By Chris Moore:
Crazy For You cover (Best Coast, 2010)
(July 27, 2010)
Review:
Best Coast sounds like the product of Zooey Deschanel and Tegan & Sara meeting on a drizzly day in sunny Californ-i-a, deciding to form a band; unfortunately, though, not much is surprising after the first couple tracks, but the band oozes potential and hints at what they may be capable of in the future.
Top Two Tracks:
“Crazy for You” & “Boyfriend”
By Chris Moore:
Hello and welcome to another edition of Original Wednesday here at the Laptop Sessions!
Tonight, I’m happy to present the second installment of my summer preview series of my forthcoming album The 2010 Project. I began recording demos a few months ago, as I mentioned in a previous post, and now I’ve officially hacked out a track listing. There will be thirteen tracks, all of which are fully composed now and have been recorded in demo form — a few of the demos are more fully produced, but minimally.
Now, I’m at the phase where I’m putting together the tools I need to record. With the help of a friend, I’ve recently picked up a set of seriously great headphones, which will be a necessary component of the mixing process. He also helped me pick out a USB microphone that I’ve been experimenting with this week. There is a line in and external mic plug that I may use if I’d like to refine the sound quality as I begin to record the tracks in a couple weeks. Finally, I had to replace my guitar pedal, which I had to throw away a few months ago when I pulled it out of storage and found the batteries had leaked. I tried to clean it out, but it was too far gone. So, I just got the latest Zoom pedal, which I can’t wait to try out!
Which brings me to the track I’m unveiling today. Previously, this has only been played for two people: my girlfriend and one of my dearest friends of all time. Both encouraged me that the new music I’ve been writing is among my best, so I’m hoping to make them proud by the time I’ve finished recording this new album.
And it’s about time — this marks four years since Love Out of Fashion!
“I Would Prefer Not To” will be the second track on the album, following “No Lights, No Sound.” Those of you English majors out there will pick up on the allusion to the Herman Melville short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.” The verses are as simple as they come, only two chords: D and A. When I record the studio version, I hope to flesh out the riff I have in my mind and make that more catchy. The chorus is more interesting and, as in my favorite songs by artists like Bob Dylan, Mike Fusco, and others, the lyrics change slightly each time around. The song deals with the conflicts that arise from not wanting to disappoint others, but also needing to follow your impulses and passions. It’s a very personal song, critical at times — though it’s meant to be more confident than scathing — and I think there is a universal quality to it, regardless of its personal nature.
Without further ado, I give you my acoustic performance of “I Would Prefer Not To.” I hope you like it, and that you’ll continue to check back for more Original Wednesdays in the near future.
See you next session!
By Chris Moore:
Producer: Adam Kasper and Soundgarden
Released: November 13, 2012
Rating: 4 / 5 stars
Top Two Tracks: “Been Away Too Long” & “Non-State Actor”
As was heralded by “Live to Rise,” their fantastic contribution to the Avengers soundtrack earlier this year, Soundgarden is yet another of 2012’s long-awaited reunions, this album coming out sixteen years after 1996’s Down on the Upside. In King Animal, Soundgarden has found a new groove that brings their signature sound alive again with reinvigorated appeal. “Been Away Too Long” is the perfect opening track, and it is followed up with glorious riffing and cutting lyrics and vocals on “Non-State Actor.” The eleven tracks that follow are reliably exciting with hardly any exception, never trying too hard to be catchy yet clearly concerned with being lively, particularly with guitar and vocal parts. Freshly energetic and consistent throughout, King Animal is one of the year’s best reunion efforts, and despite the considerable expectations facing such a release, it is one of the better albums of 2012 as well.
The Gaslight Anthem's "American Slang" (2010)
(June 15, 2010)
Review:
If you ever wondered what Bruce Springsteen would have sounded like had he been born into the alternative/punk rock legacy, well… the time has come; American Slang suffers a bit from homogeneity of sound, but each of the ten tracks here unfolds as a vivid landscape that transports the listener to a new and yet not entirely unfamiliar locale.
Top Two Tracks:
“Orphans” & “The Diamond Church Street Choir”