Tag Archives: Original Songs

“No Lights, No Sound” (Original Wednesday)

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By Chris Moore:

Well, it’s been a while since I posted a music video, so I figured I’d better make certain my YouTube account was still functional…

This week, instead of recording a cover song, I felt that it was time to kick off The 2010 Project music video series I’ve been planning for a while.  You may be wondering, what exactly is The 2010 Project?  It is the working title — and, based on a recent conversation, very possibly the official title — of my forthcoming album.

Thus far, as of April break, I’ve chosen the thirteen songs that I plan to record and completed the writing of both music and lyrics.  Since then, I’ve recorded acoustic demos of each song and begun listening them in order to help me think of and decide on arrangements and various aspects of how I’d like the final products to sound.  I’ve been experimenting with GarageBand drum loops, and I’ve been practicing the songs quite a bit since April.  Every weekend since then, I’ve taken an hour to sit down and play through the album in order.

As with any big project like recording an album’s worth of material, anything’s liable to change by the time the final product is ready to be heard.  That being said, I plan to string together thirteen installments in this music video series, each featuring one of the aforementioned songs.  And, understanding that anything can change, I’ll be releasing them here on the blog in the order I plan to sequence them on the album.

The first song up is “No Lights, No Sound.”  Laptop Sessions regulars may recognize this as a video I’ve already recorded and posted over a year ago.  However, this is the finalized version, with some slight lyric changes and additional verses.  This song is a rare case of old lyrics re-emerging on a new song.  The story here is that, a few months ago, I came across the lyrics for an old song that I never really committed to, but had always liked a few lines from.  I thought they might fit nicely into this song, and with a few alterations, I think they do.

In a lot of ways, this is one of the simplest songs on the list, a tune that started as I walked around my room in the dark almost two years ago.  I was home alone, my capo on the second fret from having played another song (which I’ve since forgotten), and the first line sort of came to me: “The lights are off; there’s no one around…”  I wrote this and the first chorus, but that was it for a while.  It wasn’t until months later that I added the middle section and new verses.  Then, this past April, I deleted a verse and added two more in.

“No Lights, No Sound” is a song that has weathered several phases in my recent life, a track that has been conceived, shaped, and reshaped by these phases and survives in its current form with a scheduled slot as the opening track of The 2010 Project.

I hope you like this one.  For some reason, even though my allergies haven’t been hitting me as hard as they probably will soon, my voice wasn’t at its peak today.  That being said, I feel that worked for this solo acoustic performance.

So, without further ado, here is the first installment in the series — hurry back every day this week and both days of the weekend for new posts!

See you next session!

“Marissa” (New Music from Indie Music Band MoU)

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By Chris Moore:

It’s my honor to present my first original, non-yuletide tune for today’s edition of the Laptop Sessions. At first, I wasn’t sure what song I should play, as “Original Wednesday” comes but once every three weeks. I chose “Marissa,” a song from my 2003 album Something They Thought It Should Be, since it has always been one of my favorite songs to play on guitar. For over a year, it was instinctively the first song I would play whenever I picked up the guitar. Now, I’m playing it for you and hoping you’ll enjoy it!

If you like it, check out the album at the Fusco-Moore Store…

A session a day rolls on at guitarbucketlist.com, and I hope you come back tomorrow for another great session from Jeff!



“On For Miles” (Jim Fusco Original Song)

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By Jim Fusco:

Why doesn’t anyone post Original Wednesdays anymore?  Well, I’ll just chalk it up to the fact that my brand-new album is coming out in less than two weeks- “Halfway There”!  If you’ve been to the music video blog before, you’ve probably seen advertisements for it.  You may have even heard a bit.  I hope you’re liking it so far- it’s a loooooong time in the making!  If you’ve been here before, you’ve probably also noticed that we cover almost 200 bands- a new video three times a week.  You may not know that on a weekly basis, we post original songs, as well!

Tonight, I bring you track 3 from the upcoming “Halfway There” LP.  On the album, you’ll notice that this song is much punchier and has a more modern sound to it.  Okay, so maybe it doesn’t have a modern sound, but it’s as modern as you’re gonna get from me! 🙂  The song has some cool effects and features a very intricate five part harmony on the chorus- it’s so cool to listen to it in the car because the chorus seems to “widen” the speakers as soon as it kicks in.  It does that on the first chorus of the song “Halfway There”, as well- I’d love to hear reactions when the album comes out!  I got this effect because of the new mastering techniques I learned.  No longer does it sound like a wet burlap sack is draped over the speakers when listening to a recording of mine.  I’ve actually even remastered my last album, “What About Today?”, in the same way- you should HEAR how much better it sounds!  One of these days, I’ll get a digital copy up on the FMP Store.

Anyway, “On For Miles” is supposed to be “single-worthy” in the sense that it’s the third song on the album, but it does follow two superb ones (if I do say so myself) in “Go Back To Him” and “Our Love Doesn’t Translate”.  I knew I needed to follow-up those songs with something really catchy, as well, but that also got you into the feel of the whole album, rather than listening to a collection of singles.  It’s tough to describe.

So, this version, which is only me and an acoustic guitar, has a much different vibe- but that’s when a cover song on acoustic guitar is really interesting.  It’s never interesting to take a song that was done acoustically in the first place and just do it live in front of the camera.  It’s fun to take a fully-produced song and pare it down to the bare bones and play it just as a “song” and not a production.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s original song and I hope you’re as excited as I am about the release of “Halfway There”.  I just got the UPS tracking number for the shipment- looks like I’ll be getting them a week earlier than expected, but you’re still going to have to wait until the 7th to get your copy! 🙂  I live for anticipation.

Have a great rest of the week and I’ll be back with only my second Beach Boys tune for the year on Tuesday.  I figure once a quarter is good to keep the loyal fans happy!  The only question is, “Which one?”  You’ll have to wait and see for that, too!  Geesh, I’m just teasing everyone tonight, huh?  Oh, wait, I guess I did just post two videos in a row…so, you can afford to wait a few days!  See you then.

“A Night Away” (Jim Fusco original song)

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Another Wednesday means another new original song acoustic music video here on the Laptop Sessions music video blog!  The site is more popular than ever and I’m very happy to have my new original music featured in front of so many eyes and ears.

In the midst of working an eight hour day and another almost full-time night job, I got a minute to record this video.  I’ve been working on my new album, “Halfway There” for almost two years now and it’s been a whole four years since my last effort. Well, we did have a band in the middle there, so that’s where all of my creativity went for a couple years.

This song actually branches off of that sentiment.  The band was a great idea in theory.  We were even great on stage.  But, when everyone in the band is close to each other friend-wise, then it makes it really difficult to mix work with it.  If I had met the other band members at a job somewhere, it probably would’ve worked out better.  Tonight’s original song is one that tells the story of the night that signaled the end of the band as we knew it.

I’m not angry.  I’m a bit more ashamed, as I say in the song.  I really wanted the band to work, but realized it wasn’t working and really couldn’t work with the personell we had.  I felt ashamed because I always finish what I start and never got that satisfaction with the band.  We even released an album that was credited to the band last year, but in actuality, it was a compilation of what each member was doing at the time.  When I think of what might have been…

On my new album, this song is probably the most rockin’ out of the 11 tracks.  It’s short, but there’s a pretty cool guitar solo in there that always makes people’s eyes light up whenever I play it for them.  I guess they never pegged me as the Guitar Hero type.  Well, it’s off to work for the rest of the night- I’ll be back for another Jim Fusco Tuesday cover song music video in a short six days.  I hope you enjoy tonight’s video and hopefully sometime in the next week I’ll be sending all of the files and music to the CD company for production.  I still want to remix and remaster four songs because I want this one to be as near-perfect as I can get it.  See you then!