Counting Crows is my favorite band. Adam Duritz is just a fabulous singer/songwriter. I always thought their stuff could be used as an inspiration for a movie, like Aimee Mann's brilliant work for Magnolia.
Anyway, this is my appreciation thread for CC and here are my favorite songs, in no particular order
Round Here
Perfect Blue Buildings
Anna Begins
Mr. Jones
Rain King
Sullivan Street
A Murder of One
Catapult
Angels of the Silences
Have You Seen Me Lately?
Recovering the Satellites
Another Horsedreamer's Blues
Chelsea
Hanginaround
Mrs. Potter's Lullaby (about Monica Potter)
Amy Hit The Atmosphere
I Wish I Was a Girl
St. Robinson and His Cadillac Dream
Hard Candy
Miami
Black and Blue
Holiday in Spain
Good Time
I think it's all some sentimental crap!
Well, of course it's all sentimental. That's what life is a lot of times -- you get dumped by a girlfriend, you get nostalgic for the past, you wonder what your future holds, you long for someone you can never have.
Life is full of real angst. Duritz takes those very personal moments and turns them into some of the most literate lyrics of the past decade. And it doesn't hurt that the band rocks, too.
Quote from: xXxIxAxXxI think it's all some sentimental crap!
i hear you brother!
Bah. Ignore the anti-sentimentalists. August and Everything After was one of the best records of the 90s. It's too bad they never reached that same height again. Now they just suck. Tis a shame.
Omaha and Colorblind are pretty good songs
counting vrows are to me just as exciting as dave mathews band or whatever nice guy rock many of you americans like to sleep to.
bo-ring.
Quote from: phil marlowecounting vrows are to me just as exciting as dave mathews band or whatever nice guy rock many of you americans like to sleep to.
bo-ring.
sadly you are right...I used to listen to both of them...then they got big. I am not one of these "sell-out" types, but it saddened me when last saw both of these bands. I looked around and realized the majority of the people were attending the concerts with their parents. I will not give my money to anything that has some freaky bitch mom yelling at me cause a drop of my beer spilt on her 13-year old daughter. No thanks, in that aspect, I am done. Which is a shame cause Matthews I first saw in 93' and he was grand.
....the first album was alright .i didn't own it but i think it is alright ..but now they seem to be pop-rock sell-outs.......
for the record, counting crows rock my fucking head off. you forgot a long december though.
Quote from: European SonBah. Ignore the anti-sentimentalists. August and Everything After was one of the best records of the 90s. It's too bad they never reached that same height again. Now they just suck. Tis a shame.
Quite wrong, my friend... AAEA was thier Pablo Honey... just dribble compared to the follow up Sattelites...
I'm a closet CC fan... hated them during the first album, but once I heard the second, I couldn't deny the true emotion and brilliance behind the lyrics... unfortunately, they've headed back downhill, but RTS and This Desert Life were great albums.
MAaaaan. IM Thinking that i dont like tahwe countinwsg crooos too much. BUT! dave amthewsw is goiid stuff. I see him play before it was a vaddass concerty man.
Green means waittt
Yellow means go head
Red means wohere tefhd fuck did you get taht BANANA!
I'm gonna have to disagree, while I think RTS was a fantastic album, it is eclipsed totally, and unequivocally by AaEA. It is pretty bloody rare these days to pick up a cd for $13.99 (CDN) and have every one of the 11 tracks blow you away emotionally. You know those shivers you get when you hear some really potent shit, or when you see a particularly poignant part in a film? Well yeah multiply that by 11 divide by $13.99 and I am sorry my friends but that = musical masterpiece. Most of my formative teenage years and the events that shaped me can be chronicled by those songs. So sentimental? Yes, wholly and completely. Sentimentality is a bad thing? No way. Our past experiences and memories are what dictate who we are as people, take that away from us and we are automotons without context, mindlessly toiling through the temporal turbulence of the now.
Round Here and Long December meant a whole lot to me in my high school years. Round Here has some really beautiful lyrics.
I don't like them much anymore, though. I saw them in some beer commercial not long ago and was just like...ehhhh. The Dave Matthews Band comparison was astute. I loved them up through Before These Crowded Streets (Don't Drink The Water was a great song)...and then all of a sudden I really can't stand them. Some of their old stuff was amazing, but I hate every new song from them I've heard. They've become instituionalized.
NEON MERCURY WROTE:Quote....the first album was alright .i didn't own it but i think it is alright ..but now they seem to be pop-rock sell-outs.......
Call Counting Crows whatever you want, but don't call them sellouts. The only "hit" they've had the past 3-4 years is their currently radio-friendly remake of "Big Yellow Taxi" ... And the band only put that song on their current album (Hard Candy) as a hidden bonus track, NEVER intending for it to be the single that carried the album. ... But the shallow record industry people listened to the album, didn't hear anything THEY liked and said, hey, we can get some radio play out of this Joni Mitchell remake -- let's do that. ...
And thus the rest of the fine album (except for an extremely short release for "American Girls") has gotten ignored.
The last original CC song that was really a radio hit was "Hanginaround," a fun but lightweight song that led off their third album "This Desert Life."
Clearly, they are making music that they enjoy and music that their fans enjoy, but they're not making music designed for pop radio and MTV.
They are not sellouts.
In fact, they are so off-the-radar right now as a money-making band that they had to hook up with John "Your Body is a Wonderland" Mayer for their summer tour, with Mayer practically being the headliner.
Find. your magali.
Good point.. I should not have used sell-outs. ::waves white flag::
No problem, Neon
There are plenty of valid criticisms of the band, but I just didn't think "sellout" was one of them.
Maybe I'm too sensitive about the lads, though...
Quote from: Find Your MagaliMaybe I'm too sensitive about the lads, though...
no, no, no...you made valid points, stand to them, as it was genuwine....
Quote from: Find Your MagaliNo problem, Neon
There are plenty of valid criticisms of the band, but I just didn't think "sellout" was one of them.
Maybe I'm too sensitive about the lads, though...
nah..its just their "your band".I am the same way w/ Pearl Jam....aclockworkjj is right.. genuwine.....
Counting Crows is one of the best American bands to surface in the 90's. Easily. They are also responsible for one of the best CD's of all time:
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If you've never listened to this live compilation, do so. Then you can come back and debate whether they're "good" or not.
the acoustic Storyteller's disc is a little weak, except for Round Here and Mr. Jones.....i loved the "so you wanna be a rock 'n roll star" intro.....the other disc is pretty solid, i saw that performance on MTV as well.
I love how they almost completely reinvent some of the songs for "Across a Wire." They're not simply regurgitating their album singles. They find ways to make the songs and lyrics fresh again.
I think my favorite "reinvention" from "Across a Wire" is "Have You Seen Me Lately?"
I also love the "Rock 'n' roll star..." intro for "Mr. Jones." They did that when I saw them at The Tabernacle in Atlanta in 1999, for the opener, at a time when Duritz was said to be a little tired of playing "Mr. Jones."
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The latest release, "Films About Ghosts," represents ten years of hits from four extremely successful records. Tracks included are "hangin' around," "a long december," "mr. jones" and "big yellow taxi," as well as two new tracks "friend of the devil" and "she don't want nobody near."
Tracks:
angels of the silences
round here
rain king
a long december
hangin' around
mrs potter's lullaby
mr jones
recovering the satellites
american girls
big yellow taxi
omaha
friend of the devil
einstein on the beach
anna begins
holiday in spain
she don't want nobody near
Best live performance on Late Night with David Letterman was when the CC's played after the Madonna meltdown. They totally took the tension in the room and broke on thru.
I love this band, it's better than most of the bs out there.
The only thing I really don't like about The Counting Crows was that they did a cover of Big Yellow Taxi, originally done by Joanie Mitchell. They changed the words and the original 'mood' of the song. Which really sucked.