August and everything after

I had plans tonight to go see Counting Crows play Fiddlers Green in this gorgeous Indian summer twilight, and looking forward to it greatly -- but life conspired against me. This is a song I've been wanting to post for a long time, the title track from their debut album that never made it on the record, but whose lyrics can be seen scrawled all over the cover:

August and Everything After (live) - Counting Crows

Counting Crows on WXPN/World Cafe Friday

Yesterday afternoon, the Counting Crows played a tough-to-get-into set on the WXPN World Cafe stage in Philadelphia. According to a friend who was there: "Adam was incredible . . . There was magic in the room. [They were] really gracious and thankful to be offered the opportunity to do this. What a day here."

The Crows played eight songs from their forthcoming album Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings; this is the widest look into their new work that we've gotten yet.

There are four songs from Saturday Nights, four from Sunday Mornings, and Adam introduces each one with an in-depth commentary on the story behind the song, and revealing the threads that tie it to other songs in the Counting Crows back catalog. It's a pretty neat way to have a first listen to an album, like they're sitting in your living room walking you through it. Have yourself a listen:

COUNTING CROWS 2/8/08
Live on WXPN/WORLD CAFE Philadelphia
1492
Hanging Tree
Insignificant
Cowboys
When I Dream of Michelangelo
You Can't Count on Me
Washington Square
Come Around

ZIP: COUNTING CROWS ON WXPN/WORLD CAFE

[Photo by WXPN, Luke Auld-Thomas]

New from Counting Crows, crossing our fingers

Berkeley band Counting Crows remain firmly ensconced in my top bands close to my heart, having soundtracked a good portion of my life. They are planning to release their fifth studio album Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings on March 25 through Geffen/Interscope. As previously mentioned, the two-part album is divided into the louder and fiercer "Saturday Nights" first half which was produced by Gil Norton (The Pixies/Foo Fighters), and the acoustic "Sunday Mornings" finish with Brian Deck overseeing the controls (Josh Ritter, Iron & Wine, Modest Mouse).

Adam Duritz (who has recently lost 50 lbs and is looking good) shared some thoughts about the album: "[It's] about dissolution and disintegration. It's about when Saturday night happens and you lose all sense of yourself. And it’s about when you wake up Sunday morning and look back at the wreck you’ve made of your life and you think, 'How can I possibly fix this? How can I ever climb out of this hole?' And then you start to try and climb."

He also notes, "Our album may not have much redemption in the end but we got all the sin I could live with and at least an attempt to try for something better."

. . . for your Saturday night:
1492 - Counting Crows

. . . and your Sunday morning:
When I Dream of Michelangelo - Counting Crows

That last tune is certainly an interesting one, whole-cloth revisiting and reincorporating a lyric and a sentiment from another one of my favorite tunes, "Angels of the Silences" from 1996's Recovering the Satellites.

From a personal standpoint, the sensual strength of his figures and his surprising use of color make Michelangelo my all-time favorite artist. My best semester ever included taking a breathtakingly in-depth course on all of his known works while I was studying abroad in Florence. Therefore, I've always smiled wider at that lyric, "I dream of Michelangelo when I'm lying in my bed," than any other one because that action and that thought is one of the best feelings ever -- because I've done it. I never thought I'd hear that line again in a new song. I am excited about this album, hoping for really amazing things that I know they are capable of.

3500 miles away and what would you change if you could?

I've been intending to post this song, but all of a sudden it has now taken on more gravitas to me and I've been listening to it quite a bit. I am back out in California again after a very last-minute late-night flight out, my uncle is seriously and unexpectedly sick in the critical care unit at the hospital. It's raining in Santa Clara. Tubes and wires and beeping and I feel completely overwhelmed with what I can do except hold his hand and stroke his unconscious forehead. Even though I am 28 I feel like an ill-equipped kid even being in the ICU, like someone's going to say "Excuse me sweetheart, no one under 14 allowed." Sometimes I talk to him, about anything, about everything. Preschool Christmas concerts, recent trips, insignificant anecdotes. If I felt brave I guess I could sing, he's always liked to hear his nieces sing.

Brandi Carlile covered "Raining in Baltimore" by the Counting Crows at a recent show Birmingham, much to my delight. This somber, underrated, poetic tune from the Counting Crows' first album is one of my favorites. While her treatment of it is pretty faithful, the emotion in her voice belies a genuine love for the song and the mournful cello addition strikes a chord with me:

Raining In Baltimore (Counting Crows cover) - Brandi Carlile

This circus is falling down on its knees
The big top is crumbling down
It's raining in Baltimore fifty miles east
Where you should be, no one's around

I need a phone call
I need a raincoat
I need a big love
I need a phone call

These train conversations are passing me by
And I don't have nothing to say
You get what you pay for
But I just had no intention of living this way

I need a phone call
I need a plane ride
I need a sunburn
I need a raincoat

And I get no answers
And I don't get no change
It's raining in Baltimore, baby
But everything else is the same

There's things I remember and things I forget
I miss you
I guess that I should
Three thousand five hundred miles away
But what would you change if you could

I need a phone call
Maybe I should buy a new car
I can always hear the freight train
Baby if I listen real hard
And I wish, I wish it was a small world
Because I'm lonely for the big towns
I'd like to hear a little guitar
I guess it's time to put the top down

I need a phone call
I need a raincoat


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql58kZE7hL0

Odds & ends

On this lovely slow Saturday I am making up a big pot of Dill Turkey Chowder (recipe pretty much like this except I use garlic pepper) and the simmering smells are already fantastic. It's been a week like that -- a lot of interesting thoughts simmering in the back of my mind with no real time to write about them or enjoy. So since it's Saturday, here's what I've been noticing lately:

۞ Nil Lara. I still get more comments on this guy, on the single post I wrote back for a previous World Music Wednesday, than almost any other ongoing topic. People across the world love this guy, miss his music, and wonder what he's been up to. He's been playing a series of monthly shows down in Florida, much to the joy of many fans, but the great news is that the Yanks get 2 doses of him next month!

Nil Lara has just announced two shows in New York City at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, Nov 17th @ 8pm and Nov 19th @ 7:30pm. I'd love to see this guy; I'll be in NYC a few weeks before that for the last weekend in October to see some best girlfriends, but I'll miss this show unfortunately.


۞ There's a new audio interview with Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready from Tacoma, Washington's News Tribune.

Listen to Mike talk about his reaction to the AT&T censoring of the Lollapalooza webcast, Italian fans and the new DVD, director Danny Clinch, and even some on The Scorpions & Iron Maiden. Rock on.



۞ The Onion made me laugh with this fantastic "news brief":

Google Launches 'The Google' For Older Adults
September 26, 2007
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—The popular search engine Google announced plans Friday to launch a new site, TheGoogle.com, to appeal to older adults not able to navigate the original website's single text field and two clearly marked buttons.

Read the rest


۞ The new Counting Crows album, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, will be delayed in its release until 2008. According to Adam Duritz's blog:

Update 9/27/07 - "Town Hall, Old Memories, and New Delays"
Greenwich Village, New York City, 10am

. . . This will frustrate some of you I'm sure, and I apologize for that, but we've gone to Geffen and asked to push back the release date of Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings until sometime after the New Year.

It was just a crazy busy summer. Between all the touring and the traveling and the mixing and mastering of the new album and putting the together the package and writing all the essays for the August… reissue, we just let some little things fall through the cracks. The record itself is finished but we just did the photo shoot a few weeks ago, the art and packaging deadlines were last week, and, even putting in 20 hr days, it was just impossible to get it all done. There are videos and singles and so many things to decide on and finish and it's just not the time in our career to be rushing important decisions. Actually, in my opinion, it's never the right time to rush important decisions. We really try to make records that last forever. I don't see the point in putting all the work in to do that and then not having the right cover or picking the wrong single or making the wrong video. They're small things, I guess, but they matter to me and they're just a few of many.

It's a tough pill for our record company to swallow. Especially in this day and age, it's not easy to ask them to postpone a Counting Crows album that would have been on sale for fall and through the Xmas season. Someone somewhere will not be happy with them. Luckily for us, the people we deal with at our label ARE music people and they know that our partnership with Geffen has been a marathon, not a sprint. We haven't been around together all these years because we were worried about a few months.

Anyway, that's THAT bit of news. I know it's a bit of a disappointment but, like I said to all of you the other day, "Remind me never to put out two albums at the same time again."

I recommend streaming the song that Adam has posted on his MySpace, called "Bleed." Best as I can tell, it is a song written by Stew/The Negro Problem, and this is a live collaboration with Adam. The lyrics are pretty rich. I'd post it here, but . . . well, you know.


۞ Finally, the Ike Reilly Assassination show was as mindblowing as I had hoped on Thursday night at the Larimer Lounge.

I voraciously dig the blistering rock songs with a punkish-retro edge, with some of the finest attention to lyrical detail and "flow" of any modern songwriter today. Johnny Hickman (founding member of Cracker) joined Ike for the gig, as Johnny is a local Coloradan now, and they were clearly enjoying themselves. I was particularly riveted by the performance of "The Mixture" (off 2005's Junkie Faithful) -- an incredible, soulful, brutal, unflinchingly introspective, raw tune that I am listening to on repeat these last two days. It goes deeper each time I hear it.

"Girl don't like the mixture in me,
the liquid in me, the fiction it frees
the liquor in me, the Mick in me,
the fried-out lies for eyes she sees

...Girl don't like the distance in me,
the danger in me, the sickness in me
the stranger in me, the quickness in me,
the shiftlessness and shift in me

...Girl don't like the greed in me,
the speed in me, her need for me
the weed in me, the dealer in me,
the schemer in me, the dreamer in me

...Girl don't like the fader in me,
the invader in me, the penetrator in me
the not-quite-fade-awayer in me,
the I will see you later in me

But stay with me anyway
I'm a brand new believer
I went to the tomb without you
And they wouldn't receive me, no no no
And they wouldn't receive me, no no no
And they wouldn't receive me...

Where were you when the wheels fell off in Birmingham?
Where were you when I shed my skin in vain?
Where were you when we slid right off the motorway?

Maybe you stepped away, took a vacation day
You said a day with me is a night you've wasted

Where were you?"

The Mixture - Ike Reilly Assassination

The picture above is by Denver photographer Doug Beam from his fine set taken at the show. Quite an unforgettable night.

No, you didn't read this wrong: NEW song from Counting Crows! "Come Around"

Today is a day I've been waiting for since July 9, 2002 -- the day that Counting Crows' last studio album Hard Candy came out, and the last time I heard anything new from them (Shrek soundtracks notwithstanding). It's a NEW SONG from this Berkeley band that I've long adored!

Usually I close pop-ups, I block them outright, I don't look at them. But thanks to a little tipster in my inbox, I visited CountingCrows.com and let the pop-up of a Cracker Jack box advertising their summer tour appear and do its flash animation thing and wait and wait . . . until finally I got the prize - the first listen mp3 download off their upcoming album, Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings (due November 6th)! The opening notes sound bit Maggie May-ish, no? After listening to it seven times, I'm gonna fall firmly into the "love it" camp:

Come Around - Counting Crows
(link removed due to band request - apparently there was some miscommunication about what to release to the masses and I got caught in the middle, cozy with the RIAA. Stream the archived track on Hype Machine)

Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings was recorded as a two-part concept album. The Saturday Nights half was recorded New York City, and Adam Duritz says, "Saturday night is when you sin and Sunday is when you regret. Sinning is often done very loudly, angrily, bitterly, violently."

Sunday Mornings (the acoustic regretful half) was laid down in Berkeley with Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Josh Ritter), and the whole shebang is currently being mixed and finished in NYC. The producer for this album is Gil Norton, who also worked with them on Recovering The Satellites.

Here's a live version of one other new song that will be on the album, and old b-side that's been kicking around for years. It's an acoustic ballad called "Washington Square" (a lovely, lovely place in San Francisco, also immortalized in the Chris Isaak song of the same name, one of my favorites by him). This will be the first song on the Sunday Mornings half of the record:

Washington Square (live 8/4/07) - Counting Crows

Come on November 6th!

Your '90s Nostalgia summer tour

Counting Crows is heading out on the road this summer in support of their new album coming out this fall, which is in the mixing stages at the moment. They will be reprising their double bill with Live -- I saw this same pairing on the tour for This Desert Life at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, and that was just when Ed Kowalczyk was hitting his full rap-rock stride (complete with crotch-gesturing, which he has now perfected into a veritable art form).

It was actually a really good show (I remember Adam running out on stage to sing with Ed on "Dolphin's Cry" and I think Ed returned the favor during the Crows' set as well). If they announce another leg of this tour (nothing this far West yet) I will probably go if it isn't too expensive.

You know I love Counting Crows, and have never really grown tired of Live. I absolutely wore out their Throwing Copper album in high school, and even though Secret Samadhi was a little uneven, they struck gold again my book with The Distance To Here. I just love their strong and soaring, melodic-rock sound.

Collective Soul and Third Eye Blind will also be joining the tour for most dates. I don't especially ascribe to either of these groups (which is why I only have covers from them to post below), but allegedly the lead singer of 3EB is a foxy, foxy man in concert. Duritz writes, "What you may not know is that on Saturday, May 21st, 1994, Third Eye Blind played their 1st show ever, opening for Counting Crows at the historic Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. We've never toured with Collective Soul before, but we've played festivals together and...well, they're just a great band."

The tour will be hitting minor-league ballparks across the nation in smaller towns and communities (speaking of which - I am going to a Colorado Sky Sox game tomorrow on a package with free food and free beer until the 7th inning . . . no better way to spend Memorial Day? ). This is an interesting idea for a tour -- and just in case there was any lingering question who the primary audience now is for Counting Crows, children under 12 are free at all shows on this tour. Ha.

Einstein On The Beach - Counting Crows
They Stood Up For Love - Live
Train in Vain (Clash cover) - Third Eye Blind
Jealous Guy (Lennon cover) - Collective Soul


COUNTING CROWS SUMMER TOUR
July 22nd - Daniel S. Frawley Stadium in Wilmington, DE
Home of the Blue Rocks
July 24th - Classic Park in Eastlake, OH
Home of the Lake County Captains
July 25th - Consol Energy Park in Washington, PA
Home of the Wild Things
July 27th - Fifth Third Field in Dayton, OH
Home of the Dragons
July 28th - Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock Park, MI
Home of the West Michigan Whitecaps
July 31st - Jerry Uht Park in Erie, PA
Home of the Seawolves
August 1st - Dunne Tire Park in Buffalo, NY
Home of the Bisons
August 3rd - Louisville Slugger Field in Louisville, KY
Home of the Bats
August 4th - Victory Field in Indianapolis, IN
Home of the Indians
August 7th - GCS Ballpark in Sauget, IL
Home of the Gateway Grizzlies
August 8th - Drillers Stadium in Tulsa, OK
Home of the Drillers
August 10th - Sedalia, MO – without Live/Collective Soul or 3EB
August 11th - Principal Park in Des Moines, IA
Home of the Iowa Cubs
August 14th - Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, MD
Home of the Ironbirds
August 15th - Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick, MD
Home of the Keys
August 17th - MerchantsAuto.com Stadium in Manchester, NH
Home of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats
August 18th - New Britain Stadium in New Britain, CT
Home of the Rock Cats
August 21st - Blair County Ballpark in Altoona, PA
("all that moisture's gonna push off towards Altoona")
Home of the Curve
August 22nd - First Energy Park in Lakewood, NJ
Home of the BlueClaws
August 24th - McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, RI
Home of the Paw Sox
August 25th - Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls, NY
Home of the Hudson Valley Renegades
August 27th - Syracuse, NY – without Live/Collective Soul or 3EB
August 28th - Allentown, PA- without Live/Collective Soul or 3EB
August 30th - Memorial Stadium in Ft. Wayne, IN
Home of the Wizards
September 1st - Midway Stadium in St. Paul, MN
Home of the Saints
September 2nd - Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo, ND
Home of the Redhawks

Under the covers with the Counting Crows

It's been raining covers and rarities on the Counting Crows' MySpace page lately, and right now they've got up 4 great studio tracks from their so-called "Under The Covers" sessions. Their distinctive touch on each of these songs is thoroughly enjoyable, even on the Rod Stewart/Faces ditty (a man who, in general, I cannot abide, due to flagrant violations such as these).

Adam Duritz fills us in:

To celebrate what a great week we had in the studio, I decided this was going to be Covers Week on our Myspace page, so all the songs will be from the unreleased "Under The Covers" we recorded by ourselves one weekend during the "Hard Candy" sessions when Lilywhite was out of town.

We got "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", a Bob Dylan song from the Basement Tapes sessions. It was also recorded by the Byrds on the album "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo" album. I have no idea what the hell this song is about. It's one of those Dylan songs where the lyric is so good that it doesn't even matter that none of the words seem to make any sense at all. Fucking nonsense as far as I can tell but somehow it still makes total sense to me. We got the fucker in one tape, as you will hear me clearly state at the end of the song. You try and pull that shit off.

Next up is "Ooh La La" by The Faces from the album of the same name. The Faces of course featured Rod Stewart on lead vocals, Ron Wood (later of The Rolling Stones on guitar), Kenny Jones (later the drummer for The Who) on the kit, Ronnie Lane on bass, and Ian McLagan on piano (also a member of the Stones, albeit an unofficial one). "Ooh La La" was one of the rare songs written and sung by Ronnie Lane. If It seems familiar, it may be because it is the song that closes the film "Rushmore".

On our version, Rod Stewart was unavailable so I sang the vocals but the rest of the instrument are still played by the The Faces......or are they? We were having a lot of fun recording this track. You can tell because I just don't seem to want to end the damn song. The body of the song is only 2:40 but the last chorus goes on for almost another two full minutes because I simply refuse to stop and keep calling for everyone to go around another time.

We had the same problem ending "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere". I may have been a little hammered by this time. It's only fitting, after all. When The Faces released their big box set a couple years ago, they (rather fittingly) called it "Five Guys Walk Into A Bar... ".

Then we have "Start Again", maybe my favorite song by one of my favorite bands, the wonderful Scottish band Teenage Fanclub. It's cut from their album, my favorite of theirs, "Songs From Northern Britain". We decided to cut it with lots of harmonies and acoustic guitars as if it was a Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song. It's probably my favorite track on "Under The Covers". Me and Dan just sing the shit out of it and when Immy adds the high harmony, the song just soars. Plus this song features my one and only piano solo on record.

Lastly, but certainly not least, is our version of the great Jackson C Frank tune "Blues Run The Game". This one is just me and Immy. Jackson Frank was a friend and peer of Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Sandy Denny (of Fairport Convention), and Richard Thompson. Legend has it they all shared a flat together in London in the very early 60's. When Simon left to return to America and formed Simon and Garfunkel, they recorded "Blues Run The Game" for one of their 1st albums. It turned out great but for some reason didn't make the cut and was left off the album. It turned up years later on a Simon and Garfunkel box set called "Bookends", which is where I first heard it. Immy and I have played it many times in concert but I don't think we've ever again captured the pure emotional magic of the first perfect performance.

Nothing on "Under The Covers" overdubbed or comped together. All these songs were recorded live and this is exactly how they sounded. We recorded live and we recorded fast. I think we did 14 songs in 2 days.

Dig it cats, these are the songs we love. Hope you love 'em too.

You Ain't Going Nowhere (Dylan cover) - Counting Crows

Ooh La La (Faces cover) - Counting Crows

Blues Run The Game (Jackson Frank cover) - Counting Crows

Start Again (Teenage Fanclub cover) - Counting Crows


My PS - I think I prefer the breathless purity-of-the-moment with this live version of Blues Run The Game, even though I can't complain on the good studio version:

Blues Run The Game (live) - Counting Crows

Odds & ends

It's been a long time since I compiled one of these odds and ends posts, but there were several little things today that caught my eye:

۞ Brian Deck is on board to produce the new Counting Crows record, according to Adam:

March 16, 2007 12:53am
Berkeley, CA

Rehearsals have been going really well the past few days. I'm pretty excited about the 2nd half of this record. I really dig the producer we've chosen. His name's Brian Deck. He produced "The Moon and Antarctica" for Modest Mouse, "Our Endless Numbered Days" for Iron and Wine, "The Animal Years" for Josh Ritter, and this album I love by the Fruit Bats called "Mouthfuls". We're getting really cool weird twisted folksy sounds.


۞ Paul McCartney is set to release a new album this summer, the inaugural release for new Starbucks label.

I drink Starbucks. I love McCartney. But why does this just feel so dirty and somehow depressing?

۞ Mason Jennings has a new blog post that starts with the sentence, "Did you ever just get so high that you wrote on your arm never to smoke weed again? Me neither." It goes on to discuss music he likes and life in general lately for him, but opening sentences don't get much more engaging than that one.


۞ I truly love the new Hold Steady video for "Stuck Between Stations." That is a dang fine song, and since I haven't caught them live yet, I've never seen it performed, seen the way they jolt out their music.

Incidentally, I think their piano player may actually be Oliver, Kat's husband from Miami Ink. Rock the 'stache, dude.



۞ SPIN tries to deconstruct the method behind Ryan Adams' crazy, internet-facilitated, musical-diarrhea madness.

۞ Pete Yorn's cousin/merch man/video whiz Maxx updates Pete's MySpace friends with setlists and excellent pictures from the road. The most recent post has a haiku to match each photograph, and is a must-read. I laughed out loud at a few:

sid is funnier
when he's not wearing his clothes
but someone else's

simon is undead
he will eat your flesh
even from the stage

۞ SXSW. Most of the SXSW coverage from my fellow bloggers seems like drinking out of a firehose, and I am not able to fully absorb all of it yet (although I am trying). This, however, was one show that I had read about and found video for -- very cool. Pete Townshend was at the fest to speak at a panel and joined British buzz band The Fratellis for a cool little cover of The Who's "The Seeker":

And the best picture that I've seen so far from SXSW was taken by my friend Brian H., who has been regularly updating me with more pics and details than you can shake a stick at (thanks!). I don't know the story behind this shot, but I thought it was cool how it speaks to the environment of total musical domination in Austin these past few days:

Rock 'n roll.

The Himalayans: She Likes The Weather (Adam Duritz's early band)

Adam Duritz of Counting Crows is an artist that I have historically loved deeply over the past 12 years or so (and will always love), but I found myself thinking that lately that the Crows' output has become kind of, well, boring. I reserve the right to modify that statement at any time --they do have a new record coming out which could be amazing-- but lately I am not energized at all by what they are doing, which is the exact same thing they've been doing for several years now.

So perhaps just the thing to spark that flame again is some early work from Adam when he was young and hungry.

This year Duritz formed a record label called Tyrannosaurus Records, as we previously discussed, and according to a very interesting MySpace diary post, they will be re-releasing Adam's work from 1991 with his early Bay Area band called The Himalayans on a 17-track album called She Likes The Weather. It'll be available April 12.

STREAM: Four songs from The Himalayans at their new MySpace
(including an early demo version of Round Here)

Here's some history from Adam from the blog:

Dated March 9, 2007
12:30am
Greenwich Village, NY

Today is a really big day for me. It's a day I've waited years to see.

The best part of being a musician for me has always been the joys of being in a band. I've always loved the collaboration. I get off on the unexpected surprises of improvisation and the glorious shattering moments of inspiration that come from playing with other people. Most of all, I always loved the feeling of being part of something bigger than myself. Maybe it comes from growing up and moving around a lot or maybe it just comes from being the kind of person who always spent too much of his life alone. Either way, I never wanted to be a solo artist. Not for one day. Not for one hour. Not ever.

I've been lucky too, in my life, because I got to be in some great bands over the course of my life and I finally settled in one that was good enough (and lucky enough) that we're still here some 18 years after Dave Bryson and Marty Jones (yes, THAT "Jones") and I first got together to record some demos in Dave's studio Dancing Dog in the late Spring of 1989. Those demos, recorded just before I left to go backpacking around Europe so I could quit playing music and get on with my life, turned out to be the reason I finally realized I couldn't ever quit playing music. So I came home from Europe and Marty and Dave and I formed the first incarnation of Counting Crows.

That band recorded some good music but we never played a live show and eventually we all went our separate ways. I sat around for a while, not doing much, in the warehouse Immy and I lived in down by the train tracks on 4th Street in Berkeley until one day Immy came home and handed me a copy of the SF Weekly with an ad circled in the classified section. It was an advertisement for a band looking for a singer.

"Get off your ass and call these guys," Immy said to me, "The ad's silly. These guys sound fucking ridiculous. They're probably the perfect band for you. Anyway, you gotta get of your ass and play some music."

So I called and they said they'd pretty much already decided on a singer but they invited me to audition the next night anyway. I drove over to San Francisco figuring it was a waste of a trip but, what the hell?

I met the guys and they were all pretty cool. Dave Janusko played bass, Dan Jewett played guitar, and Chris Roldan played drums. They asked if I wanted to try some covers or something but I just said play one of your songs and let's see how it goes. So they started playing and I started singing.

.....and it was magic. I'd never played music like this before. It was way different from anything I could ever have written. But it was perfect. Words just came out of me. Thankfully they were taping the audition because I think we wrote most of three or four of our first songs right there during the audition. It was like I'd been playing these songs forever. We played for about forty minutes and stopped. And then we all just stood standing there in a circle, sweating and staring at each other in that tiny basement rehearsal space. I don't exactly remember what happened next but I think someone just said, "...Uhhh...you're in the band."

And The Himalayans was born.

It was probably the greatest period of musical productivity of my entire life. I was still occasionally playing open mikes and acoustic shows with Dave Bryson as Counting Crows, and, a little while after that, I also started doing all the harmonies for and playing with Sordid Humor too.

But the center of it all for me was The Himalayans. It was entirely liberating for me because I didn't have to write any of the music. They just created this insane funky, acidic, psychedelic swirl underneath me and I just sang over the top of it. I wasn't in charge and I didn't have any more responsibilities than anybody else did. They just played and I just sang and then we went and ate at Mi Mazatlan, the little Salvadoran restaurant on the corner by our tiny Mission District underground rehearsal space. . .


(read the rest via Adam's MySpace blog)

New record label from Adam Duritz

Adam Duritz from Counting Crows has formed a new record label called Tyrannosaurus Records (or T-Recs, har har). He's signed two bands thus far, some high school kids from Chicago who go by the moniker Blacktop Mourning (just added to SXSW), and a rapper named NOTAR. If you'd asked which one I would think I'd like better, it'd be the former, but actually I don't find them exceptional at all. I like me the NOTAR fella more - oddly compelling, in an 8-Mile sort of way. Check out his hustle and flow on his MySpace.

Cal-fan Adam recently also chronicled his musical MySpace browsing in this journal entry:

I closed out my MySpace wanderings with a trip over to the Low Stars page. Their album is done and it's coming out soon. It is the most exquisitely beautiful country rock harmony album since the glory days of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, The Byrds, and The Eagles. It's just amazing.

It features singer/songwriters Jude, Chris Seefried (formerly of Joe90), Dave Gibbs aka "Kid Lightning" (formerly of Gigolo Aunts), and Jeff Russo (formerly of Tonic). It's just amazing record. It was produced by George Drakoulias (The Black Crowes, Tom Petty, Maria McKee, Primal Scream). Immy plays a lot of gtr and pedal steel on it. It's just really cool.

. . . Dave Gibbs co-wrote "Los Angeles", one of the songs for our new CC album, with Ryan Adams and me, by the way.


So there you have it, a few additional recommendations for the day if you feel like clicking over in between important work meetings and IM chatting when you are supposed to be finished that spreadsheet. Counting Crows are currently convened in NYC with Gil Norton finally at work on a new album. It's only been, like, over four years since we had anything new from them? Count me stoked. Here's Ryan Adams' collab with them from that album, Hard Candy:

Butterfly In Reverse - Counting Crows (written with Ryan Adams, Ryan on bgvs)

New Counting Crows (co-written w/ Gemma Hayes): "Hazy"

From the upcoming live Counting Crows release New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall (due June 20), here is a previously unreleased track, "Hazy." I was thinkin' all along that Gemma Hayes actually sang on this track, and I was mightily looking forward to it, but turns out she just co-wrote it. It's still really pretty.

"Hazy" - Counting Crows (co-written with Gemma Hayes)
(Fixed link.)

The story behind the song - Adam Durtiz writes:

"I got an email from Lisa asking me for the lyrics to 'Hazy,' which, as you may or may not have heard, is the previously unreleased song written by Gemma Hayes and myself . . . Unfortunately, the truth is I honestly have no idea what they are. I never wrote them down. Gemma and I created the song a week earlier drunk out of our minds around 5am at a piano in a bar. By the time we played the Amsterdam shows, she had left the tour. I had lost my mind, and I couldn't stop thinking about her (Elvis had also presumably left the building). I was just sitting at the piano in the Heineken Hall getting ready to play "A Long December" and I started trying to remember the music to "Hazy" and making up the rest as I went along. It's all stream of consciousness. I wrote it and sang it off the top of my head. It's just me trying to express exactly how I felt at that moment. I couldn't play it now if I tried.

I saw Gemma in New York about a year ago and I played it for her. We tried to work out the chords but neither of us could figure out how to play it. So it's just a moment. It exists there on that tape and nowhere else. That's kind of why I included it. It's the quintessential bootleg moment."

Amen, brother. I LOVE ephemeral "moments" in music, I live for them.

I am looking forward to the entire new live CD, which I hear is amazing. It also features "Four White Stallions," which is an old-school cover that they do, which I adore. The Crows know how to work it in concert -- beautiful arrangments, interesting tags, and a fabulous choice of songs included on the new disc.

Hit the Counting Crows jackpot with Hummingbird's Nest fansite

I just stumbled upon a phenomenal resource for those of us who love ourselves a bit of the Counting Crows, especially the wrenching and lovely renditions of their songs that they perform live in concert. I love the experimentation in a live Counting Crows show: it's always different melodies, different lyrics, but a common thread of beauty. "Humm" runs the Hummingbird's Nest fansite, stocked with dozens of complete live shows for download.

I ran amok on the website and here are some of the favorites that I found. There is a ton more (and this is a doozy of a long post because I can't be succinct on the topic of Counting Crows).


SHOW: 2003 Shim Sham secret show, New Orleans
For the last few years (maybe not so much this year), Adam Duritz, "Immy" (David Immergluck), and assorted friends play a secret show in New Orleans at the Shim Sham club - usually 90% cover songs with a few CC tunes thrown in. Here are two great ones (which I had before, but crappy sounding copies. These are excellent sound quality):

"Winding Wheel" (Ryan Adams cover)
(Adam Duritz: "Pretty much, my schedule during the day is I work all day in our studio, then I go at night to [Ryan's] studio, and then we kinda go streetwalking down Hollywood Boulevard, stopping in all the bars. Cuz Ryan . . . Ryan, while being a very good drinker, is also probably a better songwriter than I am. In any case, he's a lot of fun. This is off his first album; his new album is the best thing I've ever heard, pretty much, but you'll find that out when it comes out.")

"Unsatisfied" (Replacements cover)
I love the desperation in this song, even though Adam's voice isn't as wavering and on-the-edge strained as Westerberg's is when he sings it.


SHOW: March 10, 2004, Ahoy, Rotterdam
This show was broadcast on the radio, and as such the sound quality is, again, excellent. It was hard to pick just this many (3) to share:

"St. Robinson and His Cadillac Dream" (acoustic)
Hmmm. I think this is my favorite Counting Crows song, partly because of the lyric "Yeah, but the comet is coming between me and the girl who could make it all clean" (but ask me tomorrow and it might be a different fave). This acoustic version is practically unrecognizable from the original, especially in the intro, but I LOVE IT.

"Tuesday in Amsterdam" (unreleased original)
I am so stoked to have a clean and clear version of this song, which I had previously been unable to find. Crushing. He repeats the line "Come back to me" so many times that it just becomes a sad plea, and by the end of the song I think it must hurt to keep asking. The lyric "she is the film of the book of the story of the smell of her hair" somehow captures just how complicated another person can be, yet anchored by something so simple (a scent).

"Mrs. Potter's Lullaby"
This Desert Life was released while I was studying abroad in Italy, and my sister brought me a taped copy down from London when she came to visit me mid-semester (ah, those surreal days). As such the entire album is The Soundtrack to many, many train rides and many quiet mornings trying to recover from the vino. I love so many lyrics in this song, "If dreams are like movies, then memories are films about ghosts," or "If you've never stared off into the distance, then your life is a shame," or "It's just a brief interruption in the swirling dust sparkle jetstream." Plus I wonder who Mrs. Potter is. Songs about married women are always so intriguing.


SHOW: Warner Theatre, Erie, PA
April 23, 2003

"Miami"
The fantastic percussion intro of this songs gets even more interesting here in this live version, and I love the way that Adam lyrically plumbs the depths of self-deluding, one-sided relationships with the lines:

"It just gets hard to believe
That God sent this angel to watch over me
But my angel, she don’t receive my calls
Says I’m too dumb to f*ck
Too dumb to fight
Too dumb to save
Well, maybe I don’t need no angel at all" (ya think?)


SHOW: Konocti Harbor, CA
July 3, 2004
I used to hear commercials about this resort/spa/playground-of-the-yuppies on the radio all the time when I lived in CA. The drunk, rich crowd ambient noise bugs me (MUST you scream that loud, oh urban cougar?) but this is such a great song:

"Holiday in Spain"
Just sounds exactly like the vacation I need right now - "Everybody's gone, they left the television screamin' at the radios on. Someone stole my shoes, but there's a couple of bananas and a bottle of booze . . . well Happy New Year's baby, we could probably fix it if we clean it up all day, or we could simply pack our bags and catch a plane to Barcelona 'cos this city's a drag."


SHOW: Orlando House of Blues, August 30, 2001
Another excellent-sounding recording, full show.

"Up All Night"
This is THE BEST song for driving off somewhere on the open road on a summer night with the windows down, in part because of the opening lyric, "Is everybody happy now? Is everybody clear? We could drive out to the dunes tonight 'cos summer's almost here . . ." (an obvious soundtrack). Feel the humidity in the air.

"Black and Blue"
In the studio version of Hard Candy, the lovely Ms. Leona Naess provides the haunting backing vocals to this very sad song. The live version always seems a bit lacking to me without her, but it is such a gorgeous & melancholy song that I'll let it slide.


SHOW: Denver University
December 2, 1999
The Crows visit scenic Colorado

"Kid Things"
(hidden track, This Desert Life)
Rocking and fun, with somewhat throwaway lyrics (which may be why is was selected for the hidden location on the CD) - even though the one about "No, no, no - you can't get any lovin' - it's a Sunday" always makes me smile.

"Return of the Grievous Angel" (Gram Parsons cover)
Some good ole expansive '70s country from Gram Parsons, suitable for a show out here in the somewhat-wild-West.


SHOW: Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA Sept 12, 2000
I was there for this one. I miss the Greek, it is a fabulous setting in which to see a show. This had an excellent setlist, and was a dual bill with Live (who I will be seeing next Friday).

"Live Forever" (Oasis cover)
Truly lovely version of this song; Adam says that "seeing Oasis a bunch really got me into how perfect pop songs are . . ."


SHOW: Viper Room, June 1995

"Richest Man" (CJ Chenier cover)
Simple little ballad off an obscure 1995 album.

SHOW: Olympia Theatre,
Dublin Ireland.
March 2, 2004

"Colorblind"
Even though this song debuted in the half-bit remake of Dangerous Liaisons, Cruel Intentions, this is such an eviscerating song.


SHOW: Orpheum Theatre, Memphis January 31, 1997

"Murder of One" (with Paris/Rome tag)
I've heard Counting Crows do this song live with this tag before, and I loved it but I could never find it. It's simple, but sticks in your head:
"I have been to Paris
I have been to Rome
I will go to London
And I am all alone"


Whew! And that is just getting started on Hummingbird's Nest. Have fun, muchachos.

Oh, and there is a new Counting Crows live album, New Amsterdam, coming out on June 20.

Counting Crows 1993: "This is the beginning of our first tour, ever, so we're kinda kicked about that"

In around 1993/1994 I used to babysit for this lady that worked at Shoreline Amphitheatre as an usher, and seemed to know a lot of people in "the business" and got all kinds of great music. I would come to her house armed with a secret stash of blank cassette tapes and I would clandestinely dub her good music onto them after her daughter was safely tucked into bed. Naughty nannies, I know (ah, she didn't mind).

In this manner I got lots of good stuff, one of them being a soundboard recording of a very early Counting Crows show at the historic Fox Theatre in Boulder, Colorado, from 8/27/93.

I absolutely wore out the tape, listening to it so many times that I know the entire set and all the dialogue by heart. Then tapes kind of went by the wayside in my life and now I think I've lost the original. I've spent many hours trolling the web looking for these songs. Then reader Jeff turns out to have this very show on mp3 and just sent it to me and made my WEEK (no, month!). In listening to it again for the first time in years, my ears are extremely happy.

This is a snapshot of the Crows at a critical juncture on the edge of stardom in their career, as the announcer says, "This band is so new, even *I* haven't heard of them yet..." and calls them an "up and coming new hot band" in the Bay Area. And as Adam Duritz says, "Uh, we're Counting Crows and this is the beginning of our first tour, EVER, so we're kinda kicked about that."

The set is full of enthusiasm, affability, and some excellent-quality renditions of rare songs of theirs that I LOVE but that they have never released officially. Both have those fabulous lyrics that I love Counting Crows for. Listen to the story in Open All Night. It's a simple story, evocative of a conversation shared between two strangers. If we were listening to this together, I've put little stars** next to the lines where I would shush you and make you listen closely, favorite parts of the song for one reason or another:

Exit 8 **
Small cafe **
Georgia moonlight **
It's 3am and I've been driving all night
She had a funny air, red-brown hair in the porchlight **
She said 'we're open all night
so won't you come inside
It's gonna be alright...'

She said 'tired?'
I said 'I'm a little bit unstable'
She said 'child, I will help you if I am able
See there's a bottle of relief upon the table
And we're open all night
so won't you come inside
It's gonna be alright...'

She said 'I was born the year the rockets landed **
Circa 1969 and I got stranded **
Yeah but the comet's getting close and I can't stand it **
Said we're open all night
So won't you come inside
It's gonna be alright...'

Exit 8
Small cafe
Georgia moonlight
It's 8am and I've been drinking all night
But there is nothing I will not do to make it alright
She said 'we're open all night
so won't you come inside
It's gonna be alright...'



. . . And Margery - This one is a bit more wordy, but just absolutely beautiful as well. It reads like a poem. As a huge fan of Counting Crows I like to see these early personifications of names that will recur in songs over the next ten-plus years for the Crows (Margery and Anna). Here's partial lyrics. I started starring ** lines in this song and realized it would be every line, so just shush and listen to all of it. Ow, beautiful.


In still water she lies down
shaking through the press of sunlight
We rolled into Lexington
she shakes off a drop of daylight

Water beading off her chest
bleeding down between her knees
Rivers in Kentucky flow
beneath the bluegrass wavy seas

And oh, Margery
sticks the knife once more inside of me

. . .

Dust me off and shut me down
and dream of where I haven't been
Close the door inside my heart
And stuff in the south Atlantic wind

I have hollow eyes
haunting only to myself
Even so I can't stop carving,
scraping hollows in myself

I took the train from California
to the far side of the continent
Woke up in Kentucky
Where the wedding was about to end

I looked up at Anna
she turned back to look at me
It's best to kill the ones that matter
render blind the ones who see

But oh, Margery
takes the blade and walks away from me

Oh, Margery
love like blood is pouring out of me

Oh, Margery
my heart won't stop bleeding over me

Oh, I can't shut it in
it's got far too many doors to block the wind
Oh, I can't shut it in
it's got far too many doors to block the wind


Adam reveals that his favorite song on "our new album" (August and Everything After) is Perfect Blue Buildings, (which is a perfect, opalescent, unspoiled, melancholy gem in my book) because, as he says, "It will never be a single." Plus, the Van Morrison Caravan cover can't be beat. As Adam says, "This is our favorite song, period, and . . . we didn't write it. But I wish we did."

ENJOY, my friends. You are in for a huge treat.

Counting Crows
Live at the Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO
August 27, 1993

01. Intro
02. Round Here
03. Open All Night (unreleased)
04. Rain King
05. Time and Time Again
06. Margery (unreleased)
07. Anna Begins
08. Perfect Blue Buildings
09. Caravan (Van Morrison)
10. Murder of One
11. Sullivan Street

DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE SHOW AS A ZIP FILE HERE
(you need this whole set, not just as piecemeal, yo.)

Counting Crows live covers

Here are a few excellent covers & live songs that I've been meaning to throw out there by Counting Crows, from the exhaustive fansite Anna Begins. This is a band that consistently amazes me with the variety of their covers, tributes, and influences. Good ear.

• Blues Run The Game, Jackson C. Frank cover - this is a beautiful song (open link in new window)
• California Stars, Woody Guthrie/Wilco cover (right click, save target as)
• Outside Chance, The Turtles cover (right click, save target as)

And then one more, not a cover, but a newish non-album track from their best-of CD, Films About Ghosts:

• She Don't Want Nobody Near (live at the China Club - open link in new window)