Conference mr1pst::music

    
    All I can tell you is that the vocalist has displaced Hurricane Smith
    in my two picks within 577.0. 
    
    Peter
    

	Adam Duritz.  I like his voice.  The album is decent, though the
	lyrics (his, mostly) are somewhat inane.

    They sound similar to Van Morrison. I liked their songs initially,
    however, the local station has played them into the ground.
    
    fred deady

    can you say "Flash in the pan" ?
    
    Gonzo

	Counting Crows is on the cover of the May issue of Musician 
magazine with a lengthy article inside.  They are a relatively new 
6 piece rock band (2 guitars, bass, hammond, drums, lead vocalist) 
from the SF bay area. I think they're a very solid rock band.  The 
playing is decent but the emphasis is on the songs rather than 
musicianship.  The record is called "August and Everything After" 
and is well produced by T-bone Burnett on Geffen.

	There have been comparisons to Van Morrison here and elsewhere,
but I don't really see it. That same comparison has been made to a
large fraction of quality artists (everyone from Elvis Costello to
Springsteen) so what does it mean?  Personally, I don't hear too
much similarity between Counting Crows and Van beyond the general
stylistic similarities shared by many bands of this ilk.

	The radio has played "Mr. Jones" a lot (over much as they are
so often given to doing), but there is much good material on this
record that has yet to be played.  IMO the material is well written
and delivered and there is good consistency among all the tunes.
The lyrics are a little cryptic (which I see as a feature, not a 
liability) and the lines are well turned. To my mind, the lyrics 
aren't inane, as someone else thought.  The writer talks about the 
lyrics in some depth in the Musician piece, for those interested.

	In all I'd give the record B+.

/ml

    >There have been comparisons to Van Morrison here and elsewhere,
    >but I don't really see it.
    
    These comparisons are probably motivated by the fact that the singer
    actually sounds a bit like Van Morrison, at least in the one song (Mr.
    Jones) that I am familiar with. I never noticed it until it was brought
    up in this topic, but I do see the similarity.
    
    Brian

	I didn't notice the Van Morrison similarity so much with "Mr. Jones",
	but when I got the CD, I definitely noticed it on other tunes.
	But now that I've listened to it dozens of times, it has more
	or less disappeared for me.  As far as the lyrics being somewhat
	inane, they certainly aren't trite, and they're interesting, but
	things like this are a little "out there", even though they
	sound nice:

	"Stepped out the front door, like a ghost into a fog
	where no-one notices the contrast of white on white;
	and in between the moon and you, angels get a better view
	of the crumbling difference between wrong and right."

	(I think I got that right.  And those are some of the _less_
	inane lyrics.)

	I love his plaintive sound though.  He sings very easily.

	Diane
	

    I suppose where I'm such a big Van Morrison fan I should give them a
    try.  On the other hand, why listen to someone who sounds like Van
    Morrison, when I can listen to Van Morrison?
    
    Lorna
    
    

He might be better looking than Van Morrison, though.

    RE"-1.............AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHAHAHHAH!.......;")..................K

(bow)  Thank you!

    Yeah, but I don't judge Van Morrison by the same rules as I judge the
    rest of the masses.
    
    Van Morrison doesn't have to be cute, he just is.  :-)
    
    Lorna
    
    ps - besides, most singers, with the notable exceptions of David Crosby
    and Frank Black are better looking than Van.
    

    
    These guys don't remind me of Van so much as early Bruce
    (as in "The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle")
    I like the "Mr. Jones" tune... very catchy. I've even
    been considering adding it to my band's repetoire, but who
    could remember all those words!!! 
    
    /Billy_K
    
    PS.-- Lorna, I believe that Adam Duritz also has all of his
          hair, albeit some nasty white-boy dreadlocks

re            <<< Note 626.13 by ROCKER::KNOX "Rock'n'Roll Refugee" >>>
                              -< no more words!! >-

>    PS.-- Lorna, I believe that Adam Duritz also has all of his
>          hair, albeit some nasty white-boy dreadlocks

Yeah, but is he thin?  He doesn't program computers on the side, does he?

    I don't like dread-locks on white boys.  
    
    I can't quite understand how anybody could be quite so desperate for a
    "different" look.   :-)
    
    Lorna
    
    ps - I like the way Eddie Vedder wears his hair.  (BTW, I don't know if
    I've ever mentioned this, but I think he's cute.)
    

  >>  I like the "Mr. Jones" tune... very catchy. I've even
  >>  been considering adding it to my band's repetoire, but who
  >>  could remember all those words!!! 

	i could.  ;>

    
    
    	Eddie Vedder is a BABE!
    
    	The Counting Crows CD is great~! Mello....
    
    	SueJ

Eddie wasn't looking too good during the eMpTV music awards ... kinda
bloated, actually ... but he seemed to have gotten his physical self
back together in time for the Pearl Jam concerts at the Garden a few
weeks back (and that was a great show let me tell ya).

- dc

    re .17, .18, sorry, to add to the Eddie Vedder digression in the
    Counting Crows topic, but I just had to mention that my daughter met
    Eddie Vedder at the Charles Hotel while the band was in town for the
    Boston Garden concerts.  She ran into him in the hall of the hotel
    after midnight, and he wound-up talking to her for about 45 minutes and
    giving her a big hug.  She said he was rambling on about all sorts of
    things, including Kurt Cobain's suicide, and, of course, she was
    thrilled out of her mind, but attempting to remain cool and not act
    like a star struck fan.  Anyway, in conclusion, she thought he was
    extremely attractive, as well as very nice.
    
    Lorna
    

    Well, I just have to say that I finally saw these guys on VH1 and,
    guess what, the lead singer *is* very cute, even with the dreadlocks. 
    (In fact, he reminds me of a guy I once had a big crush on in real
    life, but he didn't have dreadlocks.)  :-)
    
    I liked his voice and the song, too, so I think I'm going to buy the CD
    this week.
    
    Lorna
    

    
    	You scare me.  8^)
    
    	I think you have your priorities backwards ... "great band" should
    	really come before "lead singer is cute".
    
    	8^)
    
    							GTI
    

    re .21, sometimes "great band" does come first (example: Van Morrison),
    sometimes "lead singer is cute" comes first (good example: Duran
    Duran).   :-)
    
    Lorna
    

    re .21, and, besides, with some of the movies you watch *nothing*
    should scare you.  :-)
    
    Lorna
    

    
    	Well, now you see my point.  If what you do scares me that much
    	it should tell you something.
    
    	8^)
    
    							GTI
    

    Checking in for CC: This record is very listenable, and grows moreso
    with each play. Having heard Mr. Jones on the radio more than a few
    times, I wasn't expecting a whole lot more from the CD, but it does in
    fact have considerably more to offer. I was afraid I'd get tired of the
    singers style after 3 or 4 tracks, but that's not the case at all. It's
    a fun album to listen to. I think I'll play a few dozen more times,
    reasonably spread out over some time, of course.

    rjb