Counting Crows Gearing Up to Release Covers Album for ‘Music Geeks’

It’s been four years since Counting Crows released their last album, the rock/country themed ‘Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings.’ Fans can get their hands on a new record from the band, but not the kind they were expecting. ‘Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation)’ was released today (April 10) and features nothing but covers of lesser-known songs.

In an interview with Alternative Addiction, Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz discussed how the idea came about in regards to a covers album. The band picked tracks that never really found mainstream success but still resonated with music lovers.

“It’s definitely a music geek’s covers album,” said Duritz. “Now that I look at it, it’s exactly what I’d expect from us. We just didn’t realize it when we started doing it. All we wanted to do was pick really good songs.”

The singer continues: “We’ve always liked the idea of introducing people to cool songs. Some of them weren’t going to be well known which is why we wanted to introduce them to people. We didn’t really think of it consciously when we started the record but I’m really happy with it actually.”

Counting Crows recorded ‘Underwater Sunshine’ in April and June of last year. Covers include ‘Coming Around’ by Travis, ‘Ooh La La’ from future hall of famers the Faces, Bob Dylan‘s ‘You Ain’t Going Nowhere’ and more. Click here to stream the entire album for free.

This is the first independent release from the group since their departure from Geffen Records a few years ago. Duritz maintains that nothing will change because Counting Crows always had complete freedom to do what they wanted musically.

“It doesn’t change anything creatively because we’ve had creative control before our first album,” Duritz states. “That was part of the deal with Geffen. We signed with them after a bidding war; we could have signed anywhere we wanted to. We went with Geffen because they were willing to trade the money away for higher royalties and full creative control.”

“We didn’t get almost any money as an advance from our first record but we got high royalties which is good because we ended up selling a lot of records. We also got complete creative control before we hit it big. That made all the difference in the world from the very beginning for us to be the band we are.”

Counting Crows will hit the road in support of ‘Under Sunshine’ this spring, which will turn into a more extensive tour in the summer. You can view all their tour dates on their official website.