I COULD ignore Counting Crows up until a certain point, you know. I’d hear people extolling the virtues of ‘Mr. Jones’ and I’d nod and smile, even if I was silently judging them and reminding myself never, ever to take a musical recommendation from them.
I even managed to let Adam Duritz’s white-man-dreadlocks (one of my absolute pet hates) pass me by with relative indifference.
But it was their cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Big Yellow Taxi‘ that was the tipping point. Talk about killing the sentiment of a song, hacking it into tiny pieces and then pissing on the remains while laughing manically.
Listen: ‘August & Everything After’ is NOT a great album. It’s corny, sentimental codswallop. Why did a legend like T-Bone Burnett bother to get involved with these goons? This guy produced Gillian Welch’s ‘Hell Among the Yearlings‘! They should stick to writing tacky songs for soundtracks to rom-coms that star Meg Ryan.
And by the way, Counting Crows is a shit name for a band.
THE WORLD WON'T LISTEN 
Posted by Chris on September 8, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Haha, excellent vitriol Lauren! I used to hate Mr Jones, but repeatedly hearing it out when pissed when I was a student meant it worked its charms on me. Plus, it made me the centre of attention for four minutes. Never a bad thing at 1.30am after too many pints of Carlsberg.
Posted by myleftventricle on September 8, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Haha! Great post Lauren. Counting Crows make my skin crawl.
Posted by Eoghan on September 8, 2010 at 1:41 pm
He cried on stage at Oxegen a few years back didn’t he? Talk about a stage performance. Good choice for #1 too
Posted by Darragh on September 8, 2010 at 1:43 pm
It’s his lyrics that get my goat. All this rambling faux-intense sub Kerouac drivel
Posted by Lauren on September 8, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Chris. Chris, Chris, Chris. I’m going to pretend I didn’t read that. Actually, maybe that’s where I’m going wrong (or right?) – I was never a student so wasn’t exposed to them as much as I maybe would have been otherwise.
I think I should vent spleen more often, I’ve had a big spike in hits over the past half hour because of this post!
Posted by Chris on September 8, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Heh. Just because I have drunkenly enjoyed that song on occasion doesn’t make it good.
Posted by Lauren on September 8, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Darragh – oh God, it’s everything. The lyrics, the voice (the VOICE!), the songs. They’re the antithesis of everything I love about music, especially because they’re seen as being a ‘genuine’ band – I would honestly rather listen to (and derive more pleasure from) a Celine Dion album.
Posted by Martin Foyle on September 9, 2010 at 10:44 am
The T-Bone s credit got my attention back then, and then I found it was one of his hack jobs. Indeed T-Bone really works best with solo artists, just love his recent work with Jacob Dylan & John Mellencamp. Saw The ‘Crows at the SFX way back then and, like the album, seriously underwhelming. Cracker were the support , I think, they so stole the show. Duritz posturing ever since has become one of those items that you automatically skim over.
Posted by Lauren on September 9, 2010 at 1:06 pm
You’re right, Martin, his most impressive work has been with solo artists. Let’s hope that Duritz doesn’t get any notions…
Posted by Chris on September 9, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Burnett did the first Autolux album, too. Strange choice but it worked out great.
Posted by Mediocrity at One’s Elbow | Tripping Along The Ledge on September 10, 2010 at 8:01 am
[…] other day Lauren Murphy wrote about her least favourite band of all time. It got me to thinking about my own personal bêtes noires. I saw Elbow for the first and only time […]
Posted by WHAT’S IN A NAME? « THE WORLD WON'T LISTEN on September 23, 2010 at 12:50 pm
[…] RECENT tirade against C*****g C****s (I can’t even bring myself to say it anymore) got me thinking about band names in general. I […]
Posted by Lyrica on June 15, 2013 at 10:30 am
You sir
Are a faggot
Posted by Lauren on July 31, 2013 at 1:53 pm
Is that worse than a Counting Crows fan?
Posted by rpm'78 on August 13, 2013 at 12:58 am
…just googled “I hate counting crows” on a whim, and was both pleased and reassured by your post. Amen.
Posted by cadillaceldorado on March 4, 2014 at 6:42 pm
I did that, too, and I’m leaving satisfied!
Posted by Joni fan on February 23, 2014 at 5:31 pm
Agreed. Counting Crows are loathsome band and I don’t understand how they got a record contract to begin with. Nepotism maybe ? A deal with Mephistopheles ? Were they rich kids who could live comfortably off of inherited money until they got enough gigs ? In any case the singer’s warbly voice is akin to nails on a chalkboard and his hair ! OMG. What is that ? Like the OP here. I didn’t go off the deep end until they covered Joni’s song. There was so many things wrong with that song not the least of which was the inclusion of some “smooth jazz” vocal licks from some start-of-the-moment singer who would go “oooooo-bop-bop-bop” at the end of the chorus. I later heard an edit of the song that did not include that and it was still bad what with the singer’s over-earnest delivery. Worst of all I once overheard a cluster of CC fans at a bar extolling the virtues of “Big Yellow Taxi” though I originally assumed they were crediting Joni Mitchell although it become apparent that they though that CC had written the song !!! Good lord. They wish they had written that song,