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 those late days of junior high and early into high school, I used to babysit for a cool lady neighbor that worked at one of San Francisco’s fine music venues and always seemed to have an inside line on great music that was unknown to me. I remember she had an impressive stash of concert recordings and mix tapes — and in retrospect probably made a big influence on my early music-hoarding and seeking behaviors.  I would come to her house armed with a stash of blank cassette tapes and I would dub all her good music onto them after her daughter was safely tucked into bed. It was musical Christmas every other Friday night.

I got so many wonderful sounds from her, one of my favorites being a soundboard recording of a very early Counting Crows show at the historic Fox Theatre in Boulder, Colorado, from 8/27/93. [update:  In a twist of fate, years later living in Colorado, I've now randomly met the soundboard guy who recorded this show and the DJ who announced the intro. I love how funny life can be, and how good music can knit us in surprising ways over the years].

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 cassette tapes went by the wayside in my life and now I think I’ve lost the original retro dub. 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 month. In listening to it again for the first time in years, my ears are so extremely happy.

This show is vivid, energetic snapshot of the nascent Crows standing on the edge of a stardom that they maybe didn’t fully grasp was on its way. 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. It is about three weeks before August & Everything After was released. As Adam Duritz charmingly says, “Uh, we’re Counting Crows and this is the beginning of our first tour, EVER . . . so we’re kinda kicked about that.” The whole thing feels so fresh and real.

The set is full of enthusiasm, affability, and some excellent-quality renditions of rare songs that I love wholeheartedly but that Counting Crows have never recorded or released anywhere that I know of. Both of these unreleased songs “Open All Night” and “Margery Dreams Of Horses” have those wending storylines and thoughtful lyrics that I love Counting Crows for.

Take the first – “Open All Night.” It is a simple story of a liminal evening spent in the company of a stranger in a far-off town, one of those nights that can feel so big in the moment. “She said ‘I was born the year the rockets landed / circa 1969 and I got stranded” – what a terrific lyric. I, too, would drink all night inside this particular story, swim around in someone else’s story for a while. It’s an explosive song that feels like we’ve always known it.

The second, “Margery Dreams of Horses,” feels like a lost piece of Counting Crows narrative, with characters that will appear and have appeared in other Counting Crows songs written both before and after this point (Anna, Margery). It plunks us down in the middle of a narrative of waking up in Kentucky “where the wedding was about to end.” There’s a closure and a sadness in this song, a bleeding that won’t be stanched even as there is the relief of that one who has hurt you finally pulling the knife out, taking the blade, and walking away. And really — “It’s best to kill the ones who matter / render blind the ones who see.” I shiver a little every time he sings that; this is a great, lost gem of a song that I wish they would revisit on a record.

In between his sweet interjections about how tiring the altitude is, Adam also comments at this show that his favorite song on this first record of theirs is “Perfect Blue Buildings” (an opalescent, unspoiled, perfect jewel in my book also) because, as he says, “It will never be a single.” Plus, the Van Morrison “Caravan” cover is a joyful explosion that seems like they’re having a lot of fun. 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

Intro
Round Here
Open All Night (unreleased)
Rain King
Time and Time Again
Margery Dreams Of Horses (unreleased)
Anna Begins
Perfect Blue Buildings
Caravan (Van Morrison)
Murder of One
Sullivan Street

DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE SHOW AS A ZIP FILE HERE

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)