the Black Crowes

(At least let's hope)

To answer M@tt's question, its all new tracks. It also comes with a download code to get a whole second set, but I haven't listened to that yet. Listened to this again last night and still liking it. It definitely won't convert a lot of haters, but I've followed them off and on and this is the most I've liked an album since probably Amorica.

so is luther dickinson joining them their Mick Taylor moment?

Again, I'll out myself as a Crowes fan. The new double-disc acoustic "hits" thing, Croweology, is pretty damn good - if you are inclined to giving these guys a chance.

Particularly loving the reworking of "Non-Fiction" right now. The drum machine on "Share the Ride" was a horrible decision though.

By Your Side was one of my favorites....

Lol I'm still the only guy around here that rates these guys at all. The new album by Chris Robinson Brotherhood is actually decent, in a Ryan Adams Cold Roses kind of way. Robinson's usual schtick with a bit more of a Dead-vibe, none of the songs less than 7 minutes.

he was pretty good last night w/ bob weir!

Oh, nice, Didn't know he was opening. Was it with the Brotherhood?

oh, nevermind, I see it was an acoustic trio thing

yes! mostly dead covers.

Cool! I think its actually kind of cool to see Chris Robinson settling into this scene, it fits him.

he's got the beard for it!

true, true

So the second CRB album of 2012 isn't quite as good as the first one, but man do I love the vibe on these things. On one of the tracks someboday jokingly says, "California space boogie" as they start recording and its actually a pretty damn good descriptor for this stuff. Long songs with meandering guitar solos, cosmic sounding synths, and lots of jamming. This stuff probably won't convince Black Crowes hater or people with an automatic aversion to anything tagged 'jamband', but I could really see people who love live Dead into the late 70s and 80s getting into this.

"pree lil thing lemmelatcha candalcoze amama om showa ta hannaroun yissaroun" – the black crowes

"Jealous Again" (which came on appropriately enough at a fried chicken place I was at yesterday) is a solid, MOR rock tune, maybe their best.

Chris Robinson sat front row at a Sixers game recently and was a pretty knowledgeable hoops fan. Seemed very out of character for his whole hippy trip. Makes me wish he'd listen to a few Faces albums and give Rich a call.

a friend took me to a CRB show a little while ago and it was a great time -- really good band.

They popped up in the Drivin' n Cryin' doc as acolytes of DNC which makes a lot of sense

"Jealous Again" (which came on appropriately enough at a fried chicken place I was at yesterday) is a solid, MOR rock tune, maybe their best.

I pretty much unashamedly love the Black Crowes - Southern Harmony and Amorica, anyway. All the while being fully aware of their appropriation of a whole bunch of stuff. I suppose a lot of its nostalgia for stuff I was doing at the time (I can access whole evenings through 'Wiser Time' or 'She Gave Good Sunflower'), but I did see them live a couple of times and they were fantastic. One 'secret' gig at the old Astoria is one of the best gigs I've been to.

The twofer on Southern Harmony of "thorn in my pride" > "bad luck blue eyes" also pretty good

Don't know if anyone hung around the Crowes until they made Lions, but its a good one. They made it after touring with Jimmy Page and its the most Zeppelin sounding work they've ever done.

Chris Robinson sat front row at a Sixers game recently and was a pretty knowledgeable hoops fan. Seemed very out of character for his whole hippy trip. Makes me wish he'd listen to a few Faces albums and give Rich a call.

― DavidLeeRoth, Tuesday, January 10, 2017 12:32 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Soooo many walking databases of Grateful Dead live show minutia are also walking databases of sport ball minutia.

Tell me about the Black Crowes’ Backspacer/Lightning Bolt-esque post-glory years era. I checked out after Amorica but it was me, not them. Their first three LPs rule.

The live album w/Page is terrific.

https://youtu.be/Zi55D1r9TxQ
Page and Roy Harper sit on some rocks and jam a bit. Young reporter calls Harper on his claim to be very influential

The Before the Frost... Until the Freeze was my favorite thing of new material post-glory. It was all recorded live at Levon Helm's Barn before an audience, which gave it a real nice looseness that sometimes got lost in their latter day studio albums.

But the best thing that came out in those years was The Lost Crowes 2-fer, which made up the Tall and Band Sessions. Tall was was mostly early versions of songs that ended up on Amorica, along with a few that popped up on later albums (one at least as recently via Chris Robinson Band). Band was the original album that was supposed to come out after Three Snakes, but got scrapped in favor of By Your Side. Some of their best material is on these discs, imho.

By Your Side is fine, though it felt a little too slick for my tastes and I've never fully warmed to it.
Lions was the only studio record with Audley Freed, who also played on the Page live album mentioned.
Warpaint, I don't really remember much about. Need to spend some more time with it.

Thanks Jon
I played through Lost today and it sounded great. “Peace anyway” scratched a “plundered my soul” itch
I think what holds them back is the drumming, some of these songs could swing but dude is just not up to the task.

Black Crowes guys were really popular when I was in college. Their first tape/cd was a big party tape like 'Nothing's Shocking' or 'Appetite for Destruction', lots of people had it and was around in the dorms etc. That's Indiana for you. The classic rock radio stations like Q95 in Indianapolis played their singles a ton. They played a gig at the IU Auditorium in like '92, didn't see show myself, I had to work.

Haven't heard the last couple with Luther Dickinson etc. 'By Your Side' has quite a bit of soft rock action going on, it's way more Entertainment Weekly than the Crowes' usual fare. 'Lions' is a bit more riffy. I like the first three the most and listen to 'Amorica' bit more often since I didn't hear it as much when it was new. Their first two I have heard quite bit over the years. I delivered pizzas with a C90 dub of the first two CDs that was in my Buick's tape deck for a few months one semester.

Extra pepperoni for earl, put it on my tab

their greatest hits record 90-99 is kinda all you need i think.

their tiny desk show was pretty good

This band has an impressively consistent array of shitty album covers.

I really like/liked this band, "Good Friday" is a favorite.

the Black Crowes have broken up.
About fucking goddamn bastard time. Can I shoot them all to make sure they never come back? And burn all their CDs and guitars too? The Black Crowes are one of the few bands for which I possess a total, unmitigated, full-of-rage hate.

― Ned Raggett

Twice as Hard rules

I loved their run through Three Snakes One Charm but I kinda fell off after that album-wise.
I saw them in 2006 and it they were in full psychedelic jam mode, neon mushrooms on stage & shit, it was wild - more like a Phish concert. I thought it was fun but my friends were mad they didnt do the greatest hits lol

Listened to Amorica recently & it’s still dope.

Twice as Hard rules

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, February 20, 2021 10:59 PM bookmarkflaglink

Otm. Jealous Again too

were they the last popular rock n' roll band?

when i was a tween/teen in the 90s listening to a ton of alt rock radio the crowes were a hated band because their transparent rolling stones aping did nothing for me. when i listen to their singles now they're obviously a bunch of talented musicians doing exactly what they intended to do and my feelings have softened a lot.

Twice as Hard is so good, ums otm

half of that first record is solid af, for exactly the reasons I hated it at the time. more bands should just do stones/faces schtick.

I’ll also stan for their cover of “oh sweet nuthin,” at the height of their replacement replacement replacement lead gtr jam band days. surprised the shit out of me but it’s grebt.

oh man yes, that cover is A+

Friend of mine and I did a remix for them that Chris liked. Rest of band were against it. It was disco-y etc etc. Never released. Anyway, Chris was a nice guy when we met him and I like a lot of the live stuff with Jimmy Page.

Cherry Red is putting out a Georgia Satellites box set next week with all their albums plus assorted B-sides, etc.

Georgia Satellites > Black Crowes, is what I'm saying here.

oh shit that is a box set i would enjoy

cosine

I wish the first Georgia Satellites record was produced like the first Black Crowes record

It’s either them or like drivin & cryin, but they might have been first band I ever saw live as a (mostly autonomous) teen

honestly they cooked

Maybe because it was the first band you saw live and you were a teen

v true. I think I also saw Dylan in a theater in Jackson MS with friends and we were ‘omg he’s so old and doesn’t have much longer. Glad I caught him’

he was 52 fmllllllllol

51*

which was a hilarious story I recounted for my friends earlier this spring when we saw him (80???)

remedy is a good song. i love how they bring it back to those descending chord parts over and over.

Only album I've heard is Three Snakes and One Charm (the "eclectic" one). It was mostly boring but there was some interesting if rudimentary psych-ish things happening on a few songs but idk which.

I got the same impression from that record. I think there was an electric sitar on one song…?

I like parts of Amorica, but for the most part their records have the same problem as Paul Weller’s mid-‘90s records: they want to show how they’re influenced by certain bands/approaches, but didn’t write strong enough material/come up with exciting enough arrangements to transcend “pastiche”…and in too many instances, they don’t even get to “pastiche,” just aping the surface elements of vague impressions of the Faces (Crowes) or Traffic (Weller).

I will say that “Wiser Time” is by far the best thing the Crowes ever did, despite the hackneyed premise.

Listening to “twice as hard” (ahem) and “jealous again” and they cook better than they have any right to. The sons Phil Rudd / Cosmo style 4/4 helps a lot

they was good. one of the best bands going. real rockin stuff and they could actually play their instruments. even oasis had to bow down to them. u should lisen to second album espehully. absolute classic band. gonna miss them.
― XStatic Peace, Monday, January 21, 2002 8:00 PM bookmarkflaglink

They should be remixed in mono

“Always drunk on Sunday” well, yeah

i need a remedy huh yeah

― mookieproof, Saturday, June 4, 2022 8:15 PM (one year ago)

for what is ailing me
you see?