“Good Night Now” (Original Music from Indie Music Songwriter Chris Moore)

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of “Original Wednesday,” our absolute favorite day of the week here at the music blog that brings you a new music video EACH and EVERY day! Original Wednesday is our favorite day because it gives us an opportunity to show off our own songwriting. The whole reason why we do these acoustic cover songs in the first place is to hopefully interest people who like to listen to new music to come and listen to our original music. Jim, Jeff, and I have been producing music for Fusco-Moore Productions for almost a decade now, and we couldn’t be more thrilled when Wednesday rolls around and we can record our own original music!

That being said, I dug into my catalog this week for an original song that I haven’t recorded yet. Over the past several months, I have recorded every original song that I have contributed to my band’s past two releases (the self-titled Masters of the Universe in 2006 and Homestead’s Revenge in 2008). I figured that these are the songs of mine that have seen the most circulation. Well, now that I have finished those, I am beginning to look back at my solo releases. Some of the MoU songs were previously recorded on solo releases, so those are out. However, my 2006 EP, Love Out of Fashion, is a work unto itself — none of the tracks on that album have been recorded or released in any other form.

For tonight’s session, I chose “Good Night Now,” the second track on the album. I hope you’ll take the time to listen to the studio version as well (CLICK HERE to listen!) because it has some of the most experimental guitar effects I had used up to that point. I wrote this song about two female co-workers who I felt very strongly about; these were relationships I established in high school and which lasted up until they left the Staples (where I worked at the time) several years later. I think that the realization that people you think you know in one environment (work, for instance) are really quite different elsewhere is a common one, and it hit me hard when I finally realized. Thus, this song…

So, without further ado, I bring you the free music video for tonight. Don’t miss a brand-new music blog entry from Jeff tomorrow — same Laptop-time, same Laptop-channel…

See you next session!



“In Dreams” (Roy Orbison Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to another terrific Thumpin’ Thursday edition of The Laptop Sessions. Today I bring you a new artist, and the next entry into our “Title Track” series. This also goes out by request from Rory, so thanks for this request!

Roy Orbison becomes our latest artist to enter our library and I am covering the title track from Orbison’s 1963 album “In Dreams”, naturally titled “In Dreams” (Yeah, like I needed to type that twice). This is a great mellow song, has a unique structure (read: none), and showcases Roy’s incredible range and voice. Orbison really had a gift and I am glad that future generations like me get to experience his music over and over like this.

I definitely want to cover more of Roy’s work in the near future. It really is amazing how many songs are by him that float around the radio stations.

Title track week continues tomorrow with Jim’s 2nd pick, then closes on Saturday with Chris’ 3rd pick (including his AWESOME original Wednesday pick from yesterday). Be sure to keep coming back as we approach the halfway mark of session-a-day!

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!

“Sex and Candy” (Marcy Playground Cover)

For Marcy Playground chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

After both technical difficulties and more than my share of human error for the night, my “Chris Moore Monday” post is here!  Not only am I posting a video tonight for the best acoustic cover song music video blog known to man — and humble, too! — but this is actually the first of a double header that will conclude tomorrow night.  Since Jim is away for one more “Jim Fusco Tuesday,” I didn’t want to see anyone go without new material for even a day more.  So make sure to check back tomorrow for an all-new cover song and music video.

Tonight’s song is one that would have made me blush in 1997, and to be honest, it still does.  Back in late ’97 and early 1998, Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy” was everywhere, particularly if you listened to a modern rock radio station.  (CT locals may remember the alternative station Rock 104’s hey day in the nineties.)  At the time, this song broke the record for most consecutive weeks at number one on the modern rock charts — 15 weeks, to be specific.  Meanwhile, this song catapulted Marcy Playground to one hit wonder status, peaking at a solid number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

To this day, I’m not exactly sure why this song was such a big hit at the time.  Structurally, it’s a very simple song, and the vocals are very straightforward.  I think the song’s success can be attributed to its provocative lyrics and John Wozniak’s distinct vocals.  Fortunately for me, “Woz” as he refers to himself has a vocal range that is well within my own, at least on this song!

There are two reasons I’ve chosen this particular song for tonight’s session.  The first is that it reminds me of a time when I was first becoming interested in music, listening to the radio and just beginning to buy CDs at the overpriced Sam Goody’s store in the mall.

The second reason will be explained in tomorrow night’s session…

You know, another sign that this song was successful is that “Weird” Al included the chorus of “Sex and Candy” in his “Polka Power!” polka medley.  If only I, too, could one day have a song parodied by the man, then I would truly know I had earned success.  But, until then, I’ll just have to enjoy the new “Weird” Al video for his new song, “CNR.”  It’s a style parody of the White Stripes and the video was produced by JibJab, so it’s all the more hilarious.  While I thought the “Skipper Dan” video a couple weeks ago was enjoyable, this one is truly great — it made me laugh out loud a couple times and want to watch it again.

Okay, so that’s it for me for now.  I’ll see you back here, same Laptop Sessions time, same Laptop Sessions channel for an all-new “Chris Moore for Jim Fusco Tuesday” cover song music video.

See you next session!

“Astronomy” (Blue Oyster Cult Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening to you, and welcome to your newest addition to The Laptop Sessions library!  It’s Jeff here bringing you a somewhat surprising song.  One can make the argument that we have not covered a band like this on this site.  But I hope that, if you never have heard of Blue Oyster Cult before (BOC), that you will enjoy this cover video.

BOC is the topic today (another new band!  I guess we had like New Bands 3.0 this week or something) and I have a great song by them from 1974.  Now if you don’t know who this band is, I will tell you a song that will instantly make you say “oh that’s who you’re talking about” – that song is “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”.  Yeah, they wrote that song.  It was also the same song that was being portrayed as recorded in an SNL sketch, where the now famous line was uttered by Christopher Walken – “needs more cowbell”.

Well, tonight I am not covering that song – but I am learning how to play it and I will be recording it before the year is out (may save it for a Thumpin’ Thursday – it is an awesome song).

Today I have a song from their 1974 album “Secret Treaties” titled “Astronomy”.  This song has a nice soft feel to it, and a completely kickass solo from their lead guitarist Buck Dharma.  Eric Bloom is their lead singer, and I discovered I can emulate his voice quite well.  Therefore, you’ll notice that my voice is a little different in this session.

I was introduced to this song because I heard a version of this song by Metallica from their 1998 covers album “Garage, Inc.”.  I decided I wanted to stay true to the original BOC version, so if you’re comparing this cover to the Metallica cover, you will notice quite a few differences between them.

For the performance, I tend to be a bit more “forgiving” of myself when the song is long.  This song’s recorded version clocks in at nearly 7 minutes.  I cut out a lot of the last “solo” time so that I would not have to play near-perfect guitar for 7 minutes.  The arpeggiated parts that I play in the song are not as clean as i’d like them to be.  But if I ever wanted to finish recording this video and upload it on time, I had to allow a minor glitch here and there.  I actually think this is one of my better singing performances, however.  I hope you feel the same way.

I am glad I was able to bring a new band your way this evening, and on Monday, i’ve got another new band – heck, let’s make it 4 new bands in a row by me by making next week’s Thumpin’ Thursday a new band as well!

Tomorrow Jim will return to his library of cover songs and lay another on us.  Come back for that – you know I will!

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!