Every
year has a breakthrough artist or band that is all the rage
– burning the charts with hit singles, selling out
concert tickets in minutes, and generating industry buzz.
The Counting Crows took reign in 1994, quickly becoming
the hottest band of the year, due in large part to the unique
way they were able to mesh their angst-ridden lyrics with
the old fashion rock and roll sound of two decades earlier.
Quite
literally, the Counting Crows went from obscurity to superstardom
overnight. But, while it may have seemed an overnight leap
to stardom to music fans and those in the industry, the
Counting Crows had paid their dues, spending the previous
three years honing their sound and building a loyal base
of fans in their hometown of San Francisco. Founded by frontman
Adam Durst and guitarist David Bryson in 1991, the Counting
Crows spent much of their early years playing to hometown
fans. In 1993, they got what had the potential to be their
first big break when they performed at the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame induction ceremony, filling in for the absent
Van Morrison.
Still,
while the performance didn’t catapult them to stardom,
it did lead them into the recording studio to lay tracks
for their first album, “August and Everything After.”
While the album itself failed to chart, it did produce a
hit single “Mr. Jones” that received major airplay
on radio stations throughout 1994, sending the alternative
band into the big time.
Counting
Crows concert tickets became the hot ticket in 1994, but
it wasn’t until two years later that the band released
their sophomore effort, “Recovering the Satellites,”
which produced the hits “A Long December” and
“Miller’s Angels.”
Before
heading to the studio to record their third studio album,
“This Desert Life,” in 1999, the Crows released
the live double album, “Across A Wire – Live
in New York City” a year earlier. “The Desert
Life” featured the hits “Hanginaround”
and “Colorblind,” the latter of which appeared
on the soundtrack to “Cruel Intentions.” The
Crows followed “This Desert Life” with an exhaustive
tour which saw them headline with Live.
The
Counting Crows took a brief hiatus following their tour,
reappearing in 2002 with the album “Hard Candy,”
which they followed with a compilation album of their greatest
hits, “Films About Ghosts.”
And,
in 2004, the band received an Oscar nomination for their
song, “Accidentally in Love,” which appeared
in the film “Shrek 2.” The Counting Crows’
latest album is 2006’s “New Amsterdam: Live
at Heineken Music Hall.”
|
.