nah the problem with third eye blind is whoever that guitarist was on the first record wrote alot of the music, clearly, bc there’s a special tuning used all throughout the album and it’s good, if a little corny
they fired him or something and their following material never recovered
hmm i don't know... [elder millennial here] I feel like no one my age would be like oh I LOVE third eye blind they're my favorite, BUT if somebody does semi charmed life or jumper at karaoke we'd all lose our minds and scream-sing along
Their first 4 albums 🫶🏼
in the pantheon of revolution rock….but I think the Good Friday peace agreement murdered their soul (I mean, I’m super happy for Ireland). If anyone says their favorite is Joshua Tree, then I know they’re not OG U2, they’re “pop” U2.
Couple months ago, Third Eye Blind played the Washington Capitals fan fest, and covered TV on the Radio "Wolf Like Me" and the wife and I both looked at each other like "I was not prepared for how cool this is".
I think given the state of everything. Long December is going to both be hated and reviled in a month because people will really feel like December has been rough, but it's also not making people think it will be better next year.
I do have to wonder if this is regional to some respect, because in my area of Massachusetts it was very much the Gen Xers bumping Counting Crows and the Millennials who wanted nothing to do with them.
My partner toured for awhile in the aughts and said he heard (through whatever music scene people) that Adam Duritz had a habit of going into local record stores in every place they played and asking to buy whatever local shit the clerks recommended and I think that's nice.
It’s a good album. I submit that it is almost a perfect album if you follow the cheat code. Skip 1, play 2, skip 1, play 1, skip 1, play 3, Skip 1, play 1, Skip 1, play 2, go back and hit the skips 🙃
August and Everything After is damn near perfect, but I only want the album experience. Of course, not listening to the radio much, if at all, helps keep them out of mind.
So this is probably exactly why GenX just can’t listen to them now. It just hurts. It was the couples album of our time when we were all falling in love for the first time & losing our virginity & for a lot of us that translated to marriage or long-term relationships that have long since failed.
I think the backlash was probably inevitable because anytime you and your parents have the same album and like it equally the younger party is going to grow embarrassed by it but it’s been a lot of fun revisiting and realizing that nope, we had pretty good taste back then
A podcast I enjoy but that is about 5 years younger than me had their (debut?) album in their all-time top 20 and it really confuses me how a very large contingent of EpiFat punks love this band. I don't. I hated them, as time has passed I'm lukewarm. That's just how I feel about 90s now though.
I’m a millennial and they’re my favorite band and have been since the 90s. Every Spotify wrapped tells me I’m in the top 0.01% of Counting Crows fans. 😂
But I’m in this thread being surprised to learn I’m not the only one.
I'm a weird elder millennial and I'm not a fan of the counting crows 🤷🏻♀️ I blame my Gen X brother and his friends for making me listen to better music early on. I should thank him for that 🤣
i'm 58 yrs old, first wave of GenX and i swear to God that Counting Crows was and is firmly entrenched in the soundtrack of our family life and my personal existence.
I strongly disagree. Give me Counting Crows!!! love those guys! Tightest live band I've ever seen. So good.
i used to be positive to neutral on blues traveler but john popper is an asshole online and i'm 98% sure he reported me for mentioning him unfavorably & got my og 2006~ twitter account banned. so he can take his harmonica & shove it.
the whole incident kicked off when i heard them in the grocery store and made a tongue in cheek joke about how i liked it despite finding out he was a jerk to ppl online. then i got got so that's kind of a clincher moment
I was at a work conference thing and they played. For whatever reason I thought it was the Black Crows and was kind of stoked. Boy was I disappointed, FML.
I've been getting Big Yellow Taxi stuck in my head a lot recently, especially the part where the singer goofs off and sings really low then laughs. You just don't get humour like that in modern music
My band in high school listed our influences as Counting Crows & Torche on Myspace and I distinctly recall a Gen X album reviewer pondering whether that was ironic
I’ve encountered Art twice in real life. He was ahead of me at Target. When he left I told the checker that was the guy from Everclear. He didn’t know who that was.
The first time, my first wife and I were at a Patisserie and he was at the next table. My wife, who could not whisper when drinking, “whispered” “That’s Art Alexakis,” which he clearly heard as well as I did
Millennial here. Never a big Counting Crows fan, but I made a CC reference in my neighborhood Facebook group a week or so ago and no one got it. I'm still mad about it. The second I make a Soul Asylum reference, though, suddenly EVERYONE had a radio in the '90s...
If the rest of Gen X hates Counting Crows, I'm defecting to Millennial, if you'll have me. Just tell me what style of jeans I should wear and where to part my hair
As an elder millennial I must admit that I am now too old to tell you what jeans or hair are on trend but we do adore Counting Crows and you’re welcome to join us.
I had a boss once in the 90s that used to constantly talk about how the drummer of cc was his wife's cousin...
I got so tired of hearing his attempts at sympathy that I quit the job. 🤷♀️
Like we get it dude. That must suck.
Years later I still don't understand why he didn't sound sad when he said it
I will absolutely be a Counting Crows hipster and declare that Mr. Jones is easily their most mediocre song. There are many better songs in their catalog.
Half their first album was brilliant, including one of the best opening lines on any album, but man they fell off. It took me years to realize that awful 'Paved Paradise and Put up a Parking Lot' song was them.
you know that's a cover of a classic Joni Mitchell song, right? I can see not liking the Counting Crows version (I like it), but no potshots at the queen
I unashamedly LOVE Counting Crows, always have. ‘August and Everything After’ one of my all-time top favourite albums. Finally saw them in 2023 after 30 years as a fan, and it was awesome.
it's funny that they are reviled by their own generation, which made them brazillionaires. both being true at the same time is [chef's kiss]. i know a couple of those guys, they're actually not the worst.
I met Adam Duritz (who I had a bit of a crush on) when I was like 15, bc my best friend’s mom got her and several friends tickets and VIP access to one of their concerts 🥲
It’s funny, I’m a solid Gen X and I really like a lot of Counting Crows songs. Even own a couple of their CDs. However, I’d never go see them live. They turn into a jam band live and totally ruin every song. So there’s that.
That's boomer energy to me. My dad loves a jam band, or maybe just a band jamming. But he's also like '27 min guitar solo or gtfo'. Which is sort of the antithesis of a jam band, in a way.
Yup! Counting Crows released a live album version of their first CD. I wanted to check it out because the first CD is a great album! I took one look at the first track clocking in at 11:50 and said… I’m out! LOL
elder millennial. the first two counting crows LPs were solid albums, it all kinda sounds like more of the same after that. the first 3EB LP was a legit power pop album. then jenkins fired the songwriter behind all the quality and it was all ass from then on.
I loathed them when they first came out. Thought they were terrible.
As a proper old person, I appreciate their first record, but think they would’ve been better if they had just released that and then called it quits. They overstayed their welcome IMO.
Buddy of mine who was an elder millennial was a huge crows fan and I enjoyed listening to them with him as a tail Xer but I haven't gone and looked for them since.
As a millennial I always thought they were fine, if not particularly exciting. Then I saw them live this year and they were so half assed and seemed like they didn't even want to be there. Fully soured me on them
I saw Counting Crows and the lead singer was obvi high off his face. He sat on the stage and talked about how one of his songs was inspired by babies, then described the experience of BEING A BABY to us for about 30 mins, just sitting/laying on the stage. 2/10 overall because I still talk about it.
The only people I’ve seen that were on board with the creed/nickelback (especially nickelback) shit is gen z, who weren’t around for them being played endlessly on every rock station.
They were probably teenagers around then and they are primarily pop music listeners (as opposed to alternative rock). So they don't have a baseline of what good alternative sounds like.
Well, that explains my ambivalence. I was conceived in the 70s and born in the 80s. I am cuspy af across the board and can never have both feet in the same fucking place. On anything. Ever. So, naturally, I lovehate the Counting Crows.
Prolly 'cause Gen-X had experience with RHCP when they were still just "good time boys" "tryin' to reach that higher ground" - but as one of my friends puts it, they eventually started becoming a polished caricature of themselves - and later people never experienced the early and wooly Chilis
Gen X, we bungled this one. Counting Crows have been consistently great since day one, and Adam Durwitz wears his heart in a blender on every single song.
I’d say Limp Bizkit fits that bill. As a late Gen Xer, Creed was the first band that signified the peak music of the early 90s had probably dried up, and Limp Bizkit was the band that made me think I was “too old” for the new stuff.
I dont like counting crows, but they were just a pop band to me.
As a smack-in-the-middle Xer who despises them I'd like to think my white-hot hate is enough to account for whatever small percentage of my generation doesn't hate them enough.
Fellow Gen Xer here. Can't fucking stand Counting Crows. I loath them with every fiber of my being. I hear Long December and I want to tear my ears out. The Black Crowes were the far superior of the Crow based bands.
GenX here. Bought tix to see them in the 90as. Right before the opener went on they decided they were sick and wouldn’t be performing. Offered refunds only if we left. Wallflowers were great but we paid for 2 bands and got one.
the band that sued Napster over digital music rights that led to the DMCA that forced everyone into music streaming subs that don't fairly pay artists and then is used to takedown videos with tracks that remotely sound similar on youtube & tiktok?
Truth. And everything before it was absolute fire, too. I’m not trying to beatify them, but no one should think they deserve Ride the Lightning or Master of Puppets without offering alms to their creators.
Thank you for this. I am a late Gen X who remains confounded by having loved August & Everything After and having hated all the radio hits that followed. @stevenhyden.bsky.social ‘s take resonates.
I feel similarly- A&EA remains a watershed album for me; it’s possible that Maria McKee’s parts on “Sullivan Street” are among the best BGVs ever recorded. The essay makes sense. But at this point, like what you like without hesitation, life is short!
Yes! I’m thinking also about how it hit a certain place-based malaise I felt so strongly then. And the lyrics were precise and narrative and imagistic in a way that was rare at the moment. But also, yes, here’s to liking what we like. 🖤
Thanks for that read. As one of those people that bought both August and Utero I always credited Nirvana for a part of my continued survival. The smallness and universality of sadness CC are expressing is probably closer to the source as embarrassing as it is
And 3EB dude didn't do meth, BNL didn't actually summon fish to the dish, and the heart in a blender guy didn't even watch while it spun round to a beautiful oblivion.
Counting Crows are objectively terrible, but they get a pass from me because if not for Counting Crows, Between The Buried and Me would not exist. And that would be a huge tragedy.
Duritz wore a Jellyfish t-shirt for part of the “Mr. Jones” video—great fuckin’ band—and while that doesn’t get me to forgive these guys for the Joni cover, it does give them a pass for a lot of more minor shit
Their cover is fine but adds/interprets nothing really. I bet it did resonate w some people. It is also better than Lenny Kravitz covering American woman but I'm struggling to think of anything worse
Counting Crows are f'ing fantastic, August and Everything After and This Desert Life are masterpieces, and they are easily in the top 5 live bands from their era.
I know their live shows can be polarizing, but I'm in the camp that if you want to hear it like the CD, listen to the album.
Same. Under duress I bought 2 tix to see them years ago because the guy I was dating was a huge fan. I was super relieved when the concert was cancelled and my money was refunded. The relationship ended shortly after that too.
That just means enough of my fellow millennials have t seen them live. I’ve seen them twice and can say beyond a doubt, they are the worst live performance you could see
gen x here and i have a love/hate relationship with them. love because i was around in the ‘90s, hate because they were all my sister and i listened to when my uncle and then my father died. so they are comforting but also triggering.
Solidly GenX in age and many inclinations here and this is news to me. I think there was a time in the 90/00ss where, like a lot of bands who have an all pervasive hit or two, Counting Crows became kind of cringey a few years after the hit, but I have zero sense from my peers that that lasted.
Saw them live with Matchbox20. It was obvious to everyone that Duritz was stoned to the gills. Rob Thomas went so far as to apologize! Then blew the roof off the arena.
i’m sure i know several of their songs by heart from hearing them on the radio but i don’t know what they are off the top of my head, only concrete counting crows memory i have is watching an episode of roseanne as a kid where dorothy wears a cc t-shirt
Later GenX (bicentennial baby) and I think Counting Crows are a solid band with some occasionally great songwriting. Though it was amazing to watch the roller coaster ride Adam Duritz's reputation went on in the 90s.
It's not so different from the incredibly more aggressive Stan wars we see play out in pop circles. Or the way in which Boomers en masse dismissed every musical act after, like Hall & Oates.
Comments
they fired him or something and their following material never recovered
Sincerely,
a millennial
in the pantheon of revolution rock….but I think the Good Friday peace agreement murdered their soul (I mean, I’m super happy for Ireland). If anyone says their favorite is Joshua Tree, then I know they’re not OG U2, they’re “pop” U2.
They were fine... but that track in Cruel Intentions was played at the perfect moment.
It's also probably in the top 10 but g-d that list of that year is easily a top 50 list
I ended my virginity listening to Alice in Chain's Facelift. lol
Like I was prepared to ask what gave you this idea then read the replies lol
(What can I say, I’ve always been out of touch)
But I’m in this thread being surprised to learn I’m not the only one.
I strongly disagree. Give me Counting Crows!!! love those guys! Tightest live band I've ever seen. So good.
Never saw either in concert.
A) a long December
B) one week since you looked at me
Were we too nihilistic? Too focused on being loners?
I’ve got nothing witty, I’ve really been trying to understand how our generation royally fucked up.
This was also in a town near Omaha, which may have been a factor.
But there are many other bands I feel more unfortunate to have heard in the 90s.
Remember 7 Mary 3?
God-fucking-damn that song sucked so hard.
Small-town Florida rock radio could not get enough Pearl Jam soundalikes in the Nineties.
Fuck, I hated all of those bands. Every. Single. Last. One.
I got so tired of hearing his attempts at sympathy that I quit the job. 🤷♀️
Like we get it dude. That must suck.
Years later I still don't understand why he didn't sound sad when he said it
Did she write that awful CC song where they sing about strawberry icecream and say the word love 75 times? Cause that one's even worse.
As a proper old person, I appreciate their first record, but think they would’ve been better if they had just released that and then called it quits. They overstayed their welcome IMO.
It was totally fine music, even if it wasn't my style at the time.
We had other music.
Do my fellow Xers even care?
Really?
*1980
I’m sorry.
I never saw either. But did see Adam Duritz tending bar at the Viper Room many times.
where's that fucking meteor; take me the fuck out.
I dont like counting crows, but they were just a pop band to me.
Naturally, I’m 42 😂
the band that sued Napster over digital music rights that led to the DMCA that forced everyone into music streaming subs that don't fairly pay artists and then is used to takedown videos with tracks that remotely sound similar on youtube & tiktok?
Yea, Fuck them more.
I know their live shows can be polarizing, but I'm in the camp that if you want to hear it like the CD, listen to the album.
Colorblind from the Cruel Intentions soundtrack
- a 55 year old.
rock star -> giant poser -> rock star again
For the record, I like them both AND Gin Blossoms, too