Tag Archives: laptop sessions

“All At Once” (Jack Johnson Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to your weekend retreat from the real world…the best cover song music blog in the universe…a great place to post comments… the Laptop Sessions! I, for one, am really excited for what’s on the horizon here for the music video blog, as the coming week (starting with Jeff tomorrow) is another “New Bands Week.” Basically this is a week when every session — except for Original Wednesday, of course — features a song by a band that we’ve never covered in the history of the blog. I think it’ll be interesting to see what great new music comes to the blog! I actually have one band I plan to do that surprises even me; I’m honestly not sure why I chose this artist, but I’ll figure it out and let you know when I post my video.

Okay, now down to business. Today, I chose “All At Once,” Jack Johnson’s first track on his 2008 album Sleep Through the Static. This is an album that came out early in the year, and it was one of the first that I was really anticipating with excitement. Well, you know what they say about expectations. I don’t know what I expected, but I really wasn’t bowled over by this new release. It was billed as “Jack Johnson goes electric,” but if anything, he got slower and more mellow with the addition of the electricity. The joke circulated, at least among friends, that this more subdued sound wasn’t helped by the fact he recorded the album with natural power. Mike was similarly disappointed in the record, and as a result of our reviews, I believe Jim never even put the disc in his CD player. When he does get to it, I’d be curious to know what he thinks.

So, you may be wondering why I chose to play a song from this album. Well, my favorite playlist on my iTunes is my “New Music from 2008” playlist, so Johnson’s songs have been coming up for months and months, and this one in particular grew on me. I hope you understand — it’s not that the music is bad; far from it, in fact. I love this song. But as an album opener? The other tracks on the album never really get more upbeat and rocking than this one, which is disappointing. After an amazing album like In Between Dreams, I couldn’t help but become one of those fans that expects something. Slowly but surely these songs are growing on me, and I sincerely hope that you enjoy this one (and that I’ve done it justice!).

Well, that’s enough for me for one post. But, before I go, I need to pass on a really interesting tidbit of BnL trivia. Mike just called me today when he couldn’t get in touch with Jim to spread the news… He just learned in class that 9.8 meters per second squared is the rate of gravitational acceleration. It’s a mouthful, right? Well, this finally explains Ed Robertson’s line in the Barenaked Ladies’ song “When I Fall.” He’s talking about being up high and contemplating jumping, and he sings, “It’s 9.8 straight down…” Wow. I can’t believe I never knew what it meant!

Don’t miss another great cover of a new band by Jeff tomorrow, a new acoustic cover by Jim on Monday, then I’ll be back on Tuesday for my first installment in New Bands Week…

See you next session!

“For What It’s Worth” (Buffalo Springfield Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to yet another all-new cover of an all-new band to the blog!  Straight from the treasure trove of genre-crossing singles and album tracks that is Dana Camp’s iTunes library, this is Buffalo Springfield’s early hit “For What It’s Worth.”  This is one of those songs with a title that is not used at any point during the lyrics, so my initial response to the title was, “How does that one go?”

Of course, from the first strum of the first verse, I instantly recognized this hit sixties protest song.

I’ve always loved this song, and I loved it all the more this afternoon as I realized it was right in my vocal comfort zone!  Still, as fun as it was to learn and play it, I do wish there had been some way to include that awesome reverberating lead guitar and solo.  I guess you’ll just have to imagine it as you listen…

About a week ago in one of my posts, I started out by saying it would be a short one.  Then, I proceeded to write one of my lengthier posts.  This time, however, I’m going to cut my writing short, as I’m fading fast and need my sleep on this final night of the weekend.  I spent the last forty-five minutes or so helping Jim with the new cover songs branch of the Laptop Sessions music blog series.  He put me in charge of finding good photos for each band/songwriter to use for the new site.  Probably the most fun so far has been searching for the best Britney Spears photo — and, yes, we DO have a Britney Spears category!  Meanwhile, Jim was doing the hard work (i.e. making the site run, run properly, and look good while doing it!).

And, on a final note, this is my final in a series of political songs.  I like these unnofficial themes I’ve been doing, first with three female lead songs in a row, now with three political songs in a row.  I’d probably find another one to record, but my next session will land on a by-now-infamous Original Wednesday!

With that, I’m closing my laptop and closing my eyes to the sounds of R.E.M.  What better band to encourage a healthy sleep cycle?…  Get it?…  Okay, that was bad, and I apologize.  At least you’ll be safe for at least a couple days, as I’d challenge Jeff and Jim to make a pun worse than the aforementioned REM cycle one…

See you next session!

“Chinese Sleep Chant” (Coldplay Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Assistant Editor’s note (that’s Jeff): I am in the process of re-embedding some Laptop Sessions videos that I still have.  This post was originally from 2009, but for history’s sake I have not edited the post.

And continuing from last week’s post is the song that is followed by the one I covered last week.

Now, I know that i’ve covered a bunch of Coldplay songs, and quite a few from Viva La Vida, but there’s a good reason.  Everybody loves this band.  They write catchy songs, and enjoy performing and love their fans.  How can I not want to cover this band?

This song is more of an instrumental than a lyrical song, but the lyrics are present and sung.  I initially wanted to perform this with my electric guitar hooked up to my bass amp.  However, I hit a few snags.  1) My electric strings are kind of old.  2) The bridge of the guitar sticks out of the base of the guitar a bit, making the strings a bit further from the fretboard, and therefore more difficult to play.  3) The amp is meant for bass, and I could not find a good combination of settings that made my guitar sound like a guitar.

However, practicing the song on the electric proved helpful, as it made it a lot easier to play on the acoustic.  Funny how that works sometimes.

This video came out great.  I’m very proud of this cover.

I have reached my first milestone post 100K views and hit 110K views.  I’m nearing 500 views per day on my videos, and I can’t wait to tell you when I am averaging 1K views per day.  It could happen before the year is out!

“Crazy Life” (Toad the Wet Sprocket Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to your Saturday night fever edition of The Laptop Sessions!  Today I bring you another return engagement with a band previously featured on the sessions, and it is a great song.

The band is Toad the Wet Sprocket (and again, don’t ask – I’m not too sure where that name came from either), and today I am covering another song from their final album “Coil” (well, I should now say their most recent release) called “Crazy Life”.  It is a simple, yet catchy tune with a great strum pattern.  The lyrics are quite interesting and I still have not fully understood what they mean.  There are a few historical references you’ll hear though.

It is appropriate that I am doing this song today.  I really had a “Crazy Life” kinda day, where I ejected only my 2nd coach in my 2 year umpiring career.  It takes a lot to get to me, and if you go onto my ejection list, you must’ve done something wrong.  Baseball coaches, if you are reading this, do not argue balls and strikes – unless you’re looking for an excuse to go home.

I hope you enjoy today’s session, and I know you will be back to see Jim’s latest installment of the sessions.  We’re rolling along as usual!  Seeya next time!

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!