The Laptop Sessions: “Essential Question” (Original Music by Indie Songwriter Chris Moore)

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

By Chris Moore:

Well, it’s the best time of the week. It’s the time when we songwriters — Jim Fusco, Jeff Copperthite, and myself — get to really believe what we boast: that this is the best acoustic cover songs music blog on the web. And we get to do that…

…by not recording an acoustic cover song!

We still record and post a music video of an acoustic song, but it is not a cover. On Original Wednesday, we bring you an original song for your enjoyment that you most likely have never heard before. Today, I bring you a song that I have had kicking around for a few years called “Essential Question.” It never quite made the cut for Love Out of Fashion, either because I hadn’t finished writing it or because I didn’t feel it was up to par. It finally saw the light of day as a track on Weekend Demos… but only on the bonus disc. I don’t really know why it never made the cut, even on a demos album. Overall, I’ve always felt that the song was a bit simplistic, particularly in the verse and bridge. I do like the chorus a lot, though, and that’s one of the reasons that I wanted to break it out for an original Wednesday.

I have been working on some new songs, and I hope to bring an all-new one to the music blog very soon! For now, just be sure to hurry back for another great, all-new acoustic cover song (business as usual!) by Jeff tomorrow…

See you next session!

The Laptop Sessions: “Strummin’” (Original Jim Fusco 12-String Acoustic Guitar Song)

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to yet another edition of “Original Wednesday” here on the best music video blog in the universe: The Laptop Sessions!  “Original Wednesday” is the once-a-week occurance where we put aside our acoustic rock cover songs and play you an original from our vast catalog.  Tonight, it’s my turn, which comes but once every three weeks, so you know it’s going to be a good one!

“Strummin’” is a song off of my album “That’s All Folks” and was also a bonus track on my earlier album “Formula”.  It actually appeared as my first music video on the Enhanced CD portion of that disc.  I put the video up on YouTube- you can see how much thinner my face was then…and it was only 2004!  Watch the song HERE.

This is a very simple song…well, actually it uses a few jazz chords that I learned while taking my only guitar class in college.  I already knew how to play, but this class filled in a lot of the music theory for me, and I was the best student in the class.  I was actually the only person in class to play Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child”.  So, I took a couple of those great sounding jazz chords and turned them into a song of my own.

I needed to finish this song for that music video, which we were going to film the next day.  We even got clearance to use my old high school’s auditorium to tape it, so we had to get it recorded and done right.

So, I wrote the rest of the song quickly and tried out my newfound soloing technique that I also learned while taking that guitar class.

All the lyrics in this song are true-life lyrics.  But there’s a line at the end, “Highly doubt this song will make me a star.”  For some reason, I always thought that this would be the song to make me a star- just because it’s so different and clever.  I hope all of our loyal visitors will send this video around to their friends- if anything, it’ll give you a smile.

Enjoy this song tonight and make sure to come back on Saturday, when I’ll be premiering my first-ever Laptop Sessions cover song on piano.

The Laptop Sessions: “Nobody” (MoU Original Acoustic Cover Song)

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

By Jeff Copperthite:

That’s right - it is the best day of the week.  A day where you can hear something from the Fusco-Moore library.  As promised on Sunday, I present you with…well, more than a Jim Fusco song.  It’s actually a Chris Moore, Jim Fusco, and Mike Fusco song.  Heh - finally I get to do a song that has Chris Moore in the credits.

It is from their MoU EP “Meaningless” (check it out at the FMP Store here), a song called “Nobody”.  The song, like every song on this EP, has a double meaning (or, a “meaningless” meaning).  Short and sweet, this song was originally conceived on the piano.  I decided it needed the laptopsessions.com acoustic treatment, and covered it on my acoustic.

Of course, I also made a couple other changes that only Chris, Jim, and Mike may notice.  Well, you may notice it too if you have listened to the EP!

Make sure you come back all week, where Jim and Chris will post their latest acoustic cover videos, and on Saturday you will see me cover my third Pink Floyd song - also by request.  If you’ve been paying attention to recent posts, you can probably guess which song it’ll be.

Enjoy today’s original, and come back tomorrow for the next Jim Fusco pick.  You may notice he’ll look a bit scared, because he knows who will be crushing him in a homerun derby on Friday.

The Laptop Sessions: “Feel For Love” (An Acoustic Rock Song by Indie Music Songwriter Chris Moore)

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to yet another all-new installment of the Laptop Sessions! Being that it’s Hump Day, I’m excited — for those of you who may be new to the blog, I’m excited because every Wednesday here is “Original Wednesday.” For just a moment, we songwriters who contribute to this acoustic rock cover song music blog just take a moment to put aside the covers and record a song that we have written. It comes but once every three weeks for us…

Tonight, I’ve recorded “Feel For Love,” a song from my most recent solo release, the EP entitled Love Out of Fashion. To be honest, I’ll never know why I didn’t just finish recording one more song during the recording sessions (and I actually did have one demo with basic tracks that never made the final cut).  If I had, then I would have accumulated nine songs and I could have called the EP a full album.  But, I guess nine is kind of a cop out after most of my earlier solo albums have an average of 12 songs or so.  Either way, I was satisfied that an 8-song EP was not a cop out, so…

I don’t know that I’ve ever told anyone, but “Feel For Love” was the first song recorded for the project.  I actually began recording with the idea of making a set of demos to present to Jim Fusco in order to convince him to produce an album for me the following summer.  Once I got into the process, I just devoted too much time and energy to let the songs sit as demos — I would lay down one acoustic, then add electric to give it the right sound.  After all, I wanted the songs to be presentable to him.  Then I would add background vocals.  And then some more background vocals.  I practiced again and again and again to perfect the solos I wanted for the songs, both harmonica and electric / acoustic guitar.

By the time I had finished eight songs, it was clear that I couldn’t simply burn the songs onto a blank disc for Jim to listen to; I had an EP on my hands.

To this day, I still haven’t recorded an album with Jim as producer, but to be honest, I probably won’t record another project until I’ve fully polished a set of songs and convinced him to let me hire him or at least bribe him with fast food and TNA cards to produce the next Chris Moore solo album.  The simple fact is — especially after hearing the new Masters of the Universe album — I can’t go back to self-producing without drums and without mastering.  Instead, I’m starting to save my pennies and save my dimes…

As a final note, the tracks for Love Out of Fashion became an obsession for me.  I listened to those songs in every way possible — on the computer speakers, on different pairs of headphones, on my stereo, and I even burned multiple copies at different phases to listen to in the car.  One early morning around one a.m. or so, I pulled over in the shopping plaza near my house to be able to listen to the tracks clearly and loudly.  I leaned over the console of my car to get myself as close to the middle as possible, closing my eyes and listening to every nuance of the mix to decide what needed to change and what aspects were finished.  Someone actually pulled into the lot next to me to ask if I was okay and was my car working?  I, of course, said I was fine.  What I should have said was that I was, for the first time, really becoming a confident producer of my own music.

Of course, the conspicuous absence of time-keeping drums will forever label Love Out of Fashion a second-class album, which I suppose I’ve come to terms with.  But I’m still proud of it!

Okay, that’s more than enough from me.  I hope you enjoy this and will take the time to comment on it here.  Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for an all-new track from our very own Jeff Copperthite…

See you next session!

The Laptop Sessions: “It’s You” (Jim Fusco Original Acoustic Rock Song)

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to yet another Original Wednesday here on the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!  Tonight, I bring you one of my softer rock songs in “It’s You” from my “big” album “What About Today?”.

This song has a nice tune, but it’s really about the words…which tell you that it’s really not the words that make the song.  Don’t really get it?  Well, then you have to listen to the music video!

Actually, I’ve had a really bad couple of days and I’m more depressed than I’m letting on.  But music always makes me feel better.  The “truth” line really reminds me of my former friend that I used to work with.  He probably doesn’t even know what he did to me, but I know…and unfortunately won’t forget it.

At least the blog’s doing well.  I’m sorry this description couldn’t be longer, but we’re ready to play Risk and I’m prepared to globally dominate Chris for the ump-teenth time.  Until Saturday- enjoy “It’s You”!

The Laptop Sessions: “Waterfalls” (Quilt Acoustic Original Song)

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcoem to our favorite day of the week - Original Wednesday! Where we bring to light the various talents of us in the form of an original song.

Today I am doing an “oldie but somewhat goodie” from Quilt’s library. This is a song that I wrote called “Waterfalls”, and while it didn’t see an official Quilt release until “Patchwork”, I originally wrote and recorded this song back in 1999. It was one of my first ever acoustic guitar songs that I wrote. My friend Scott Jordan also helped me with the lyrics way back when.

I’m sorry if i’ve seemed short with descriptions the past week. I’ve been taking a course at the University of New Haven and it’s intensive. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday since last week. My brain is fried.

Enjoy today’s installment (and enjoy the nice new paint job we just got in the house!), and come back tomorrow for the next acoustic cover song from the one and only Jim Fusco!