An All-New Cover Music Video added to the Members-Only Section!

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By Chris Moore:

Hey there y’all!  So, I’m aware that this isn’t my night and all, but I have some good news…

One more video has arrived!

Yes, it’s true.  In addition to Jim’s regularly scheduled cover song music video, you can check out an all-new video in the members-only section.  If you’re not a member, you need to sign up!  If not, you’ll miss my recording of Wilco’s “How to Fight Loneliness.”  I didn’t feel right releasing this as a normal Laptop Session, as I already had recorded a Wilco song for my Tuesday 11/18/2008 video.  So, I figured there was no better way to handle it than to add it as a free video in the members-only section.

So, don’t wait around, get on over to the members-only section and kick back to my cover version of this great track off Wilco’s Summerteeth album.  I should also give a shout-out to Jim for helping me figure out the A6 and Bbdim chords I needed to learn in order to play this song.  It’s a fairly simple song, but I really enjoyed learning it.  I’ve been playing it a lot recently, so I figured I just had to share it.

Enough said.  Go to the members section!  Press play!  Enjoy, courtesy of the best acoustic cover song music blog in the universe…

See you for tomorrow’s session!

My 100th “Favorite” YouTube Video!

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By Chris Moore:

Hello all you faithful Laptop Sessions viewers!  I’m back so soon after my previous post to announce a milestone that, in all actuality, doesn’t really mean all that much to anyone other than me…

…my 100th “favorite” YouTube video!!

That’s right, today I clicked on the “Favorite” button for the 100th time since I signed up for YouTube on October 26, 2007.  I figured that it was time to take a retrospective glance back through my 100 favorite videos and choose the top ten best videos — my votes for the ten best videos on YouTube.  You may not agree with me, and you may even outright disagree with some of my choices.  But you can tell a lot about me based just on these ten.

So, without further ado, here they are in reverse order:

10)  “Please Stay” Live at the Webster Theatre

Possibly my all-time favorite moment touring with MoU, and it’s captured here on video!  We played not only the Webster Theatre but, as a last-minute promotion, the main stage!  This is probably one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written and my favorite performance — for once, I think we all felt like we had, if only for a moment, made it to the big time.

9)  Counting Crows – “1492” Live in the Studio

What a cool video — an inside peek into what the recording process looks like for one of my favorite bands, as they recorded one of my favorite albums of the year!

8)  The Wallflowers – “Beautiful Side of Somewhere”

This is the official music video for this Rebel, Sweetheart track.  It’s such an interesting concept, incredibly rendered.  I love to watch it.  I love to listen to it.  And I NEVER would have seen it without YouTube for two reasons — one, I never watch music video television, and two, those stations would never play the Wallflowers anyway.  (Which is a big reason why I don’t watch them!)

7)  Jeff Tweedy – People Talking During Concert

This is the video that officially pushed my interest in Wilco and Jeff Tweedy to the next level.  I officially felt like I had reached fan status after watching this and cracking up, loving his onstage presence and personality.  I could see Jim or I wanting to say this to some of the crowds we have played in front of!

6)  TNA: Sting arrives to help Christian Cage

One big change for me this year has been my loyal viewing of wrestling.  I never would have believed it if someone had told me even a couple years ago that I would spend every Thursday in Jim’s parents’ movie theater of a basement, eagerly awaiting the next match on TNA: Impact!.  But I do, and this video is one of my all-time favorites.  Does it get any better than seeing Christian Cage in the ring (albeit a not-so-flattering moment for him) and then seeing the lights go down, only to come back on to the sight of Sting clearing house?  The answer is no!

5)  Elliott Smith on David Letterman

One of my absolute favorite videos and truly proving the merits of YouTube, as I would never have seen this performance of Smith’s “Stupidity Tries” otherwise.  It’s not just that it’s a great performance, but I love to watch this because — if only for three minutes — the typically reclusive Smith took center stage on a primary late-night talk show, playing one of his best tracks from perhaps his greatest album.  I love it!

4)  R.E.M. – “Living Well is the Best Revenge”

This is the music video they released for this track off their 2008 album Accelerate.  What an intriguing concept: play the song in the car, while driving!  This is exactly what Jim, Mike, and I would do when we were in high school and college, just driving around and making up ridiculous songs (especially when accompanied by Alberto Distefano)!  A great YouTube find…

3)  Adam Sandler – 50 First Dates

This is the first of two videos that Jim will no doubt recall… as I played him this Adam Sandler clip about 100 times this past year.  He already had a similar clip on his iTunes that I used to beg him to play every time I saw he was on his computer with iTunes open.  It’s hilarious, classic Adam Sandler combined with a reference to the Beach Boys.  How could it get any better?

2)  Barenaked Ladies- “Pollywog in a Bog (Extended Version)

I first chose the Kevin Hearn-illustrated “Drawing” video for this list.  Then, I remembered this amazing music video for this Snacktime track.  This is one that you will enjoy — any age, any musical preference, whether you like BNL or not.  Puppets playing musical instruments, a reggae-style middle, and did I mention REALLY cute puppets?  Yet another case of BNL creating impressive work that relatively few will ever see.

And, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

1)  Super Troopers – Farva food scene

Okay, this comes with the disclaimer that this is some mature language in this clip.  And by some, I mean a lot.  But it is, hands down, my favorite YouTube clip of all time.  It is my favorite moment in the Super Troopers movie.  It makes me laugh no matter how many times I play it, and I’ve played it a lot.  If I played the Adam Sandler clip for Jim 100 times, then I played this one for him 1,000 times!  And, whenever I watch or even think of it, I am reminded of spending fun, relaxing times with my closest friends of all-time, watching late-night movies, eating late-night snacks and Taco Bell, drinking fruity-flavored beers, and just enjoying life.  So, this video wins based on all the criteria I can think of — number of times played, memories evoked while viewing, overall quality, etc.  Go ahead, you know you’re interested…

http://www.youtube.com/chrismooremusic

Okay, I can’t resist.  Here are the “HONORABLE MENTIONS:”

– “Sting Custom Titantron (TNA Theme)” – Very appropriate (and oft-employed by yours truly) while turning the light off and on, appearing with a baseball bat to beat up a friend.  Jim can vouch for this one!

– “The Wallflowers – ‘One Headlight’ (Feat. Bruce Springsteen)” – The clip isn’t the best quality, but the performance is top-notch, the duet is a match made in heaven (in my mind, at least), and I would have completely missed out on this great video if it hadn’t been for YouTube!

– “Cowboys of Moo Mesa intro” – For some reason, I found this online after a conversation with Jim and just played it and played it.  And played it.  And played it some more.  I think Jim, Mike, and I will someday do a full-band version of this… that’s how well we know it now!  And YOU tell ME — how many people do you have in your life that know the “Cowboys of Moo Mesa” lyrics by heart?  There you go ladies, that’s at least one reason to look up my number and cross your fingers…  🙂

“Shine” (Trey Anastasio Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Hey HEY!  Welcome to your Friday night Laptop Sessions fix here with me, Jim Fusco!  I simply can’t believe it’s my night again…  Now, I’m going to be going away this weekend for another overnight trip.  The last time I did that, the entire Laptop Sessions site (not to mention all my other ones) went down for three days!  We lost all of our Google rankings- it was a mess.  So, I’ve invested time and money to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, and I pray for 36 hours without my computer and a site that still works when I get back.  Cross your fingers!

Tonight is another new night, and I’m bringing you yet ANOTHER new band!  Do I ever run out of these things?

I challenge the other three guys on here to do a song from Trey Anastasio’s band “Phish”, as I’ve taken a song from his solo career after the band originally broke up.  I got into this band via a friend of mine who was a big Phish phan…I mean, fan.  The album (also called “Shine”) was new at the time and was Trey’s second solo studio album.  I instanly fell in love with it.  The songs are very accessible and they trim out the minutes upon minutes of jam-band soloing that was so popular in Phish’s work.

I’m more of the three minute song kinda guy, and the album “Shine” delivers just that: three minute pop gems from a guy with amazing guitar skills, a great hand at songwriting, and the classic too-much-drugs-over-my-career wobbly voice.  The album isn’t perfect by any means, but there are just some great songs up and down the boards that I truly enjoyed for an extended play in my car’s rotation.

My band, “Masters of the Universe” covered this song in concert and we used to kick some rear.  We had five part harmonies going on the chorus and the song really rocked.  I believe it’s on our first DVD.

I’m looking forward to my trip tomorrow.  Maybe I can do some mobile blogging on my iPhone!  Then you can experience scenic Lenox, MA, too.  Until (dreaded) Monday, have a great weekend and enjoy tonight’s acoustic cover song music video!

“You Showed Me” (The Turtles cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Tuesday…what a day.  Not enough to be mid-week, and not far enough away from the past weekend to let you forget about it.  At least Chris got the day off today, so he texted me updates on his (nothing) day every half hour.  If only I didn’t only have 200 texts a month…and if only Chris were home every day.

Onto tonight’s video- actually posted before midnight for once!

I told you that you’d get a twin-spin with The Turtles, and here it is.  “You Showed Me” is a song I’ve known for most of my 24 years, hearing it on the oldies radio station 102.9 “Big D 103” here in Connecticut.  But I got to revisit the song after my family and I got into the Byrds.  We listened to every single released (and unreleased, for that matter) Byrds song and loved every minute…except for David Crosby’s “Mind Garden”, my vote for the ABSOLUTE worst song of all time.  Go ahead- go search for it and tell me it isn’t.  I dare you.

So, how do the Byrds fit in here?  Well, we came across this song again on the Byrds “Preflyte” sessions box set, which is awesome, by the way.  It’s a collection of all of their songs before they ever recorded their first album with Columbia Records.  It’s a great collection, especially because the band wrote most of the songs.  The lead singer and songwriter at that time was Gene Clark.  He wrote some of the world’s best songs and it’s been a pleasure to cover his songs on multiple occasions here on the best music video blog on the internet!

Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn (Jim at the time) of the Byrds wrote “You Showed Me”.  They recorded mutliple versions of this song with the Byrds during the “Preflyte” sessions, but the song never showed up on an official Byrds album.  Instead, they gave it (or maybe Columbia gave it- I’ll have to check that out) to The Turtles to turn into a HUGE hit.  Well, I’m glad it became a hit either way and it’s just another example of Gene Clark’s amazing songwriting abilities.  It makes it all the more sad that he barely ever got recognition for it.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s video, as I gear up for yet another “new” band to the Laptop Sessions on Friday.  Which one?  Well, let me give you a hint.  This man was (and I think may actually be getting back) with one of the most famous “stoner” bands of all time.  You know, ridiculously long concerts, etc.  Which band?  Which man?  You’ll just have to wait until Friday to find out!  Thankfully we have Chris and Jeff posting their great videos in between to tide us over!  See you then.