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Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
10 Must-See Movies at the 2025 Tribeca Festival
From spring into the start of summer, the festival season keeps on rolling. Cannes just gave a jumpstart to the movie year ahead, but the 24th edition of the Tribeca Festival, happening all over New York City June 4 through 15, is here with another ambitious, genre-crossing lineup. This year's festival — celebrating film, television, immersive storytelling, music, audio storytelling, iconic movie revivals, and more — boasts nearly 120 features across narrative and documentary forms. Tribeca also boasts a massive shorts program. The festival, which understandably dropped 'Film' from its name in 2022 two decades after starting in 2002 from Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff as a way to boost Lower Manhattan after September 11, offers its most musically inclined programming yet this year. Tribeca launches Wednesday, June 4 with the world premiere of opening nighter 'Billy Joel: And So It Goes,' an ode to the hit-making piano man. Elsewhere, Miley Cyrus' visual album 'Something Beautiful' also premieres (fun fodder for IndieWire readers: It's produced by 'Mandy' director Panos Cosmatos). Additional music documentaries include films about Counting Crows and Culture Club, while Billy Idol, Becky G, and Eddie Vedder will also perform following the world premieres of their documentaries. More from IndieWire 'John Candy: I Like Me' Documentary to Open 2025 Toronto International Film Festival Tom Cruise to Be Celebrated at MoMI with 'Above and Beyond' Retrospective Festival 'She Dances' First Look: Ethan Hawke Helps Steve Zahn Navigate Being a Girl Dad in Tribeca Feature Tribeca this year closes with the world premiere of Richard Ladkani's documentary 'Yanuni,' produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and centered on Indigenous chief Juma Xipaia, who has survived six assassination attempts as she leads the fight to defend her people's land. On the narrative side come new features led by Ethan Hawke ('She Dances'), Rose Byrne and Octavia Spencer ('Tow'), Bryce Dallas Howard and Orlando Bloom ('Deep Cover'), Bryan Cranston and Allison Janney ('Everything's Going to Be Great'), Maika Monroe ('In Cold Light'), Guy Pearce and Cosmo Jarvis ('Inside'), Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman ('Oh, Hi!'), Logic ('Paradise Records'), Riz Ahmed ('Relay'), Nick Offerman ('Sovereign'), Finn Wittrock ('Westhampton'), and many more indie and blockbuster names. As for documentaries, highlights include 'Andy Kaufman Is Me,' a deep-dive into the comedy legend; the needs-no-explaining journalism documentary 'Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything'; Berlin winner 'Holding Liat,' produced by Darren Aronofsky; 'It's Dorothy!,' a portrait of the iconic 'Wizard of Oz' character through culture and history; 'Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation,' about the influence and legacy of Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road'; and many more. Meanwhile, the festival features competitions for U.S. Narrative, International Narrative, Documentary, Best New Narrative Director, Viewpoints, and Shorts, with a starry lineup of jurors from in front of and behind the camera. Plus, join talent for in-person Q&As with reunions and retrospectives for films including 'American Psycho,' 'Casino,' 'Best in Show,' 'Kundun,' 'Meet the Parents,' 'Requiem for a Dream,' 'Shivers,' and more. IndieWire's staff has picked 10 films we've deemed must-sees or that we're most looking forward to — though the festival, of course, has much more to offer. Samantha Bergeson, David Ehrlich, Kate Erbland, Ryan Lattanzio, and Christian Zilko contributed to this story. Best of IndieWire The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in June, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal' All 12 Wes Anderson Movies, Ranked, from 'Bottle Rocket' to 'The Phoenician Scheme' Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear'
CBS News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
At Tribeca Festival 2025, music rules on screen and on stage. Here's a guide to this year's lineup.
Music is the star attraction at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, which opens Wednesday evening in New York City. The subject of numerous documentary and narrative films, music will also be a live feature at this particularly festive festival, with some artists performing mini-concerts in conjunction with film premieres. This year's Tribeca, the 24th edition of the festival, showcases nearly 120 feature-length narrative and documentary films — many of them world or New York premieres — along with shorts, revivals, filmmaker Q&As, immersive art installations, video games, audio storytelling, and music performances. Screenings and events will be held at venues across Manhattan and at the Brooklyn Bowl. The festival's opening night feature is the documentary "Billy Joel: And So It Goes," a portrait of the quintessentially New York piano man. Blending archival footage with new interviews, the film — which will stream later this year on HBO Max — tracks the career of the 76-year-old musician and 23-time Grammy Award-winner, who recently suspended his performance schedule for health reasons. The film also screens June 5, 11 & 15. Other music subjects include: "Depeche Mode: M" (June 5, 6 & 14), which uses the British electronic band's Mexico City concerts as the framework of meditations on mortality. Depeche Mode will participate in a Q&A following the premiere screening. "Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately?" (June 5, 7 & 9) traces the turbulent path of the San Francisco indie rock band Counting Crows and its front man Adam Duritz. "Boy George & Culture Club" (June 5, 6, 8 & 12) explores the '80s British glam rock group. "Something Beautiful with Miley Cyrus" (June 6) is a pop opera comprised of songs from Cyrus' album "Something Beautiful." She'll chat about it afterwards). "Billy Idol Should Be Dead" (June 10, 12 & 13) is a portrait of the punk rocker, past and present. Idol will perform following the premiere. "Sun Ra: Do the Impossible" (June 10, 11, 12 & 14) is a biography of the free-form jazz pioneer, poet and activist. "Metallica Saved My Life" (June 11, 12 & 14) examines the special relationship between the heavy metal band and its fans. Director Jonas Åkerlund and members of Metallica will discuss the film after the premiere. Among the films featuring musicians bowing at the 2025 Tribeca Festival are (clockwise from top left): "Billy Joel: And So It Goes"; "Something Beautiful with Miley Cyrus"; "Sun Ra: Do the Impossible"; "Metallica Saved My Life"; "Rebecca," featuring Becky G; and "Depeche Mode: M." Tribeca Festival The documentary "Matter of Time" (June 12, 13, 14 & 15) features a solo performance by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, dedicated to raising research funds for Epidermolysis Bullosa. Vedder will play an acoustic set following the premiere. Mexican star Becky G, the focus of the documentary "Rebecca (a.k.a. Becky G)" (June 12, 13 & 14), will perform following the world premiere at the United Palace. The South Korean band The Rose is front-and-center of "The Rose: Come Back to Me," and will make an appearance at the premiere (June 6, 7, 12 & 15). "Still Free TC" (June 13, 14 & 15) follows the divergent paths taken by rapper and producer Ty Dolla $ign, seen during the production of his new album, and his brother, Gabriel, who is serving a 67-year-sentence for murder. "The Sixth Borough" traces the Long Island roots of hip-hop (June 11, 12 & 14), while 2025 Sundance entry "Move Ya Body: The Birth of House," about Chicago's role in the popularization of house music, will have its New York City premiere (June 13, 14 & 15). And you don't always need instruments; "Just Sing" (June 6, 7, 11 & 13) follows members of the VoCals, a University of Southern California a capella group. There are also fiction films whose stories are centered in the worlds of K-pop ("K-Pops!"), indie record labels ("Paradise Records," directed by Logic), classical music (Isabel Hagen's "On a String"), and music therapists (Libby Ewing's "Charliebird"). And among the guests at this year's Tribeca Talks is music producer Mark Ronson (June 7). A world of non-fiction On June 14 the festival's closing night attraction is the documentary "Yanuni," in which an Indigenous woman, Juma Xipaia, leader of an Amazonia tribe in the Middle Xingu, evolved from an environmental warrior facing police tear gas to becoming a member of government. Directed by Richard Ladkani and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Other documentary subjects making their bows at Tribeca include the world premiere of "Surviving Ohio State" (June 9, 10 & 13). Co-produced by George Clooney and directed by Eve Orner, the long-awaited exposé examines the sexual abuse scandal involving Ohio State athletics doctor Richard Strauss and the trauma inflicted upon young athletes. It will later be streamed on HBO Max. The comedian/performance artist Andy Kaufman, whose skyrocketing career careened from indescribable standup — he claimed to never tell jokes — to impersonating bad lounge singers and wrestling women on stage, until his death from cancer in 1984, is captured in the intimate documentary "Andy Kaufman Is Me" (June 6, 7 & 12). Making fulsome use of Kaufman's personal trove of audio and video recordings, interviews and puppetry, it seeks to answer the question: Who really was Andy Kaufman? We may never know. "Jimmy & the Demons" (June 8, 10, 13 & 15) profiles graphic artist and sculptor James Grashow as he completes a remarkable, religious-themed commission on mortality — and then faces staging a career-spanning exhibition of his own life's work. "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything" looks back at the life and work of the trailblazing broadcast journalist, whose stamp on television spanned more than seven decades (June 12, 13 & 15). "Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print" (June 10, 11, 12, 14 & 15) chronicles the history and cultural impact of Ms. Magazine. "The Inquisitor" is a profile of Barbara Jordan, the first Southern Black woman in Congress (June 8, 13 & 14). "State of Firsts" (June 7, 8 & 11) tracks the rise of Delaware's U.S. Representative Sarah McBride, the first transgender person to be elected to Congress. The Netflix documentary "Titan: The OceanGate Disaster" profiles Stockton Rush, the OceanGate CEO whose submersible descending to the wreck of the Titanic in 2023 imploded, killing Rush and four others on board (June 6, 7, 9 & 12). "Bodyguard of Lies" (a CBS Studios/Paramount production, co-produced by Alex Gibney) is an exposé of government deception and lack of accountability over the war in Afghanistan (June 8, 10, 11 & 13). The antebellum homes of Natchez, Mississippi, are a tourist magnet, and a source of civic pride for the town. But as "Natchez" explores, they're more than just pretty buildings — they're an evocation of a racist past that some aren't ready to let go of (June 9, 10 & 14). Choreographer and performer Jenn Freeman, diagnosed later in life with autism, prepares a solo dance that confronts her life's challenges in "Room to Move" (June 11, 12 & 13). Comedian and podcaster Marc Maron is the subject of "Are We Good?" (June 14 & 15). "Just Kids" (June 7, 8 & 13) follows the challenges facing parents seeking gender-affirming care for their children in states where such treatments have been banned. "Saturday Night Live" actress Julia Sweeney's androgynous character Pat is the subject of "We Are Pat" (June 8, 9 & 10), which looks at gender identity and trans visibility. "Holding Liat" (June 9, 10, 11 & 12) follows the ordeal of the family of Israeli-American Liat Atzili, who was kidnapped from his kibbutz during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack. "An Eye for an Eye" (June 6, 7, 8 & 9) examines sharia law and revenge as an Iranian woman, convicted of murdering her husband, faces possible execution based on the wishes of the dead man's family. Hollywood bombshell Jayne Mansfield, who died tragically at age 34, is the subject of "My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay" (June 13, 14 & 15), a personal film by the star of "Law & Order: SVU." One of the most memorable of pop culture icons, Dorothy Gale, the witch-killer from "The Wizard of Oz," is dissected in "It's Dorothy!" (June 7, 8 & 9). Alex Ross Perry's "Videoheaven" (June 10, 11 & 12) makes its case for the once-ubiquitous video store as a vital pillar of film culture — one we're sad to see gone. If you were to put the tabloid Weekly World News and notoriously incompetent filmmaker Ed Wood in a blender, you might come up with Staten Island underground filmmaker Andy Milligan, a '60s director who reveled in gore, violence and sex in exploitation films like "Gutter Trash." Well, Tribeca is not so stuffy that it wouldn't celebrate his oeuvre with the documentary "The Degenerate: The Life and Films of Andy Milligan" (June 11, 12 & 14). In many places, one may struggle to latch onto Wi-Fi or complain about cellphone reception. In the town of Green Back, West Virginia, home of the world's largest radio telescope, Wi-Fi and phone signals are not allowed. "The End of Quiet" (June 7, 8 & 11) explores a life of silence in the so-called "Quiet Zone." Hungry after all that? "Nobu" is a portrait of sushi chef and restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa (June 11, 13 & 15). He appears in conversation with Robert De Niro after the film's premiere. Fiction Many American and international narrative films are having their world or U.S. debuts prior to their announced theatrical releases or streaming runs. Among them: Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon bring their natural chemistry to "Best You Can," about the blossoming friendship between a security guard and a urologist. With Judd Hirsch and Brittany O'Grady (June 7, 8, 9 & 15). In the comedy-drama "Everything's Going to Be Great," Bryan Cranston and Allison Janney star as theater managers whose dire circumstances force their family into uncomfortable and messy tensions (June 9, 10, 12 & 15). Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman are a young couple on a romantic getaway in a farmhouse in the comedy "Oh, Hi!" (June 13 & 14). In the comedy "A Tree Fell in the Woods" (June 8, 9, 10 & 13), two couples on a trip to the woods actually experience said tree. Lies and psychedelic drinks ensue. With Alexandra Daddario, Daveed Diggs, Josh Gad and Ashley Park. In "Esta Isla (This Island") (June 7, 8 & 14), young lovers in Puerto Rico escape to the mountains to evade a local drug dealer. Nick Offerman ("Civil War") stars as an extremist whose son (played by Jacob Tremblay, of "Room") questions his father's allegiance to the sovereign citizen's movement, in the based-on-true-events thriller "Sovereign." Co-starring Dennis Quaid and Martha Plimpton (June 8, 9, 11 & 12). In "Rosemead," Lucy Liu stars as a Chinese immigrant who fears her son has become dangerously fixated on mass shootings (June 6, 7, 12 & 14). Guy Pearce (an Oscar-nominee for "The Brutalist") returns as a long-term prisoner who becomes a mentor for an incarcerated young man in "Inside" (June 7, 8, 12 & 13). Oscar nominees Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn star in "Dragonfly," about a woman takes upon herself the care of an elderly neighbor — possibly with not-entirely-altruistic intentions (June 6, 7, 11 & 13). In 1996, French filmmaker Sophie Toscan Du Plantier was murdered while on vacation in Ireland. A suspect was tried in abstentia by a French court and convicted. What if he had stood trial in Ireland? Directors Jim Sheridan ("My Left Foot") and David Merriman ("Rock Against Homelessness") present "Re-Creation," a fictitious take on that potential trial's jury deliberation, starring Vicky Krieps and Colm Meaney (June 8, 9 & 12). "Kites" is a magical-realist view of life in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, in which a young man's guardian angel seeks to direct him from a life of crime. From first-time director Walter-Thompson Hernández (June 6, 7 & 13). The horror-comedy "Queens of the Dead" answers the question: what do you get when you mix drag queens with flesh-eating zombies? (June 7, 8, 13 & 15.) Finn Wittrock ("American Horror Story") stars as a failed filmmaker who returns to his Long Island hometown to confront the actions of his past in "Westhampton" (June 7, 8, 11 & 14). A struggling filmmaker fears losing his free-travel perk when his roommate, an airline employee, begins dating someone in "The Travel Companion" (June 5, 6, 11, 14 & 15). "Honeyjoon" explores matters of grief and a young woman re-gaining an appreciation of life during a trip the Azores (June 7, 8, 12 & 13). In the growing tradition of live-action remakes of animated films, Mason Thames plays the young Viking lad who tames and befriends Toothless, a young dragon, in "How to Train Your Dragon" (June 11, prior to its theatrical release June 13). Retrospectives and reunions Tribeca will host a 30th anniversary screening of "Casino" (June 5), followed by a talk with star Robert De Niro and director Martin Scorsese. There are also 25th anniversary screenings of the Christopher Guest mockumentary "Best in Show" (with Guest and cast members, June 12), "Requiem for a Dream" (with director Darren Aronofsky and actor Ellen Burstyn, June 10), "American Psycho" (June 12), and "Meet the Parents" (with De Niro, stars Ben Stiller and Teri Polo, director Jay Roach and producer Jane Rosenthal, June 7). Sen. Cory Booker attends a 20th anniversary screening of the Oscar-nominated documentary "Street Fight" ( June 13). It took 50 years, but the 1975 body horror flick "Shivers" will play Tribeca, followed by a talk with director David Cronenberg (June 14). And in honor of the Dalai Lama's 90th birthday, Martin Scorsese's 1997 biography "Kundun" will be screened (June 6). A 20th anniversary 4K remaster of the Japanese musical comedy "Linda Linda Linda," a cult favorite about an all-girl high school band, with music by Smashing Pumpkins' James Iha, unspools on June 8. TV Episodic television is also featured, with screenings of new seasons of the MGM+ series "Godfather of Harlem" (June 11), HBO Max's "The Gilded Age" (June 12), and Paramount+'s "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" (June 14). Novelist Dennis Lehan is the writer-producer behind "Smoke" (Apple TV+), about an arson investor and detective tracking serial arsonists (June 12). From Britbox comes "Outrageous," about six scandalous, aristocratic sisters (June 5). Also screening are "We Were Liars," a Prime Video adaptation of the E. Lockhart bestseller (June 10), and the Hulu documentary "Call Her Alex" about podcaster Alex Cooper (June 8). Tribeca Talks Artist and newsmaker interviews include talks with Jim Gaffigan and Michael Ian Black (June 5); Sean Penn, interviewed by Kaitlan Collins (June 8); Rep. Jasmine Crockett in conversation with Whoopi Goldberg (June 13); and actress Ellen Pompeo, interviewed by Katie Couric (June 14). There are also panel discussions with creatives about the industry, from storytelling to funding. Immersive storytelling programs at the Tribeca Festival include (clockwise from top left): "Uncharted VR," a cosmic merging of the human body with pan-African languages and AI data sculpture; "Scent," a game in which the player (as a dog) roams a war-torn city; Boreal Dreams," a simulation of the Boreal Zone and the relationship between climate and consciousness; and "A Father's Lullaby and Lullabies Through Time," an interactive installation featuring formerly incarcerated fathers. Tribeca Festival Immersive art and games The festival's immersive storytelling program, titled "In Search of Us," features 11 projects by artists working via VR, augmented and mixed reality, and multimedia installations. Pier 57, open to the public June 11-15, will feature playable demos of this year's games selections, including the fantasy game "Absolum"; "Cairn," in which you try to survive reaching the summit of Mount Kami; "Mixtape," a nostalgic look back on high school; "Take Us North," with is built on the stories of real-life migrants; and the horror games "Sleep Awake," in which the player must evade death cults, and "Possessor(s)," where you must escape a flooded city. Festival Guide The festival runs from June 4-15. For more information about films, immersive exhibits, special events and ticketing (single tickets and passes), visit the Tribeca Festival website.
The Irish Sun
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
‘What a sensational show' – Virgin Media's Brian Dowling shares behind scenes snaps from first outdoor Six O'Clock Show
BRIAN Dowling has celebrated the "sensational" return to outdoor presenting on The Six O'Clock Show. The 3 Brian was back on air yesterday for The Six O'Clock Show Credit: Instagram 3 The TV star hosted the evening show alongside Louise Cantillon Credit: Instagram 3 It was the first outdoor episode of the year Credit: Instagram The Show's hosts, They were also joined by rock legends Counting Crows and "Eurovision queen" Niamh Kavanagh. Taking to For the special episode, the popular presenter opted to wear a pair of light blue trousers, a white tee and a navy coat. READ MORE ON BRIAN DOWLING The outdoor set was surrounded by trees and had cosy brown wicker furniture, a bright star shaped light and a wooden Six O'Clock Show sign. Brian looked happy as ever in the sun, posing alongside his co-host Louise and each of the guests. In the caption of his post, the dad-of-two shared his excitement about hosting outdoors for the first time since 2023. He wrote: " And Just Like That, my cherry has been popped with my first outside show of the year for @sixoclockshow . " most read in the irish sun The I've not been outside hosting since the Summer of 2023 because I had last Summer off as we welcomed baby Blu, I honestly can't believe she will be 1 next month ." Reflecting on the show, Brian said it was "sensational" and gushed over "the fabulous" Louise, who stepped in for his usual co-host, Brian Dowling shares snaps from Real Housewives reunion He added: " We had a STUNNING line up of guests from @cianducrot , @countingcrows & our Eurovision Queen @niamhkavanagh93." The He then joked: "Also, as a dad of 2 young girls, I've realised sleep is overrated." 'GO TEAM' Brian's fans and friends all flocked to the comment section to share their love for his post. His husband Helen said: "Great show, a perfect start to the weekend, have a great one." Ciara gushed: "Looking FABULOUS BDG." Another added: "What a show to end the week. Go Team!"
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Miley Cyrus Has Nothing ‘More to Lose' on ‘Emotional' New Single: Stream It Now
Miley Cyrus just unlocked a vulnerable new layer of her upcoming visual album Something Beautiful, dropping fourth single 'More to Lose' Friday (May 9) just a few weeks ahead of the LP. Singing over cinematic piano, guitars and strings, the pop star steps fully into the power of her voice on the new track. 'I knew someday that one would have to choose,' she belts introspectively. 'I just thought we had more to lose.' More from Billboard Miley Cyrus Reveals the Best Piece of Advice Dolly Parton Gave Her PinkPantheress Drops 'Fancy That': Stream It Now 'It's a Happy Time': Counting Crows Return With 'The Complete Sweets!' The ballad arrives after about a week of Cyrus teasing it on social media, eventually sharing a black-and-white preview of 'More to Lose' on her YouTube channel two days ahead of its release. In one clip posted to Instagram, the Grammy winner shared snippets of the song while describing how it came together in the studio. 'I tried to keep it a singular take,' she explained to followers, addressing the camera in an elegant black dress. 'It's really a song that's more of a story, and I never want that to be interrupted or overthought or chasing perfection. I never wanted 'More to Lose' to be perfect, I wanted it to sound beautiful and emotional.' Following 'Prelude,' 'End of the World' and Something Beautiful's title track, 'More to Lose' marks the fourth song fans have gotten to hear from the album ahead of its May 30 release. At a recent Spotify listening event in New York City, Cyrus revealed that she thinks the 13-track project is 'not only my best album, but also my gayest.' Listen to 'More to Lose' below. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Forbes
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Adam Duritz On New Counting Crows Album Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!
What began in 2021 upon the release of the EP Butter Miracle, Suite One, is completed today as Counting Crows release the brand new album Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, their first full length studio effort since 2014. Now available on CD or vinyl and for online streaming via BMG, the new album includes the original four song EP plus five new tracks which showcase the incomparable storytelling of songwriter and vocalist Adam Duritz, amongst the best of his generation, set against raucous guitar work drawing on everything from Mick Ronson (David Bowie) to punk rock. Writing from a farm in England, several of the tracks have roots dating back to the quarantine of pandemic, with Duritz affected by the times as Counting Crows again enlist producer Brian Deck (Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, Somewhere Under Wonderland, Butter Miracle, Suite One), while working alongside engineer Joey Wunsch from New York City's Flux Studios on the new five tracks. Prepping a summer tour set to kick off June 10, 2025 in Nashville, ahead of European dates taking the band into November, Counting Crows will appear beside heart-on-sleeve indie rockers The Gaslight Anthem during most of the U.S. run. 'I really like to tour with friends. I love to tour with bands I like. Because I'm gonna watch them all of the time - so I don't really want to spend my summers with a bunch of a–holes. And the nice thing is Brian's great,' said Duritz with a smile during a recent video call, shouting out Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon. 'I'm really excited. I've always liked the band. It first came to my attention because of 'High Lonesome' - because it quotes our songs,' said Duritz of a Gaslight Anthem track which nods lyrically in the direction of 'Round Here,' from Counting Crows' massive 1993 debut August and Everything After. 'They've just been a great band for a lot of years now.' I spoke with Adam Duritz about the influence of 'Round Here' on 'With Love, From A-Z,' the new album's opening track, constructing Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, the importance of storytelling, navigating a changing music industry and much more. A transcript of our video call, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows below. Jim Ryan: Following work on the suite, when and where did you start working on this new batch of five songs? Adam Duritz: Right away, the next year. I went back to the farm and wrote these songs. And on the way home, I stopped in London. I have some friends in this band Gang of Youths - an Australian band but they live in London. And I had sung on their new record but they kind of scrapped it and were re-recording a more ambitious version of it. And they wanted me to come sing again. So, I did. And then, after I got home, David Le'aupepe, the lead singer, sent me the record. And it was so good! And I realized that my songs weren't at that level - not the suite but these new ones that I had written. They just weren't good enough. And so I went back to the drawing board. I put all of this work in. And then I found that I had kind of lost confidence in it. The songs sat for two years. Because, having re-written them, I thought that they were then done. But I found that I just wasn't sure if they were any good anymore, you know? I didn't even send them to the band. I sort of sat on them for two years. And then what happened is I wrote 'With Love, From A-Z.' And I thought that was great. And that made me go back and examine the other songs again. I called our guitar player David Immerglück, Millard and Jim, our bass player and drummer, and said, 'I need you all to come here to my house. I need to play these songs with you. Just in the living room, we can do them right here with a small drum kit. But I've got to play these songs. I can't tell if they're right. Because I can't play them the way that they're supposed to sound. I need a band.' So, they came to New York a few weeks later. And we started demoing the songs in my living room. And they were great! I was so excited. One by one they just came out fantastic. Over about four or five days we did all the songs - like one a day. And at the end, I was like, 'Sh–t, what have I been doing for two years?! These are f–ing great!' I was really frustrated about that. But we were all so excited that I said, 'Listen, we've just got to go into the studio right away.' So, we were in like two or three weeks later. We went into the studio and took 11 days maybe? Recorded the other half of the record. Done. Ryan: I love the way 'With Love, From A-Z' opens the record. That bluesy, rocking opening guitar part reminded me of Buddy Guy. Plus there's the storytelling element. How did that one kind of come together? Duritz: I think I wanted everything on this record, other than 'Virginia Through the Rain,' to have big guitars - almost punky. Somewhere between Mick Ronson and punk guitar. We just wanted to have loud guitars. In a lot of ways, 'With Love, From A-Z' is a folk song. But I wanted to kind of play against the character of it. It is structured like a folk song. But I didn't want it to be an acoustic guitar song. And Immer just came up with that guitar part. That distorted thing. It wasn't anything I was thinking. But I really liked it. It was how we got the song started. When we were doing the song in my living room, he just started strumming it like that. Rather than count ourselves in, he just started and the band came in. And I just really liked it. It gave a caustic kind of edge to the song - so it didn't just do the folk song thing. It had some in your face punch to it. Because I think that's really necessary. We wanted it to have that. Ryan: On the suite, 'Bobby and the Rat-Kings' felt to me like it kind of had that punch. That love of rock and roll is apparent. On the new five, 'Boxcars' certainly seems to maintain that spirit. What were you going for there? Duritz: 'Boxcars' is a funny song. Because, in a lot of ways, it's the oldest song - but not really. The real genesis of that song was during the pandemic. All of the sudden there's two years with no gigs. And, also, New York was a pretty scary place to be during that. The whole city was shut down. And a lot of people died - I mean a lot of people died. There were freezer trucks in front of all of the hospitals to store the bodies. I'm walking around the house one day and I start playing air guitar and singing. And it becomes this riff that for two years I drove my girlfriend crazy with. I can't play music - but I've got this metal riff in my head! (Hums riff to 'Boxcars') But what am I going to do with it? I realized after a while that it's such a good riff! It's such a great guitar riff. I kind of tossed it away after a while. When I got to the beginning to write what became 'Boxcars,' I just had the music for the verse and the chorus - the first half of the chorus. And I came out of the chorus at one point and I was like, 'Makes it easier on me…' (hums riff) One time when he was over here having dinner, I said to Immer, 'Could you play this riff with this music?' And he played it on one of my acoustics. And it was so good! I was like, 'Maybe this is the f–ing signature riff for this new song I'm writing…' So, it's funny. In a way it was started before any of the other songs - because it was started in the middle of the pandemic with that riff. And it was finished after all of the other songs. It was such a guitar song that I couldn't play it on piano. And so I could never really finish it because I couldn't play it to sing along to it. So, it had this weird, long journey that most songs don't usually have. Ryan: There were a few lyrics in 'Under the Aurora' that jumped out at me. One was 'A man on tele tries to tell me what is real…' Were the times sort of seeping into the songwriting process there? Duritz: Yeah. I was kind of writing this whimsical life during the apocalypse [thing]. I was on that farm in England. And I had been in England for a while. So, I was writing it from the perspective of someone in England, The Times and the Telegraph being the papers over there - and the BBC. That was kind of my mindset at the time. And it was just kind of this whimsical song about the beginnings of the apocalypse hitting in London and trying to make a hit while that's happening. It had a different chorus that was not as good. It was catchy - but it didn't mean much. That was also very affected by the time during the pandemic and everything too. Because there was a lot going on in the world. A lot of people were dying. George Floyd was killed. And there were a lot of protests. And a lot of people who were really angry and really hurt and really frustrated about their place in life in America. So, when I was writing that chorus, it was watching that all from a distance in your house while you're shut down in there. And around you are all of these funerals and all of these protests. And you're wondering what place a whimsical song like that has in that world, you know? So, I was very affected by it. And it's also a bit of an homage to Gang of Youths too. Because the song that really knocked me off being done with these songs was their song called 'The Man Himself,' which is David Le'aupepe's song about his father dying - and realizing that his father had this whole life before their family that nobody knew about. But one of the things he says is, 'And they're hummin' away, hummin' away...' He repeats that line in that song. And so I put that line into 'Under the Aurora' too. Ryan: One of my favorite elements of your songwriting over all of these years now is the storytelling component. It's an element of your podcasting and it's certainly there in Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! How important is the idea of storytelling to you? Duritz: Well, I mean, all songs are stories, you know? I think I've gotten away from nonfiction a little bit more in the last 10 years or so. It's still expressing all of the things I feel - but I've been willing to express them in things that were not stories about my life: they're just stories about how I feel about life. Like 'Palisades Park,' the characters in that are not me. And on a lot of this album they're not. They really are on 'With Love, From A-Z.' I kind of think that's, in its own way, an update of 'Round Here.' It's very much a statement of where I am in the world right now, where I am in my life. But a lot of the other stuff on this album is fictional stories. I found that it was possible to express just as honestly things I was feeling with plotlines from other characters. But all songs are kind of storytelling. I don't know if I think about it as storytelling. I just think about them as songs. I want them to have a certain quality and I want them to have details and I want them to be rich. I want the imagery to be rich enough for you to immerse yourself in it. But, really, to me, I'm a songwriter. I'm not a poet. I'm not a fiction writer. I really write songs. And I just think of them as that. Ryan: So, Counting Crows broke through in the early 90s at the height of that major label system. Within a few years that starts to change - and here we are a few decades later. But looking at the way the industry works today, does it force you to keep a little closer eye on the business side in a way I'm guessing you probably didn't have to 30 years ago? How have you adapted to that? Duritz: No, you needed to keep an eye on it when you had a label. You really needed to keep an eye on it when there was a record label! I mean, that was the downfall of a lot of musicians in history. That's not where you want to place your trust all of the time. I just think it's different. There's a lot of positives and negatives. On the downside, it's that no one pays for music anymore. And that sort of sucks. The percentage we get from Spotify is miniscule. I mean, it was great for the record companies. Because it was a big payday at a time when they were cash poor and all going out of business. They get a lot of money from Spotify. How that trickles down to us is fractions of fractions of cents, you know? But, on the other hand, you used to have to have a major label deal to make music. Because you couldn't afford to go into a recording studio and you couldn't afford to print up records and distribute them in trucks across America or the world. Nowadays, you can make your music in your bedroom on your computer and you don't have to distribute anything or print up anything - you can just upload it to Bandcamp. There's a lot of ways in which the gatekeepers have been removed. Everybody can do it on their own now in a way that's wonderful. It's a great thing for music. And yet it's not always a great thing for musicians. But that's always been true. The record company system wasn't great for musicians either. But, I mean, there are very few businesses that could survive having lost basically half of their income. And the record industry has lost half of its income - because we don't get paid for records anymore. We basically just have touring - and it's hard to support yourself just that way. Especially when it costs so much money to go overseas. You've got less crowds over there because people don't know you as well. You used to be able to balance that out because you were making money from records - but now it's just like a bottom line: do you spend more or make more on tour?
