Adam Duritz = Whiny 12 year old

Ok, the initial analogy here is not mine but my wife's (Stacey) and I thought it was apt. She says, all the time, that when she was 12 or so she planned on marrying Adam Duritz from the Countin Crows. Why? He was hot. That was 12 or so years ago and now she says, he's not hot anymore.

There is something especially not hot about a 40 (at least) year old white guy with dreads singing songs about Shrek. The Counting Crows used to be so good, they were a huge band.

Part of the appeal there was the angst inherent in both the Duritz ballad and the Duritz rock song. He was, truly, a whiny twelve year old. To my wife at the time, and I'm sure others, that was hot. It was real emotion for the time which, I'm afraid to say, doesn't really apply anymore. One of the sad parts about the Counting crows is that they just don't seem relevant to me anymore. The emotions themselves are not relevant anymore. The world, in essence, has grown up and the counting crows have not. Back in 1996, if shrek had come out, it would have been rad that the Crows were doing a song for the movie. Now it just seems desperate.

I know, this shrek - CC thing is a long ways away. But the point is the angst of a 12 year old is not commercially appealing, or socially relevant to folks who are no longer close to that age range.

Don't get me wrong; the old counting crows were amazing. But it has occured to me that they haven't had a good song in at least 8 years and nobody cares for the angst anymore. Does that make them only a grunge / alternative band?

Not helping the counting crows is their insistence on performing songs live in an overtly DIFFERENT way. In other words, Duritz and Co. refuse to do the song the way it became famous. Now, it's one thing for Frank Sinatra to mess up the lyrics and timing of a classic, or Bob Dylan, or anybody for that matter. But the Counting Crows should essentially just play the damn song.

In terms of cover songs there is a cover song and then there is a remake. Remakes are bad, covers are good. Covers must retain a certain element of the original, the tempo, the mood, the lyrics. Remakes on the other hand are, in a word, bastardizations of the original. Think Paul Anka doing "Smells Like Teen Spirit". It's one of those situations where you hear, you think you know it, you pay more attention, and then you go..... :(

Dead Pedro