Counting Crows Band • Page 12

don't they at least have the excuse of being on hiatus? or am i misremembering?

 

So they were reasonably active until the late 2000s, when Jakob Dylan went solo and made two records in relatively quick succession (one with Rick Rubin in ‘08, one with T Bone Burnett in 2010). Then they made a record in 2012. Then they kind of vanished. They have a new one coming out in July, but Jakob Dylan is the only original member left. Rami Jaffee, their second most recognizable member, joined Foo Fighters.

 

That confused me too. Are you listening on a streaming service? Maybe the songs flow more seamlessly on vinyl? I’m on Apple Music and I keep thinking it would so cool if I couldn’t tell when the song had ended and the next had began, because the writing is obviously there for that to happen!

 

Yep. Also listening on Apple Music. It’s pretty clear how the end of one leads to the beginning of the next, but I was just expecting it be as you described.

Edit: Just checked out the YouTube version posted above, and it does flow together. So it must be an Apple Music thing after all.

 

I would not say that my vinyl flows together much. I mean there is a clear stop and start to each song, which like you I was not really expecting.

Also...I think this is a great release, but it's gonna be kind of annoying if there's a Suite Two that's the same thing and I paid $25 for this LP and I'm gonna do the same for the next one when they could have just released them together without the bonus sides.

 

Yeah, I thought the same thing. This was nothing like the way he described it. The songs basically fade out and fade in and are not that dissimilar from a normal album. I was expecting something more like Green Day "Jesus of Suburbia"

 

Also, Bobby and the Rat-Kings is a classic and immediate CC song, loved it right away

 

The YouTube video sounds awesome, definitely the way I’ll listen from now on!

Check out the YouTube upload!

 

Is it bad that I kind of like it without them flowing together?

 

I'll have to play my record again when I get home. I only listened to it once and then a bunch on Spotify so maybe it does flow and I just wasn't paying close enough attention.

 

The "single" versions are now on Spotify, along with the seamless tracks, and they definitely don't flow together.

 

"tall grass" is so good, band always delivers somehow

 

"bobby and the rat kings" goes full early e street band doesn't it

 

I was just talking to my dad about this yesterday. There are a couple moments in the bridge feel straight off of The Wild, The Innocent.

 

Yeah, it’s now on Apple Music with both versions (album and single edits). I’m definitely down with that!

 

The lyrics are just as Jungleland as the music is towards the end of Bobby, specifically this part where he's using all those monikers in the casual way like we all know who they are:

So we all dressed up for the ramble
And ran those streets long past the witching hour

I saw Dorothy in drag
Taking the Tin Man for a ride
And then Z the Cat said she knew where to go
Then she kissed me without a thought
Said "Sometimes memories are all that we got
So come on, boy
Let's make some at the show"

So there's some leather-wrapped Fender-strapped kid
With a pick-finger twitch
He's got a recipe for radio or rain
I don't know which
In the shadows when the lights are dowsed
The cinder kids flare while they twist and shout
We're the sparks in the dark
That'll never go out

 

It’s kind of fascinating to me how much more his live improvisatory style has seeped into his songwriting on this and the last album. Up until SN&SM, he seemed to keep those two worlds fairly separate.

 

Adam Duritz was on the second half of today’s Bill Simmons pod, it was a surprisingly good interview and you could tell Bill was a fan.

 

It was great. I do find with them that I wish articles/interviews would delver a little more into their post-2000 period. I'm so curious how Adam feels about the reception/legacy of some of those later records.

 

One of my favourite bands but it’s so bizarre that they only have 3 original albums post 2000 in 2021. I adore Somewhere Under Wonderland though, great album. Love the new EP as well but that title and artwork is so odd!

 

That's definitely something I would ask about: why did the pace slow down so significantly after they released their greatest hits?

I grew up with their music, but they became my favorite band around 2003/2004, with Films About Ghosts and then going back to Hard Candy and This Desert Life, which I'd missed when they came out. And it's wild that they've only released two original, full-length albums (and only four studio projects period, if you count this new EP and the covers record). There are artists I got into in, like, 2014/2015 that have released four albums since I've been a fan.

 

i like adam a lot but not enough to listen to bill simmons

 

He also said on Joe Rogan that Frank Turner would be opening for them on half of their upcoming tour. I think he said the first half.

 

ooooh yes