great this tune really is.  And, especially because we’re on the brink of the most important presidential election in many years, this song is all the more important to play now.  “America” takes us on a journey of a couple going on a cross-country trip to “find” the real America.  I think the man realizes that everyone is out on their own trips, finding America…even on the bleak New Jersey Turnpike.

I think this video stands as one of my favorites now because it just works so well with one person and a guitar.  The tune is great.  The guitar part is cool (I love that walking down C chord), too.  I hope you’ll enjoy it and come back for more.  I’ll be back on Thumpin’ Thursday (didn’t Jeff say something about using special characters?) and I hope you’ll be back tomorrow and Wednesday for great cover songs and original music from Chris and Jeff!

The Laptop Sessions: “End of the Line” (Travelling Wilburys Acoustic Cover)

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening and welcome to Sunday’s edition of The Laptop Sessions.  Tonight is my first cover from this band, but 5th for the site.

The Travelling Wilburys were advertised to me as an “all star band” by Jim, and boy they sure are.  There aren’t many songs by them (two albums worth) but the ones that I have heard are just awesome.  This one included, and I had no idea this song was by them until I heard it again.

The song is “End of the Line” from their first album.  Every member except Bob Dylan is featured on lead vocals at some point in the song.

You’ll notice some voice inflection at the seperate parts where each singer is singing the original song.

I hope you stay tuned for even more from laptopsessions.com!  Come back tomorrow for Jim’s next cover.