“Thought I Knew” (Weezer Cover)

By Chris Moore:

Welcome back to the best acoustic rock cover songs music blog on the Internet! What a mouthful…

It’s my pleasure today to bring you a new song from Weezer’s 2008 self-titled album, also known as The Red Album. This is, of course, a nod to their past self-titled albums that were colored blue (The Blue Album) and green (The Green Album). To be certain, Weezer had a lot to live up to when they released their album this year, and I was a bit put off by the remix of “Automatic” that leaked to YouTube videos via a video game trailer.

Then I bought the album and fell in love with it!

Well, to be honest, I found the album a bit quirky at first. I couldn’t decide if I thought the lyrics were catchy or cheesy. The first few songs had so many different sections and styles that it was difficult to get a handle on them. But, after a few listens, I had already decided that this was one of my favorite albums of the year. Aside from some great, catchy, upbeat, rocking, and experimental tracks by frontman Rivers Cuomo, the other three members of the band all contributed in the songwriting and singing departments.

I especially enjoyed “Thought I Knew” by guitarist Brian Bell from the first time I heard it, which is why I chose it as my first Laptop Session from The Red Album. I hope you enjoy it as well, and I can’t wait to play more from this great album!

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for another all-new and great acoustic rock cover song by Jeff Copperthite…

See you next session!



“Automatic” (Weezer Cover)

By Chris Moore:

Welcome to a fresh new Tuesday installment of the best acoustic cover song music blog series in the universe! That’s right — not just the country or the world, but the universe! Of course, I said the series is good, so that doesn’t guarantee that I’ll be any good, so you’ll just have to take your chances tonight…

Tonight’s music video is an acoustic cover from the new Weezer (Red Album). “Automatic” is track nine of ten — a powerhouse of an electric number with a great distortion guitar riff — and written by drummer Pat Wilson. I read that Wilson actually played the guitar for this one and frontman Rivers Cuomo sat at the drums. If you search YouTube videos like I did, you’ll find that there are some live versions of the songs from the Red Album already available and the one for “Automatic” is definitely worth checking out, if only for the alternative arrangement of the band.

I love to see when the bands I love switch it up a bit and allow other members to take the center stage, if only briefly. Some great bands that have done this on a regular basis are the Band, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Barenaked Ladies, the Moody Blues, and — now — Weezer! Still, many of my favorite musicians and bands are really one-man shows with a band to support them. Take Jakob Dylan (Wallflowers) and Adam Duritz (Counting Crows) just for a couple examples. Dylan and Duritz are two of my favorite songwriters, and although I like their bands, it is really their songwriting and lead singing that makes me love the bands and continue to buy their albums.

Even as I’m writing this, I can only think of one real exception to this songwriter-over-band preference of mine. Namely, Matchbox Twenty. I love Matchbox Twenty, and I have since their first album. I have bought every album and even loved their recent EP. But I just didn’t understand why Rob Thomas had to go off separately and try a solo career. For all intents and purposes, he really IS Matchbox Twenty. I mean, up until the EP, he wrote literally every song on each of their releases!

Exception aside, I have thoroughly enjoyed the new Weezer album, and I hope you have too. If you haven’t, you should really check it out. I found that the first couple tracks threw me a bit at first, but I quickly fell in love with a number of the songs — such as “Though I Knew” (a previous Laptop Session I recorded) and “Miss Sweeney” (a bonus track on the special edition).

Well, I’m off to do some work to promote all the great things happening here at the music blog. If you haven’t already, you should really check out the past couple days’ worth of posts — there is some great stuff, and much of it is FREE! There are live concert tracks, TNA pictures, and of course, great acoustic cover songs!

And, guess what?… Jeff Copperthite will be back tomorrow to post yet another all-new awesome acoustic cover, so don’t miss it…

See you next session!