Tag Archives: music videos

“Living Well is the Best Revenge” (R.E.M. Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to an all-new weekend edition of the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song video blog! We’ve been doing a lot of work on the site recently, in terms of adding new features and new material to the Laptop Sessions site as well as promoting it so that we will bring in new fans to this great venture.

And now, without further ado, on to the Laptop Session of the day! I am pleased to bring you the album starter from this year’s R.E.M. release, Accelerate, “Living Well is the Best Revenge.” When the album first came out, I was interested in it, but I had my doubts. I do own both volumes of R.E.M.’s greatest hits, but I really only love about half of the tracks — I would have personally preferred a one disc greatest hits, but that’s just me. Suffice it to say that I wasn’t sure how I would feel about an entire album, especially when their last few albums have received mediocre music reviews. Still, I was interested, so I took a shot…

And I’m so glad that I did! The album is one of my favorites from this year. The music is upbeat and rocking, the vocals are strong and the lyrics interesting, and there is really only one song on the album that I’m not crazy about. The packaging of the deluxe edition (which, yes, I bought — I’m a sucker for attractive CD packaging…) is impressive. There is a booklet tied together loosely with string and a subtitle on the front cover that reads “This will fall apart.” And I don’t doubt that it would if I pulled on the pages too hard…

This song, “Living Well is the Best Revenge” is a great album starter. The verse is really only one chord, so I hope I’ve done it justice. Without the fullness of the other instruments, it just doesn’t sound the same, but you need to watch one other YouTube video after mine — the official R.E.M. music video for the song. They recorded it while driving in a car — the drummer, who is driving, is literally using the steering wheel for the percussion in the song. It’s a great idea that I wish my band MoU had thought of before, as we have been known to rehearse for gigs in the back of our bassist’s van!

That’s all from me for now; check out the Laptop Sessions archive for more amazing video blog entries from Jeff…

See you next session!



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CD Review: Bruce Springsteen’s “Devils and Dust”

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RATING:  2 / 5 stars

By Chris Moore:

I had read many reviews of this album long before I ever listened to it, and they were all good. They weren’t simply good reviews. Rather, Rolling Stone among others made this out to be the most incredible Springsteen album in years, if ever. Thus, my expectations were high when I bought Devils and Dust late one night and eagerly cranked it up for my half hour drive home.

The first track—the title track—is a nice start to a dark album, but I found myself disappointed quickly. Perhaps it was because I expected more upbeat songs, a la The Rising. Or perhaps it was because I was driving home with the windows open, cool breeze in my face, and I was having trouble hearing what Springsteen was singing. Whatever the reason, I quickly became disappointed with the release and told my friends why I thought it was overrated.

While I have not decided to declare this a veritable masterpiece that I initially overlooked, I must admit that my opinion of the album has softened with time. What helped to change my mind was viewing the DVD side of this DualDisc release. While the stripped-down nature of the studio recordings initially turned me off—and I usually have nothing against bare bones recordings—his live, solo acoustic performances allowed me to hear the songs for themselves, independent of my initial expectations. Springsteen appeared Dylan-esque, complete with acoustic guitar and harmonica rack. I loved “Devils and Dust” all the more here for its directness, for its simplicity. Suddenly, it was as though he was singing an old folk song—a well-written, dark yet catchy number. “Long Time Comin’” stood out to me again, having been one of my favorite album tracks.

There was something in Springsteen’s commentary in between songs that captured my interest and sparked my respect for the man. He seemed to be legitimately interested in writing minimalist songs as personal narratives both autobiographical and fictional. “Reno” is the perfect example of this captivating and revolting blend between the real and the conjured, the noble and the pitiful that he is able to weave together so well. In the best songs on this album, Springsteen exposes a subtle poetic sensibility that lends credibility and interest to his work. In subsequent listenings, I have found myself most taken in by these occasionally vivid and descriptive turns of phrase.

Still, I don’t quite understand some of the choices he made for the songs on this album. For instance, why did he sing the penultimate track, “All I’m Thinkin’ About,” in the odd, cracked voice manner that he did? Furthermore, why did he choose some of the subject matter that he did? What are the Matamoros Banks and would it make a difference if we knew? After all, I wonder why he would sing such a pretty song about a place that I have difficulty relating to, even after he has described it through his song. These are the moments — hearing him sing in unusual manners for no apparent reason and memorializing specific places that I have difficulty understanding the importance of — that I wonder what is so masterful about this album. It is a decent album, to be sure, and contains some good songs, but it is more of a return to roots than a step forward.

For all that I am impressed with the earthiness of the songs, the fervent attention to immortalizing the devils and the dust, I am still most in awe of a song like “Jesus Was An Only Son.” For its interesting depiction of an oft-discussed historical figure/son of God/son of man, for its flowing tune, and for its haunting organ riffing in the background, I wonder what the album would have been like if as much attention had been paid to the other tracks.

While its slow, gritty ballads pay homage to its namesake, I can’t help but note that if the album had been comprised of “Devils and Dust”’s and “Jesus Was An Only Son”’s, I may have called it masterful.

2005

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Another Video Blog Milestone: Songwriter Jeff Copperthite at 20,000 views!

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Another milestone! And in only 52 days! I have reached 20K views on Youtube!

I am pleased to have reached this milestone, as it brings me another 10K views to my goal of 40K by the end of the summer. I want to thank all of you loyal guitarbucketlist.com visitors. This motivates me further to continue to provide the best acoustic cover song videos that I can!

My viewcount increased 10K in 52 days. That makes my views per day stat 192.31. The past week or two (thanks mostly to my Jakob Dylan video) I have been averaging 250 views per day. And this statistic can only go up from here!

We continue to please and you can expect more songs from new bands, previously covered bands, and more top notch original music videos from Jim, Chris, and myself. Again, thank you for helping me reach this wonderful milestone. Here’s to the next 10K and beyond!

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“Looking For You” (New Music – Independent Music Songwriter Chris Moore)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to the “Title Tracks Week” edition of the Laptop Sessions! Today, I’m proud to pull one out of the archives, dust it off, and present it to you in all its laptop camera – recorded glory… This is the title track from my 2005 album Looking For You – click here to listen!. “Looking For You” is one of only three songs (all included on that album) that I’ve released with drums included in the mix. At the time, Jim officially produced three tracks off the album for me and they are, by far, the standout tracks! With his help and musicianship, I was able to include percussion and background vocals like no other song I had previously released. To this day, I still remember the hours I spent teaching him the songs and learning what I could from his recording style.

“Looking For You” quickly became one of the staples of our band at the time, the trio “Chris, Jim, and Becky.” We played coffee houses and open mic nights, and this song seemed to fit amongst our rather acoustic fare. For whatever reason, I had a hell of a time remembering the words though, so there are some embarrassing live tracks floating around out there. But there is a really great recording of it on our only release as a trio, appropriately titled Live in the Studio – click here to listen!.

Then, in 2006, MoU began recording their debut album – click here to listen!, again with a “live in the studio” sound. Looking for standards that we were comfortable playing, “Looking For You” made the final cut. This, I think, is the definitive version. Years of playing this song finally gelled on this recording, as the three of us were joined by Mike Fusco on drums and Cliff Huizenga on bass.

As a final note, I must admit that I have purposely pushed this song out of our set lists as of late. The reason is certainly not that I don’t like the song; the length of this post should refute that suggestion! (In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever told anyone before, but this was the first harmonica solo I ever played on my own and it really marked the beginning of that instrument in my music.) I’ve felt that the words of the song get buried in a live, electric rock setting, and that’s the real reason it’s been passed over recently. Playing it again tonight was a blast!

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you’ll come back to https://guitarbucketlist.com tomorrow for an all-new “Title Track” Laptop Session from Jeff Copperthite… it’s sure to be a great one!

See you next session!



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