For the music video of this Wilco/Woody Guthrie cover, CLICK HERE!
“The Jolly Banker”
Wilco (a Woody Guthrie cover)
G C
My name is Tom Cranker, and I’m a jolly banker,
G D
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
C G
I safeguard the farmers and widows and orphans,
G D G
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
When dust storms are sailing, and crops they are failing,
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I check up your shortage and bring down your mortgage,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
When money you’re needing, and mouths you are feeding,
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I’ll plaster your home with a furniture loan,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
If you show me you need it, I’ll let you have credit;
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
Just bring me back two for the one I lend you,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
When your car you’re losin’ and sadly your cruisin’,
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I’ll come and foreclose, get your car and your clothes,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
When the bugs get your cotton, the times they are rotten,
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I’ll come down and help you, I’ll rape you and scalp you,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
When the landlords abuse you or sadly misuse you,
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I’ll send down the police to keep you from mischief,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
Hello and welcome to another installment of “Chris Moore Monday.” It is my priviledge and responsibility to start off each week right, usually with a selection that is in “new music” news. I figure this is appropriate, since tomorrow is “New Music Tuesday” – what better role is there than to turn you on to great new music?
Okay, so tonight’s song is technically a week old…
Dan Auerbach is better known as one half of the blues rock music group the Black Keys. The band formed in Ohio in 2001, and in less than a decade, they have accumulated an impressive resume — including opening for Beck and Radiohead, playing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman, and receiving accolades from Rolling Stone such as one of the “10 best acts of 2003.” Although the band has not broken up, this year has found Dan Auerbach making a name for himself by releasing his very first solo album titled Keep It Hid. I almost transcribed and played this, the title track, but I couldn’t resist “My Last Mistake,” the subsequent track. Auerbach might agree with this choice of songs to record and play, as he performed “My Last Mistake” on the Friday, February 13th episode of Conan O’Brien.
So, you may be wondering how I heard of this release. Well, aside from receiving a coupon for the first-week purchase in my favorite email each week — the Newbury Comics e-newsletter!! — I was tipped off to the release by someone who has his finger on the pulse of all things modern and alternative rock. (So, thank you again, Geoff!) He’s the same person who strongly suggested I check out the 2008 albums of Beck and Cold War Kids, both of which I would never have purchased on my own.
And I would have missed out!
Now, they’re not my favorite records of the year, by any means, but there are some killer songs that would have passed me by entirely. So, hopefully I’ll continue to receive new rock music insight from Newbury Comics, Geoff, and who knows who else!
Speaking of new music, I constructed a fairly impressive “Albums of 2008” iTunes playlist. It contains 341 songs, ranging from the Barenaked Ladies children’s album to Ben Folds’ album (which was certainly NOT kid-friendly!). I hadn’t really listened to the playlist since the New Year, but I just turned it on yesterday and fell in love with it again. I’m listening to it now, and even now, Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” just faded into Brian Wilson’s “Oxygen to the Brain.” Where else can you find that sort of variety?! I cling to my playlists and albums these days, as the popular media has only embraced an extremely small and profoundly unrepresentative sample of what modern rock music has to offer. Take the aforementioned Coldplay, an overrated and — until recently, in this writer’s opinion — mediocre band. Chris Martin and his band have received more Grammys than all of my favorite bands combined. No kidding! Meanwhile, Brian Wilson got a Rolling Stone article for his amazing 2008 album That Lucky Old Sun, and that was all. I understand that he is older and there perhaps isn’t a market for his music, but I find it sad that more people couldn’t have been exposed to the bright, brilliant, and uplifting rock tunes that pour forth from that album.
Enough ranting for one day’s post…
As a final note, I finally picked up and watched the Sam Jones documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. I had planned on watching it with Dana last night, but he hadn’t returned home, so I got ready to watch it alone. Then, Mike texted and sounded interested. So, before I knew it, Mike had arrived with apple juice and saltines (food for sick people — my personal choice is G2 and wheat toast!) and we cranked up the volume on the big screen. What a great documentary — not only is the filmography reminiscent of Don’t Look Back, but Jeff Tweedy is looking very Dylan-esque. Scruffy, bearing harmonica rack, singing poetic lyrics — what more could I ask for? Also, he seems like he would be a difficult guy to live and/or work with. But that being said, I like Jeff Tweedy a great deal, and it was really interesting to see him candidly in the studio. And thanks to Dana and Mike for making last night an event in and of itself — when Jim returns from vacation, I just may have to join them for their late night sessions that I miss so much since I’ve become an “old man” with a wakeup time of 5 or 5:30am…
And now to tie this ALL together…
Wilco switched to Nonesuch records after the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot fiasco (the situation filmed and described in I Am Trying to Break Your Heart), and Dan Auerbach is also on the Nonesuch label. So, as you see, it all comes full circle…
Don’t miss an all-new Jim Fusco Tuesday tomorrow. Until then…
The video you’re about to watch pushes the limits of the Laptop Sessions format, as it features the abilities of not one, not two, but three performers. Now, this is certainly not unheard of — MoU united about a year ago and performed four-man videos around Christmastime. And when it comes down to it, what you’ll find is that tonight’s video includes all the essentials for a great Laptop Session — a predominantly acoustic sound, a great rendition both vocally and instrumentally, and not only a brand new song but also a brand new band to the blog!
So, what more could you ask for?
Tonight’s Guest Session players are The Frets, and they bring you a live, intimate recording of the Kings of Leon’s “Sex on Fire.” The band Kings of Leon is a relatively new band, having started in 2000. But, when you really think about it, they’re not that far away from their tenth anniversary — and one decade together ain’t bad, let me tell you! The Beatles were together for less time… They are billed as a Grammy Award-winning rock band, and although they are three brothers and a first cousin who hail from Nashville, Tennessee, they’ve seen about 80% of their album sales in Europe. This is not surprising, as our Guest Sessions cover band tonight is based out of Scotland. When they sent their video, they wrote very simply:
“Scottish band the Frets doing “Sex on Fire.”
I suppose they’d like their music to speak for itself. On their YouTube Channel, there is apparently some news about a name change for the Frets, though. Go ahead, read for yourself:
“GALLAS* SAYS: innovation not immitation. Keep supporting GALLAS* in the coming 2009 AS YOU DID THE FRETS 2008.”
This is apparently on the heels of a change in lineup. Well, regardless of the band’s name, we hope you enjoy their Kings of Leon cover song video tonight. Hopefully they’ll send us another video once they’ve officially re-formed as a new band.
Thank you, Frets, and thank you all for stopping by to watch the latest installment of the Guest Sessions!
Hello and welcome to your first post by someone other than Jeff since Saturday. There’s no need to fret, though… he’ll be back for another awesome session tomorrow!
And, since it’s a Wednesday, we have an original song music video to look forward to!
For tonight, however, I’m bringing you yet another new band to the blog. I’m fairly certain you’ve never heard of this band. In fact, if I were a betting man, I’d be willing to put down serious money on it. Why did I choose this song, you may be wondering? Well — and this is no lie — this one actually came to me in a dream. I had a dream a few nights ago that I woke up, walked over to my CD shelf, and began looking through the cases to find bands that hadn’t been covered yet. Among the bands I thought of, my Fruit Bats CD came into my vision (in my dream) and thus popped into my head when I woke up.
If this doesn’t show just how pervasive the Laptop Sessions “session-a-day” project has been in our lives, then I don’t know what will. I mean, how many people dream about things like this??
The Fruit Bats are an interesting band. There is very little information available about them; even their Wikipedia page is fairly brief. I found out a little more than I already knew — Eric Johnson is the lead guitarist and songwriter who formed the band in 1999. He has been the only constant member.
I did learn that he used to be with a group called I Rowboat before the Fruit Bats. What a name! Currently, he’s working with the more popular indie/alternative group the Shins. Also, I went to their official website for the first time. It’s pretty plain — what they should do is hire one Jim Fusco of Fusco-Moore Studios’ Web Design Services to really make it stand out — but I learned that they have several tour dates planned for the west coast and that they have plans to record a new album. Also, there’s a new “Blog” section on the site and the first post was made by “the Fruit Bats” last month.
See, blogs are where it’s at!…
So, I hope you enjoy this acoustic rock cover song. If you get a chance to hear the real version, I think you should, as there’s some cool piano components to the studio recording that I, for obvious reasons, couldn’t and didn’t include. I think it shows that I had a lot of fun recording this video. And, truly, it reminded me about one of the best aspects of the Laptop Sessions project — we get to rediscover music that we have forgotten over the years and, through learning the songs, get to understand the music in a way that we previously had not.
Without further ado, here’s the song. Don’t forget to rush back tomorrow for an all-new and excellent Original Wednesday with Jeff. It’ll be good. It’ll be “I fractured my skull by banging my head against a wall because Jeff wasn’t posting today but now he is so I’m still in pain but really happy to watch his new video” good!!…
