Adam Duritz Biography
Summary
"Adam Frederic Duritz" (born August 1, 1964 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American musician and record producer. He is the lead singer and founding member of the rock band Counting Crows. His lyrics have been described as 'morose' and 'tortured'and as 'wordy introspection' and his vocals 'expressive'.
History
Early history
Adam Duritz was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Early on he moved to Rhode Island, then El Paso, Texas, and Berkeley, California. Duritz has lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Amsterdam and, most recently, New York City. As a student, he attended Head-Royce School, the Taft School, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Davis, but dropped out before earning a degree.
Musical history
Before forming Counting Crows, he was lead singer for San Francisco Bay Area bands, Mod-L Society and The Himalayans. He was also involved in another San Francisco-based band, Sordid Humor.
He has collaborated with The Wallflowers (led by Bob Dylan's son Jakob Dylan) on the album "Bringing Down the Horse"; with Ryan Adams on "Gold" and the song 'Butterfly in Reverse' from "Hard Candy"; with Peter Stuart on "Propeller" and "Daisy"; with Live on "V"; and with Dashboard Confessional on the track 'So Long, So Long' from "Dusk and Summer".
Duritz also contributed songs to the "Josie and the Pussycats" soundtrack that were performed by the film's fictional title band.
Relationship with fans
Since coming to fame with Counting Crows, Duritz has maintained an unusually open relationship with his fans. This has taken various forms including a diary on AOL , and later a blog on the band's official website. He also reads and responds to posts on the band's messageboard, and recently started a feature called AskCrowsAsk where fans can email questions for band members to respond to. This relationship has not always been smooth; Duritz has clashed with some fans, chastising those involved in flame wars by quipping on his blog, 'Some of you are ... incredibly unpleasant people.'
Record labels
Duritz has made two attempts to get involved in the music industry as a record label owner: in 1997, Duritz co-founded E Pluribus Unum, an independent label. Before the label was purchased by Interscope Records in 2000, Duritz signed Joe 90, Gigolo Aunts, and Neilson Hubbard – all of whom he took on the road to open for Counting Crows.
In November 2006, Adam Duritz began production on Chicago pop-punk band Blacktop Mourning's debut record under the name 'The Devil and Bunny Show' alongside Counting Crows guitarist David Immerglück. He later announced, on January 15 2007, that he was launching boutique record label Tyrannosaurus Records. His debut artists include Notar and Blacktop Mourning. The label also re-released the sole album by Duritz's former band The Himalayans.
Film
In addition to his musical pursuits, Duritz was executive producer for the films "The Locusts" (1997) and "Burn" (1998). He had a cameo in the 2007 mockumentary film "Farce of the Penguins" in which his character asks, 'Who wants to fuck the sensitive guy?'
External links
(Adam.CountingCrows.com) - Personal website
(Tyrannosaurus Records) -Record label
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Adam Duritz.
