By Jeff:

Welcome to the most unusual Thumpin’ Thursday ever!  Unusual because for the first time in what seems like a long time, i’m doing my post while the sun is still out.

I’ll skip a few lines so you can grasp the significance of this occasion.

That’s right – tonight is the prom i’ve been helping plan for quite some time.  I have to leave in about an hour to be the first person to show up and pay the people.  But it’s going to be a lot of fun, and I can only hope that everyone from our school attends, has fun, eats a lot of good food, and has a memorable evening.

Now, with that said, onto TODAY‘s session (had to do that – it’s monumental to even me).

Today I had a few songs in mind, and had a song ready to go when I got home, but on my short drive today’s song came on my IPod, and I said “Got to remember to look at the name”.  It was this song (oh don’t get me wrong – I knew the band immediately).  I pulled into my garage just as the song came to an end, looked at it, and said this would make a great session choice.

And not just because the song is just over 2 minutes long.

Okay, maybe that contributed a bit, but the other song would’ve only lasted another minute.

The song is “Pulling Teeth” by Green Day from their album “Dookie”.  I think this album is one of the standout albums of the alternative era.  Even if some of the songs were on the simple side, it is a defining album.  This song is different than most of the songs, in that the beat is consistent and not really ultra fast or pressing.  I also find it funny that the lyrics are about a guy being on the receiving end of domestic abuse.

I wanted to say to all of my fans – everything is WONDERFUL.

But i’m really excited to get this evening over.  This has dominated my job for the past month especially, and tomorrow morning I will be especially happy.  This will make doing graduation a cakewalk.

Until then, enjoy today’s session, and i’ll be back next week for another one!

For Green Day chords, tabs, and lyrics, click HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to your all-new Monday edition of the Laptop Sessions.  It’s been a while since I’ve featured a recently released song, so I’m going to put an end to that right now.

Tonight, I present to you “Peacemaker,” a track from Green Day’s 2009 album 21st Century Breakdown.  This is perhaps my quickest turnaround time from the release of a song to the recorded Laptop Session, as this album just hit the record store racks on Saturday.  I don’t know why Green Day opted for a “special Saturday release,” but it was kind of cool to have something brand new (and on sale!) on the shelves when I was browsing Newbury Comics this weekend.

What is my take on the album, you might ask?  Well, it DID knock Bob Dylan’s Together Through Life out of the number one spot in the UK, but I suppose I can overlook that…

Seriously, I don’t really know why I keep buying Green Day records.  One of my favorite lines from the movie Fracture is when a doctor asks the Ryan Gosling character, “Do you always keep asking the same question until you get a different answer?”  He responds, “I’m a lawyer.  That’s what I do.”  In this case, I’ve never been a fan of the band.  I liked early hits like “When I Come Around,” but I couldn’t get into their acclaimed album Dookie.  I’ve never really given it a fair shake, so it has ended up back in my “To Be Listened To” pile (currently housed in my Best Buy-exclusive Together Through Life crate — thank you, Mike!).

I finally picked up their 2004 album American Idiot after recommendations from several friends and critical acclaim from multiple music magazines, but I have yet to get into that album, as well.  I have consistently found it somehow too blunt.  Even the songs that I like — yes, mostly the overplayed radio hits — strike me as too formulated, too stamped out for the enjoyment of the average mainstream listener.  Who knows; perhaps someday I’ll be able to break the code of this concept album.

That is indeed why I picked up this latest installment in the Green Day catalog: it’s a concept album based loosely around the story of two characters named Christian and Gloria.  As with American Idiot, I much prefer to pay attention to the thematic threads.  Now, whereas in the 2004 album I have never been able to appreciate the lyrics, I have found several tracks on this new album that I like for several reasons — the lyrics, the overall instrumental sound, and Billie Joe Armstrong’s vocals.  Not to sound even more critical or anything, but Armstrong’s vocals on American Idiot have a tendency to get on my nerves.  That being said, he plays with his range and style in several different ways on this album.  Some songs are stripped down to basic piano or acoustic, and some songs are layered from top to bottom with spot-on vocal harmonies and distortion guitar blasts.  From start to finish, the album generally knows when to slow it down and when to kick it up a notch.

I have only heard the album three times in full, so I should reserve any final opinions for the future.  What I do know is that I like this concept album much more than American Idiot, from the sound all the way down to the album art.  Like their previous album, the cover artwork and liner notes are beautiful, carefully designed pages that feature the handwritten lyrics and various background designs.  If nothing else, this is a band that tries really hard to create an album that works as a whole.  And, after five years since their last album — more time between releases than ever before — they’ve certainly had enough time to perfect this one!

Without further ado, I’ll let you move on to my cover song music video of “Peacemaker.”  This is sure to be one of Jim’s favorite sessions of the year, so it may be difficult to outdo myself next week.  And yet, I suppose I’ll just have to try…

See you next session!

For the cover song music video, click HERE!

“Peacemaker”
Green Day

Bm
Well, I’ve got a fever,
A non-believer.
I’m in a state of grace,
For I am the caesar.
Bm                           F#
I’m gonna seize the day.
Well, call of the banshee…  Hey, hey.
(Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey)
As God as my witness,
F#                                Bm
The infidels are gonna pay.

Well, call the assassin
The orgasm,
A spasm of love and hate
For what will divide us?
The righteous and the meek…
Well, call of the wild… Hey, hey.
(Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey)
Death to the girl
At the end of the serenade.

F#
Vendetta, sweet vendetta,
F#     Bm
This beretta of the night,
Bm  Em                  Bm
This fire and the desire.
F#                                               Bm
Shots ringing out on a holy parasite.

I’m a killjoy from Detroit
I drink from a well of rage.
I feed off the weakness
With all my love.
Call up the captain… Hey, hey.
(Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey)
Death to the lover that you were
Dreaming of.

This is a standoff,
A molotov cocktail is on the house.
You thought I was a write off;
You better think again.
Call the peacemaker… Hey, hey.
(Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey)
I’m gonna send you back to the place
Where it all began.

Vendetta, sweet vendetta,
This beretta of the night,
This fire and the desire.
Shots ringing out on a holy parasite.

Instrumental:  Bm – F# – Bm – F#  Bm   Em   Bm   F#   Bm

Well, now the caretaker’s
The undertaker.
Now, I’m gonna go out
And get the peacemaker.
This is the neo
St. Valentine’s Massacre.
Well, call up the Gaza… Hey, hey.
(Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey)

Death to the ones
At the end of the serenade. (x4)

** These chords and lyrics are interpretations and transcriptions, respectively, and are the sole property of the copyright holder(s). They are posted on this website free of charge for no profit for the purpose of study and commentary, as allowed for under the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law, and should only be used for such personal and/or academic work. **

We’re looking for more Guest Sessions submissions! So, sit down, pull up your acoustic guitar and camera, post the video on YouTube, and CLICK HERE!

It’s finally Friday and it’s time to add yet another guest to this, the Guest Sessions project, hosted at the best cover song and new music video blog on the web — the Laptop Sessions!

For tonight’s video, we are happy to bring you only the second Green Day cover that’s been released on the blog.  Tonight’s guest comes to you from Bournemouth, UK.  Isn’t that the beauty of the Internet?  Mike White, our “Guest” performer, can record a video in the UK and I can post it on this music video blog while sitting in bed in Connecticut, United States.  We’ve become so used to this web that it’s not all that amazing to most of us, particularly the younger generation (myself included).  I take it for granted sometimes, but every so often I step back and consider how amazing this really is…

Tonight’s selection is “Church on Sunday,” the third track on Green Day’s Warning: album.  Warning: was released in 2000 and rose to both gold status and number 4 on the Billboard charts.  Even still, this was the least impressive showing the band had ever had, since their debut album Dookie. What makes material from Warning: ideal for the Laptop Sessions, though, is the fact that this album incorporates acoustic elements more than any previous Green Day release.

And you may be seeing another Green Day cover song soon, as the band is planning to release their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, in May 2009.  Supposedly, it has been strongly influenced by the work of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and the Beatles, and is “more power pop than punk.”  Interesting… (I hope…)

So, without further ado, you should click on the video below and let Mike White’s energetic performance speak for itself!