kalvingj | Entries tagged with music

by Kalvin Johnson

November 14, 2025

11/14/25 - 9:39pm Zushi, Japan

I've talked about this band before, but I can't stress enough on how great this band is. You may know Counting Crows from Shrek 2, but that really isn't who they are. I really dislike that song lol. Counting Crows was formed in 1991. Around this time grunge was gaining so much popularity from bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, both of which I think are great in their own ways.

But...

Counting Crows came out of nowhere, they didn't sound anything like what was coming out during the time, I would say they were a mix of Alternative Rock and Emo, But more Alternative Rock more than anything. Most bands sounded great during the 90s, but they didn't have the best song writing, not saying that any of that was bad. But Counting Crows, specifically the lead singer Adam Duritz, has some of the most prolific, and emotional song writing I've EVER heard.

The first album they released, "August and Everything After" came out in 1993, grunge and rock were on the top, but pop was on the rise, that's why the late 90s had SO much pop. It's not bad, be me personally I don't like pop music. To me, it just sounds like radio silence.

August and Everything After released, and man.. it's one of the best debut albums I've ever heard. It opens up with the track and one of the singles of the album "Round Here". The song is so insanely perfect that I'm not even gonna describe it, just listen to it.

Most people know the song "Mr. Jones", it was a MASSIVE radio hit, but it's simply not the best song on the album. The best song to me is "Sullivan Street". Absolutely a perfect song, and I've never heard a song that captures the feeling of nostalgia and longing as that song. Some other notable songs from that album are "Time and Time Again", "Perfect Blue Buildings", "Ghost Train", and "A Murder of One". All in all, it is a PERFECT 10/10 album.

Despite it being there most popular album, it's not my favorite. My favorite album would have to be "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings" which released in 2008. This is album that I can bet you NO ONE KNOWS, which confuses me because of how great it is. The album has some songs that I would consider not really that good, but also not filler, they serve a purpose. The album has two sides "Saturday Nights" and "Sunday Mornings". Saturday Mornings is A LOT more rock heavy, having loud electric guitars. The best song on that side is hands down "Cowboys". From hearing the name you might think it's some cheezy country music, BUT that's so far from the truth. Absolutely heart wrenching and one of the greatest songs they've ever made across their discography.

The first side has no skips AT ALL, but the second side is kind of different. "Sunday Mornings" is almost the complete opposite of the first side! It's almost entirely acoustic, more naked guitars, and piano's. Like I said this side isn't perfect. There's like 2 or 3 songs on this side that I don't listen too, not that they're bad, it's just not playlist worthy. But this side has so many good songs. "Anyone But You", "You Can't Count On Me", "Come Around", and "Baby, I'm a A Big Star Now".

This album is so fucking underrated and I don't even know why.

I'd give this album a 8/10 because of some of the songs I don't like on it. But that's not all, almost EVERY Counting Crows album is worth listening too. "Recovering the Satellites", "This Desert Life", "Hard Candy", "Somewhere Under Wonderland".

All of these albums sound different, but one thing ties them ALL together... the songwriting. All of these albums have 10000/10 songwriting and it's so worth listening too. I 100% that Counting Crows has some of the best song writing of ALL TIME.

"If dreams are like movies, then memories are films about ghosts"

- This Desert Life: Mrs. Potters Lullaby

"I wanted to see you walking backwards, and get the sensation of you coming home.
I wanted to see you walking away from me, without the sensation of you leaving me alone"

- August and Everything After: Time and Time Again

"I wanna be the light that burns out your eyes, cuz I know there's little things about me that would sing in the silence of so much rejection"

- Recovering the Satellites: Catapult

"We're getting older and older and older, and always a little further out of the way. You look into her eyes, and it's more than your heart will allow. In August and everything after, you get a little less than you expected somehow"

- August and Everything After: August and Everything After

These aren't just lyrics for songs, this is poetry. Hands down one of the greatest bands of the 90s, and top 5 greatest song writers of ALL TIME.

kj

Current Mood: nerdy
Current Music: Counting Crows

music and emotion

by Kalvin Johnson

November 6, 2025

11/6/25 - 6:08pm Zushi, Japan

Who doesn't like music? If you don't I think you don't actually know what artistic ambiguity is but it's alright :>.

I love music, it helps me escape the bullshit that is life. I've been so pissed off lately over nothing. Like I've said before, I don't know why I feel this way. It just gets so annoying, like there's days where I'm literally COMPLETELY fine, and then there's days where I want to slap a child across the face and for what? NOTHING.

Music helps me escape that, it calms me down. Like I said on previous posts, Counting Crows is my favorite band of all time, and their music has themes of anger, depression, and other things of that nature. Listening to it makes me feel like I'm not alone in feeling angry.

When I'm angry, I'm not like angry at people, I'm more just angry in general. You can come up and talk to me no matter WHAT it is and you would have no idea that I'm feeling SOO angry.

I just don't like bringing people down, why would I rub or express my miserableness onto somebody else? That pisses me off just thinking about it. As I'm writing this, I feel a little better so im okay. All day during school I listened to music, and it helped me a lot, but I still felt like beating the shit out of the guy sitting next to me this one period cuz of how annoying that mfer is. At least that pedophile teacher got fired, that guy would've ruined my life by now.

I'll be fine, 18 years of this shit and I'm still kicking, don't worry.

"I wish that I was anesthetized and sterilized, and then we wouldn't have this evidence congealing. Surprise, surprise. Another pair of lips and eyes, and that is the consequence of actually feeling" ad

kj

Current Mood: feeling better
Current Music: Counting Crows - Carriage

concerts

by Kalvin Johnson

October 29, 2025

10/29/25 - 1:41am Zushi, Japan

I've never been to any concert and I'd really like to go to one. It's a very hard thing because of where I live. I live in japan, but most of the artists I listen too are in America! This makes it VERY hard to see them live, because they usually are touring all over America / Europe, but very rarely go to Asia, or japan in my case.

This kind of pisses off, not towards the artists, but towards where I live. Don't get me wrong, I would choose to live in Japan over America ANY day, but I feel like I'm missing out on A LOT.

You hear people always talk about their favorite artists and their stories of seeing them live. An example is my father. He's seen ROGER mothafuckin WATERS LIVE, and that's something I won't be able to experience in japan because of how rare it is for one of my favorite bands to play live here.

Fuck

Oasis played here and that is once in a life time, Oasis getting back together and playing where you live. But the tickets were IMEDIATLY sold OUT!!!! Also, the tickets were like 300 fuckin dollars. That is worth it, but literally having to speedrun getting a ticket just to seem them live probably isn't. Bots probably were set up by people to buy it lightning fast because that shit was sold out in like 3 minutes.

Fuck

I am sooooooooooo pissed wrgker-gjeuogh

kj

Current Mood: whatever
Current Music: Counting Crows - Come Around

Palisades Park

by Kalvin Johnson

October 27, 2025

10/27/25 - 5:50pm Zushi, Japan

Palisades Park is a song by the band Counting Crows. I've talked about Counting Crows before but this was a song that I never really gotten into until just recently.

All I have to say is that this song is 110% a masterpiece and it is definitely one of the most best and profound things I've ever listened to. Some people perceive the song differently but I'll tell you how I see it.

I think the song is about two friends, who are spending their early years going through some wild shit, but in a good way. It goes through memories of wild drunken nights, heartbreak, and reflection. The person I think is looking back on his life, and realizing how those moments have shaped them to who they are today.

The song begins with a 1:30 minute intro of beautiful trumpets, which I'd imagine is what being in Palisades Park is like. It encapsulates how it's like to be there. It then picks up, something more cinematic, it contrasts with the slow intro of the song.

Emotionally, it feels like a memory, very slow and vivid. It's not told in a perfectly straight line, but going from memory to memory. There is a very melancholy feeling to it. The person is not bitter about what he has now, but he is kind of haunted by the fact that something so innocent and fun has passed. Those memories that have shaped this person to who he is now, are just memories. he can only remember them, he can't be there anymore and cannot relive them. The park acts as a metaphor for the good times and freedom that they experienced early in their lives. Back when reality wasn't a thing we thought about. Back when time was just a concept, and before heartbreak was a thing they experienced.

Now it's full swing, time has passed so fast but the memories are so far from what we see as the present.

Adam sings about running off, taking chances, and falling in love. It's filled with so much adrenaline and color and it's so fucking well done. Time's passed and now the color is just a reflection, the tone is softer, and now he is alone years later, wondering where what happened to the people that shaped him, wondering where it all went.

It's also about identity and change, how we will all eventually grow apart from the past versions we used to be. There's a sense of sadness, realizing that you can't relive those moments, even if they are so vivid in your head, like your still there but it's just in your head.

By the time he is older, he's alone because the wild memories he once experienced and his drifting life couldn't last forever. I don't thing any lasts forever to be honest. He's chased experiences, chased freedom, and love, but maybe never found a stable place or person to continue making memories that will last a lifetime. In youth, you think a moment will last forever, but you're just a kid. Even grown up, things sometimes just don't last forever.

There is emotional distance that comes with this person reflecting. This person is a watcher of his own memories, replaying them like films. He's older now, quieter, and maybe more wiser, but that innocence and wildness is still there. Back in the ay he was wild with his friends and they were wild with him too. He tries being wild, trying to relive a memory that is fading, but it isn't the same. He is surrounded by people who aren't wild, aren't free and this makes him sad, wondering why life isn't as free as it was before. He's not bitter about it though, just trying to understand how time slipped away so quickly.

It's not being physically lonely, it's about the solitude that comes with living with the big memories, and being left wondering what they meant at that time and whether they meant something or added up to something that would truly last forever.

Those memories still exist, it's just in the past not in the present. He's alone now because that what time is. It strips away the everything and leaves you face to face with not just the memories, but with yourself and the memories you've experienced.

Palisades Park doesn't just try to capture what this is like, it IS what it's like. You can't be young forever, and the loneliness can be so loud when filled with memory.

The song ends with the person, young and innocent in Palisades Park, a place that he associates with happiness and freedom. Then it dissolves into the same person, older, his eyes having a sense of wonder and sorrow, wondering why the place that supposed to be happiness, and freedom is no longer what he remembers. He took a train to Palisades Park just to find out it's not his memories, no one but him remembers what he remembers. He's alone, his friends are not there, he remembers Palisades Park as the memories he's experienced, his friends have moved on with life, but he hasn't, he wants what was before, but it will never be the same. His memories of Palisades Park are in his head, but are not living in the present, it's not real anymore.

If dreams are like movies, then memories are films about ghosts.

kj

Current Mood: ;-;
Current Music: Counting Crows - Palisades Park

covered in skin

by Kalvin Johnson

October 15, 2025

10/15/25 - 11:11pm Zushi, Japan

That's one of the lines from my favorite bands song "colorblind." The band if you don't know is Counting Crows. I love this band a lot. I feel like most people know this band by their most big hit "Mr. Jones" I don't think it's a bad song, but there is just so much better material they've released. Even on the same album.

August and Everything After released around 1993. Grunge was still king, and out of nowhere this very alternative indie sounding band comes out of nowhere. "August and Everything After" to me has to be one of the best debut records of the 90s. If you still haven't listened to AAEA, please stop reading this and go listen to it. I can't say enough how fucking good this album is.

My favorite song from this album is probably "Sullivan Street" It has a very melancholic feeling, like what has been is just distant to where we are now, and we no longer resemble our past selves.

Any way's, AAEA is an AMAZING album, but it's not my favorite album they've put out. I would probably say that my favorite album was "This Desert Life" but I'll talk about that album another time. See ya.

kj