Tag Archives: chris moore

“Maybe Katie” (Barenaked Ladies Cover)

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Welcome to your Terrific Tuesday edition of the Laptop Sessions!  Tonight, I’m the first person to post using our brand new WordPress 2.6.1 version of the blog.  Of course, on your end, you shouldn’t see any difference, but on our end, the difference is vast…and great.  For one thing, our visual editor won’t mess with our code anymore, so we’ll be able to post chords to our cover songs more often than before.

Okay, on to tonight’s video.  Tonight is a classic one in terms of my live performances.  The “band” of Chris, Jim, and Becky (see Chris’ post a few days ago) was formed in 2004 and we loved to sing this Barenaked Ladies song, “Maybe Katie” in concert.  Then, we didn’t realize we were singing it in the wrong key- a half step below the original key.  Rest assured that for this video, we fixed the error, as all the Laptop Sessions songs are always in the original key- the ONLY way it should be!  Listen up, cover song musicians on YouTube and elsewhere: YOU REALLY STINK IF YOU DO IT IN THE WRONG KEY!!!  There’s no exception to this- if it’s out of your range and you change the key, then you don’t deserve to do the song.  I sang “Baby Please Come Home” by Darlene Love at our Christmas party in the original key and that song is ridiculously high.  You didn’t see me take the easy way out.  And this is why our motto is “Putting an end to bad YouTube covers FOREVER!”  Wow, the tangents tonight…

Moving on, this song is off of one of my favorite albums, “Everything To Everyone”.  I do believe that it’s probably their fourth best album behind “Gordon”, “Barenaked Ladies Are Men” (the almost 30-track version), and “Maroon”.  This album has some input from the other band members, which if you’ve read some of my past rants, means a lot to me in a band.

We do “Maybe Katie” a bit differently than the album’s version in the sense that the BNL version has some heavy electric guitars on the chorus and middle sections.  Our version is completely acoustic and has more of a “folk” feel to it.  That’s what happens when you don’t have a drummer handy…that isn’t already reserved to play the solo like I am.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s Laptop Session.  Thanks again and see you tomorrow!

“Strummin’” (Original Jim Fusco 12-String Acoustic Guitar Song)

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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.

At the “RISK” of losing friends and family members… (Part 2 of 2)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello, FMP fans!  This is Chris Moore, back one more time to give you the final update on this RISK-y situation that’s been developing at FMP Studios over the past couple days.  As of early this morning, there is a clear victor who has achieved global domination…

…and his name is Jim Fusco!

Congratulations go to Jim after a long a brutal set of battles across the globe.  At any given time since I was eliminated from the game, it appeared that Mike would win.  Then it seemed Jim would win for sure.  Then Mike seemed the obvious winner.  In the end, Jim won the final battle in Brazil with six troops versus Mike’s final troop.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that there was literally only ONE troop in every other territory — it was that close!

After the game, Jim and Mike were kind enough to pose for a photo op.

Risk Global Domination at FMP Studios - Jim and Mike Fusco 2

The smile on Jim’s face is understandable, but let’s take a closer look at Mike’s reaction…

Risk Global Domination at FMP Studios - Mike Fusco

Well, that about does it for me, at least for now.  Be sure to check back soon for not only the best acoustic rock cover songs, but also intimate behind-the-scenes news of new rock music recording and global domination at FMP Studios!!

At the “RISK” of losing friends and family members… (Part 1 of 2)

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By Chris Moore:

Hey there, folks. I’m back so soon after announcing the great news of our record-breaking day on Tuesday… to announce the friendship-breaking, heartache-causing, family strife-invoking events that took place in the meeting area of FMP Studios early on the morning of Thursday, July 24.

Early on, the scene looked something like this…

Risk Global Domination at FMP Studios

As you’ll note, the western third of the board is almost all red, the central third is almost all green, and the eastern third is almost all blue. Just for reference sake, I was red, Mike was green, and Jim was blue.

You may have guessed by now that, after recording some background vocals for Jim’s upcoming solo release, the boys of Fusco-Moore Productions kicked back with a game of Risk – the game of global domination, as the saying goes.

Early on, it was anybody’s game. And, from looking at the board, you might say — hey, they look about even. They must be happy.

A glance at the next picture will explain how wrong that statement is…

Risk Global Domination at FMP Studios - Jim and Mike Fusco

Some highlights of the game were the tension between green and red between South America and Africa, a standoff that remained non-violent until the end of my time in the game. Also, Mike and I took turns fighting for Iceland. In the pictures above, I own it so that Mike won’t own the entire continent of Europe, but then he just takes it back from me on his next turn. Jim quickly became the ignored party, having less troops than the other players, but being a silent killer. No, ladies and gentlemen, I’m not talking about farts. I’m talking about how he suddenly took ownership of Asia and maintained control of Australia AND a foothold in North America.

It is my strong opinion that I lost the game the moment, after having fought Mike for Iceland and winning, I forgot to attack Jim in Alaska, the one country in both Americas that I didn’t own at the time.

And he had only one man there!

Within a couple turns, he had flooded my troops, made a pact with Mike, and I was wiped out. So begins the final, dark chapter of the evening…

Risk Global Domination at FMP Studios - The Bitter End

Well, dark for Jim, at least at first. It seemed that Mike would wipe through Jim’s troops, but the battles quickly proved that he would not prove so easy a target.

At the time of publication, the battles are still raging on throughout northern Africa, Mike’s original stronghold and a continent that saw no action until the final moves of the game. The final results will be posted when they become available, along with friendship statuses…

WINNER:  Check back soon!!

RELATIONSHIP STATUS:

  • Jim and Chris: BEEN BETTER – Jim’s feeling good, riding high on having lasted so long. But, on the other hand, I’m not so happy. I still haven’t been convinced that Jim didn’t make the pact less out of a desire to win than out of a desire to take me out of the game. I may be wrong, but how can I be happy when I was the first casualty of war. Still, there are no hard feelings. But there is a hard rematch to come soon!!
  • Jim and Mike: HEALTHY – They both agreed at the end of the game that the strategy involved kept them interested and thinking at all times. A rare positive ending to a violent game of Risk for these brothers.
  • Mike and Chris: PRETTY GOOD – Years ago, I had trusted Mike and made a pact with him. He made a move that was best for him, thus spawning my classic Risk phrase, “MIKE! WE HAD A PACT!!” But, as the Monkees would say, that was then, and this is now. Mike treated me well, up until the pact. But Jim proposed the pact, so…

Well, that was more detailed than it needed to be. Until next time, this is your local loser Chris Moore reporting live from FMP Studios in Connecticut for all you Fusco-Moore fans out there…