Well, after weeks of lessening views, I have finally achieved half of a hundred grand views on YouTube. By “a hundred grand” I of course mean 100,000 (as opposed to 100 grand views; although I’d love for all of my views to be grand…).
And, based on that confusing introduction to this post, you may be starting to see why less people view my videos than Jim’s!! Seriously, though, I’m very excited to hit the 50,000 view mark on YouTube, as I’ve had my hopes set on 100,000 for a long time. I think I would start to feel accomplished on YouTube if I were to reach 100 grand.
Then, once I reached that, I would look around and realize how insignificant even that number is. But, by that time, I’ll be aiming for a million views!
So, as session-a-day rolls onward — ever closer to the new year — I’m more excited than ever to make and break some new records for the Laptop Sessions music video blog…
…and you’ll see another reason if you’ll just read my next post!
Trying to find great acoustic cover songs on the web is like trying to find a needle in the hay…
…and now you can find both in the same place!! (In this case, a great acoustic cover song music blog AND a “Needle in the Hay”)
Seriously, though, it is my pleasure to bring you the Laptop Sessions’ second installment in the Elliott Smith category (see our 100+ band categories in the drop-down menu above) with his great song “Needle in the Hay.” This is track one on his second, self-titled album. I truly love Elliott Smith’s work, but I’m really a fan of his third (Either/Or), fourth (XO), and especially fifth (Figure 8 ) albums. His first two releases are solid and I’ve grown more and more fond of them after multiple listens. I think what really holds them back for me is the fact that they’re predominantly Smith and his acoustic guitar. There is, of course, double-tracking and soloing, but it simply doesn’t stand up to the mixture of simple acoustic tracks and lively, fully-produced, upbeat tracks on the aforementioned three later albums. I just discovered XO recently, and I was so into it that I decided to record my first Elliott Smith session based on “Waltz #2 (XO).”
So, you may be wondering why I chose this track from the early two albums. The answer is simple — what better song to record for an acoustic cover than a song that is already based on vocals and acoustic guitar alone? I hope you enjoy this song as much as I enjoyed learning and playing it — I’ll certainly be digging into Smith’s catalog again at a later date, after I’ve helped patch some holes in our category offerings (can anyone say, “The Rolling Stones” or “Simon and Garfunkel”?…).
As promised, I’m back after my second Jack Johnson acoustic cover song (posted on Saturday) to bring you my first installment for “New Bands Week.” Since I wanted to make sure that I’m pulling my weight around here (and considering that Jim is swiftly adding to a list of at least ten new artists he plans to cover!), I decided to bring not only one but two new bands in one day to the best cover song music blog in the universe!
Okay, so maybe I’m talking up my contribution here, since the song I chose — “Walt Whitman’s Niece” — was recorded as a collaboration between the two artists, songwriter Billy Bragg and alternative rock band Wilco. But, still… in the spirit of “New Bands Week,” two new bands!
There’s a really interesting story to go along with this cover song. This is the first track on Billy Bragg and Wilco’s Mermaid Avenue album, a collection of songs based on the lyrics of Woody Guthrie. Guthrie essentially ended up writing countless songs over his years as a songwriter, many of which he never put to music. He literally had boxes of them. I read that Guthrie actually offered them to a young Bob Dylan when Dylan went to visit him in the hospital. He even made the long trip out to Guthrie’s house, but there was only a babysitter at home and she did not want to let a stranger in. (Little did she know he would soon be anything BUT a stranger!) Then, decades later, Billy Bragg and Wilco got their hands on the lyrics, chose their favorites, and wrote music for the words. The result is an amazing album that I first learned about through my Journalism II teacher, who was also a big Dylan fan.
They came out with a sequel a few years later, simply called Mermaid Avenue Volume II, but it really wasn’t as strong as the first time around. This is simply one of those moments in rock music, in my opinion, that came down to initial inspiration. That first album is such a strong, enjoyable, and interesting collection of music. In fact, I initially wanted to record “Ingrid Bergman” (which I did and stored away for later), but then remembered about “Walt Whitman’s Niece.” I figured it would be a much stronger choice, as it is the first track on the album, upbeat, and of course, highlighted by a crazy harmonica solo that I could never duplicate. All in all, a really fun song to sing. As Jim and I figured out, it was a lot of fun to improv lyrics to the tune!
As a final note, Jim and I saw the latest Woody Allen movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, tonight. Although I’m always a big fan of seeing him in the movies, this was a really interesting film even if he didn’t play an acting role. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the voiceovers initially, but I really got into the characters and especially the situation. I think this is one of those movies that will cause viewers to think about their own ideas about love, trust, and what their lives will be like in several decades. How do you find happiness? I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll stop here.
This may be all for today’s post. If you haven’t already, you should scroll down the home page and check out Jim and Jeff’s first picks of the New Bands Week.
Hello and welcome to my favorite day, a day that comes only once every three weeks for we songwriters of the Fusco-Moore Productions music blog… Original Wednesday! Today, I took a trip down memory lane to my last solo release before joining the band MoU (Masters of the Universe with Jim Fusco, Mike Fusco, Becky Daly, and Cliff Huizenga). Today, I recorded “All the Days,” the penultimate track off my EP Love Out of Fashion. (Using “penultimate” in my post is my answer to Jim using — honest to God — the word “leviathan” properly and casually in a conversation the other day. I didn’t even know how to pronounce the word… :-))
This was the first time I really experimented with such recording techniques as lead vocal doubletracking and sound effects such as my ZOOM guitar pedal. I have a lot of fond memories of rushing home after school or work during the summer to record this album in the basement of my parents’ home. I finally felt like I had mastered the computer program I used to record at the time, and I can’t count the number of mix CDs I made. Each time I would finish the recording of tracks for a song, I would burn a CD and listen to it in my car wherever I went — to work, to school, to the store. I’ve written on the blog here before about pulling over late at night to listen to the songs as loud as the volume would go, making mental notes of changes I would make to the final mix the next chance I got. Lots of fond memories.
My only regret, particularly on a track like “All the Days” that I felt had a lot of promise, is that I didn’t have a way to record drums. It’s a well-known fact that a drumbeat never hurts, especially when it comes to my playing… It was as a result of this regret that I’ve made the resolution to never record another album unless a drummer is available and raring to go.
So, I hope you enjoy this little trip down memory lane for me; I probably haven’t played this track since I recorded it. Well, that’s not true — I think I’ve played it once or twice, but over several years…
Oh, and I hope you’ll take a listen to the recorded version so you’ll understand why this music video starts differently from any other cover song session I’ve recorded.
Okay, that’s all for me. Don’t forget to hurry back tomorrow for another all-new acoustic rock cover song session from Jeff. And now, I should check on the Mets who were winning by a lot earlier, then tied, and just pulled ahead… (Come on, Mets!!)
