“Polly” (Nirvana Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening and welcome to another awesome edition of The Laptop Sessions!  Tuesday is always a tricky day for me since I usually have school, then a couple of hours to practice and spend time with my wife, then my weekly Dynamis run.  We had a good run tonight, but then I get to post my performance – and tonight it’s a new band!

The band I am featuring tonight is Nirvana, one of the most well-known alternative rock acts of all time.  The song I am playing is from their awesome 1991 album “Nevermind”, and it is “Polly”.  It’s a sweet, acoustic number that is kind of out of place on the album.  All the songs have a grunge feel to them (perhaps not the last track, but the rest of them sure do), and this song breaks up the flow of the album, but in a good way.  It makes all the songs not sound the same, and I think the hooking tracks were all singles, which is why the album sold so well in the first place.

The band was fronted by Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in the mid-90’s much to the dismay of many Nirvana fans.  But that’s a topic you can read about nearly anywhere.

As far as me, I am nearing another viewcount milestone, and can’t wait to reach the 1/20 of a million mark (that’s for my students who say “I hate fractions”).  I’ll be sure to let you know when I cross that threshold.

It’s also my birthday tomorrow – another year added on to my old fart status.

Enjoy tonight’s session, and report back tomorrow for another awesome original tune by Jim Fusco!

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

The BEST VOCAL PERFORMANCES of 2011 (The Year-End Awards)

By Chris Moore:

This is a tough category.  All of the songs on the my upcoming top fifty songs list have excellent vocals, many of which are standout performances.  However, there are also songs that go unrecognized on the top fifty list that are notable for their outstanding vocals.  Thus, as a rule, songs included in the top fifty list are not considered here.

I suppose you could consider this my way of sneaking in an extra ten songs that I didn’t find room for on my best songs list, but I hope you’ll consider it an additional category.  These ten songs are great in their own rights, but especially by virtue of the excellence of their vocals.  Some are smooth, some are rough; some are passionately outraged, some are tenderly heartfelt.  Taken together, they’re the standout vocal performances of 2011:

1) “Something to Believe In” – Parachute (The Way It Was)

2) “Estate Sale Sign” – The Mountain Goats (All Eternals Deck)

3) “Blue Spotted Tail” – Fleet Foxes (Helplessness Blues)

4) “Shakin’ All Over” – Wanda Jackson (The Party Ain’t Over)

5) “2012” – The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger (La Carotte Bleue)

6) “When You Wish Upon A Star” – Brian Wilson (In the Key of Disney)

7) “Talking At The Same Time” – Tom Waits (Bad As Me)

8 ) “Sunloathe” – Wilco (The Whole Love)

9) “Bridge Burning” – Foo Fighters (Wasting Light)

10) “Amy, I” – Jack’s Mannequin (People And Things)

 

Foo Fighters’ “Foo Fighters” (1995) – Yes, No, or Maybe So

Foo Fighters’ Foo Fighters (1995) – MAYBE

The Foo Fighters' self-titled debut (1995)

The Foo Fighters' self-titled debut (1995)

(July 4, 1995)

Review: 

A bit raw and predictable around the edges, but an upbeat debut album with clear rock sensibilities and strong potential for the future (The Colour & the Shape, anyone?) from almost-Heartbreaker Dave Grohl…

Top Two Tracks:  

“This is a Call” & “I’ll Stick Around”

“Miracle” (Foo Fighters Cover)

By Jeff:

Good evening and welcome to Thumpin’ Thursday!  I hope you are well and looking forward to a nice weekend.

Today I bring a song by the Foo Fighters called “Miracle”.  The song is among their more soft and acoustic album cuts of late.  It really shows off their instrumentation skills as well as Dave Grohl’s versatile vocal abilities.

I feel sad saying it, but I do have to let you know what’s going on.  First good news – whether you knew it or not but in a couple of weeks my life is going to change forever.  Sadly, it is this reason that I am going to have to downgrade myself to “contributer” (which is kind of what I am already anyway).  I won’t be able to post every Thursday, and there is no way of telling when Thursday comes around in the future whether I can post or not.  When I can I will, but to be honest, there will be a handful of things that can prevent me from posting.  I don’t want to be specific, but those who know me know what i’m talking about.

I have enjoyed being a regular contributor to the site for nearly 2 years now, and have recorded over 160 videos and amassed 170k in views (and rising at about 300-350 views/day).  I know that this number won’t stop increasing even if my production of videos slows down.

I want to thank everyone that has visited this blog regularly in the past 2 years, and I want to thank Chris and Jim for bringing me along for the ride.  It is amazing to look back at where we were when this blog started, and what our mission was.  I’d say we have done a pretty good job of getting a following, and I hope you bring nothing but support and joy when you read our blog.

With that said, I will see you next week ideally with another video.  If you have things you wish to pass along to me, please send me a private message or comment here.

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and original music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!