Tag Archives: music video

“Cornerstone” (Arctic Monkeys Cover)

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For Arctic Monkeys chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

It is my pleasure to welcome you once again to a brand-new week of all-new acoustic cover song music videos here at the Laptop Sessions.  Following up my version of “Just Breathe” from Pearl Jam’s new 2009 album, I’m happy to present to you a new band to the blog and a new 2009 single.

If you’ve visited our site before, then you know that “New Music” is my niche here at the blog.  I get a great deal of direction in terms of what to learn, record, or write about from the new music that I’m listening to, week by week.  Up until last week, it had been a while since I delved into the new release racks for a session, so I’m attempting to make up for that tonight and later this week.

My video tonight is the mid-album cut “Cornerstone” from the Arctic Monkeys’ 2009 release Humbug.  Previous to hearing this record, I didn’t know all that much about the Monkeys, and frankly, there wasn’t much that I found appealing.  Since their rise to fame via the Internet in 2006, their work has been praised by some — Rolling Stone, for one — as outstanding, and it has also been disparaged as overrated.  In addition, they received a backlash of criticism upon releasing their Who the Fuck are Arctic Monkeys EP merely three months after their debut album.  Some called it a greedy move, while the band maintained that they wanted to release new material that they would be adding to their live shows.  Now, I’ve certainly never been one to defend EP’s (Ben Folds and the Supersunnyspeedgraphic nonsense, anyone?), and I don’t plan to start here.  Still, one should keep in mind that an album is typically recorded a significant time before its actual release — in this case, the EP was released seven months after the band finished recording their debut album.

Anyway, this album was recommended to me by a former student and friend who has tuned me in to some great material from Beck, Cold War Kids, and Harvey Danger — in other words, bands that I wouldn’t have listened to on my own.  He described it as being more “slow and contemplative instead of just in your face punk music” which, for anyone who knows me, immediately got my attention!

While I rated this album as a “Maybe So,” it really is one of my favorites this year.  It’s the type of album you can listen to again and again without it getting old.  I love their style here: the songs are unique, and yet reminiscent of some of the greatest rock of the sixties, and their lyrics really make the music stand out to me.

Which brings me to “Cornerstone.”

I will never forget driving to school, listening to this song for the first time.  I had been enjoying the album, but this song really made me stop and take notice.  There is this devious tone in Alex Turner’s voice as he sings the story of a man searching for a girl who has left him.  Did she break up with him?  Has she died?  Regardless, he is prowling the dirtiest-sounding dives, flirting and engaging with women of whom he soon makes an odd request.

He asks if it would be acceptable for him to refer to them by the name of his ex-lover.

No big deal.  It doesn’t hurt to ask, right?  Well, that’s not the case for most of the song.  But you’ll have to listen until the end to find out how he fares.

In other new music news, I’m excited about picking up Bob Dylan’s first ever Christmas album, Christmas in the Heart.  Of course, this is a mixed bag.  After all, contrary to the fact that several holiday albums are coming out tomorrow, I think that it’s far too soon to start listening to Christmas music.  I’ll probably end up listening to it once before I tuck it away for the day after Thanksgiving…  The other question in my mind is whether or not the deluxe edition is worth the extra money.  From what I can tell from the limited descriptions I’ve been able to find online, there are some greeting cards attached in the special edition.  Well, how many?  Do you save them or do you send them?  How many people would truly appreciate a Bob Dylan Christmas card?  Is his face on the cards?  Could be scary to small children or residents of small New Jersey towns…

Well, that’s enough for tonight.  I hope you enjoy my video.  If you like it, you should mark your calendars for October 15th when the official music video for “Cornerstone” is set to be released.  It has also been scheduled to be released as the second single from Humbug about a month after that.

See you next session!

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“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” (Beatles Cover)

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For Beatles chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to my first traditional “video and a post” Laptop Session in weeks!  For the past few posts, I’ve opted to write reviews, but now its back to Beatles cover songs for me!  This was actually a lot of fun, but I don’t get to write as directly and personally as I do in a post like this one.  Thus, I’m back with a guitar, recording my first cover song music video since “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” Let’s just say it’s good to be “back”!

You’ve probably already noticed that the Laptop Sessions main page has suddenly been filled with “chords & lyrics” posts.  Let me start by explaining these four new additions to the blog.

First, the Beatles chords (for “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”) are obviously meant to accompany this post.  If you enjoy it, then by all means, jump in and start playing it yourself.  Actually, you might want to read the rest of my post before you break out your axe…

So, why the added chords and lyrics?

Well, I’ve been itching to record a cover version of a track from the new Pearl Jam album Backspacer ever since I started listening to it last Sunday.  Specifically, there are two largely acoustic tracks that are very easily translatable into acoustic music videos — namely, “Just Breathe” and “The End.”  The first single, “The Fixer,” is more of a full-band, harder rock affair, but its structure is fairly simple and it is truly a great deal of fun to sing.  I’m still deciding which song to record for my session (anyone care to hazard a guess before next week?).

Now, normally I would wait until next Monday to post the chords, but I’ve been learning/practicing all three and going out of my mind attempting to comprehend how anyone could post the chords and lyrics without having even the slightest idea as to what the correct words are.  This, in fact, is one of the most profoundly aggravating aspects of the decline of CD’s, at least in my mind — people who download digitally do not necessarily get a booklet, and even if they do, do not necessarily take the time to read the liner notes and lyrics.  Has music really become that abundant and easily accessible that we couldn’t care less what the singer is actually saying, or what the album as a whole is actually about?  This is the feeling I get when I surf the web for chords and lyrics.

This is also why I enjoy spending time in CD stores like Newbury Comics or — as I visited today — Exile on Main Street.  It’s a good feeling to see albums that you had forgotten about, never actually seen in person, or perhaps never even heard of before.  I left today with my hands covered in a thin layer of dust, having purchased an album that had collected a considerable amount of that aforementioned dust — the Charlie Sexton Sextet’s Under the Wishing Tree.  (Sexton played with Dylan for a few years, left the band a while back, and just recently rejoined — he was perhaps my favorite guitarist that I’ve seen in Dylan’s band, so I had to check it out.  More to come after I’ve listened more closely to the album…)

After all this posting, I suppose I should actually take a few moments to address the video you’re about to watch…

Following Jeff’s excellent rendition of “Yesterday” last Thumpin’ Thursday, I decided I couldn’t let the Beatles marathon slip away on my watch.  I had been planning to record a Pearl Jam song (as I mentioned earlier), so I opted instead to record a Beatles song that had been sung by Eddie Vedder in a cover version a few years back.  “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” is the third track from the Beatles’ excellent 1965 album Help! — Nicole’s favorite Beatles album.  Thankfully, I was able to borrow her copy of the 2009 remastered version of Help! and ensure that I was more than prepared to record this great song.

The video that follows is a perfect example of what seems like a short, simple song but is in actuality a little gem.  To me, this song exemplifies how the Beatles really aren’t overrated — even with a simple verse-verse-chorus-repeat-fade song, Lennon and McCartney had to throw in some interesting chords and variations.  It’s not simply G or C that you’re hearing — instead, my underworked and not-so-dexterous pinky finger was called into play to make the song sound entirely accurate.  Even as I type, my hand is still recovering from the workout!  Overall, I’m very pleased with how the recording came out, even if my lips ended up a bit dry and thus led to a few flubs during my “vocal flute” solo at the outro.  I hope you can forgive the slight inaccuracies and enjoy this great Lennon/McCartney classic!

My internet was a bit screwy last week and I lost all my progress, so I put it aside temporarily.

It’s been a great Yom Kippur (see my Twitter posts above), and although it’s back to school for me tomorrow, I still have another surprise up my sleeve for later this week.  That is, if my internet connection can hold steady…

See you next session!

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“Here Without You” (The Byrds acoustic and 12-string electric cover song)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to yet another Jim Fusco Tuesday here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog.  Actually, tonight, you get two for the price of one: I have Chris Moore with me to record this session!  And boy, did it come out great.  If your connection can handle it, click the “HQ” button and listen to the better audio feed of this one.  It’s in full stereo (I LOVE my microphone) and the levels are perfect!

And tonight debuts my brand new 12-string electric guitar!  And what a way to bring it in.  I knew I had to do a Byrds song.  No, it’s not a Rickenbacher.  Who can justify spending literally 8 times more for the same essential thing.  My version is from Dean and I love it.  It looks great and plays even better.  The sound is there, too- just like all my favorite 12-string songs.  Look for more in the future.  I can’t wait to bust out my new lap steel guitar, as well.

Gene Clark wrote tonight’s song and it was off of the Byrds first album, “Mr. Tambourine Man.”  Now, this isn’t the greatest album, but it really could have been.  That is, if half the album weren’t Bob Dylan covers and other cover songs.  Not to knock cover songs, but the songwriting of Gene Clark (and in the future, the rest of the band) was so far ahead of its time and his songs are simply timeless.  This song takes me back to when I was at Wesleyan for 5 weeks in the summer of 2000.  I was at a program called “CCY”, the Center for Creative Youth.  Good fit, eh? 🙂

Anyway, those five weeks seemed like a whole lifetime at the time- everything that happened in one day seemed like a year.  So, even not seeing someone for two days made it seem like you were living “here without you”.  Needless to say, this song was all I listened to when I got back that summer.

I have to keep tonight’s post short because of my marathon video editing job last night.  I need to catch up and this is my only opportunity.  So, without further ado, I hope you enjoy the great effort put out by Chris and myself tonight on the Byrds’ classic song, “Here Without You”.

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Jim Fusco reaches 250,000 YouTube Video Views!

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Tonight, I just checked my YouTube stats and noticed that I am over 250,000 YouTube video views! This represents a combination of acoustic cover song music videos, how-to videos, and original songs.

I thank everyone for their support. At this rate, I’m on par to reach 500,000 total views by the end of the year- that’s doubling my current total, which took me sixteen months to originally get! Now, I’m looking to double my views in only eight months. And, if our past data shows us anything, it’s that the Laptop Sessions acoustic songs music videos only seem to gain in popularity day after day.

So, here’s to the first quarter-million (wow, that sounds good) and on to the next! It is a life goal to get to 1,000,000 views on YouTube- many people have views in the thousands, tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands, but it’s a very small percentage that can get to a million and that’s exactly what I’d expect from myself and the Laptop Sessions over the coming months.

Thanks to all viewers and keep watching!

~Jim

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