Let the 90’s nostalgia begin! With the possibility of another Clinton in the White House – though, thankfully Barack Obama’s trouncing of Hillary Clinton in South Carolina may slow that train – new albums by 90’s rock bands are the next indicator of a revival of the decade of my 20s. This week, 90’s icons Counting Crows released two new tracks for free ahead of their new LP due in March.

When “August and Everything After”, the Counting Crows debut LP, was released in 1993 I tossed them into the same dustbin as Bush, Stone Temple Pilots, and the other try hard grunge bands that were littering the record store shelves at that time. It was something about the white-boy dreadlocks that Adam Duritz sported and that overproduced video for “Round Here” that MTV couldn’t get enough of that just stunk of artifice.

But over the years, Duritz and Co. have really endeared themselves to me. Their particular brand of Americana inspired rock served as the soundtrack to more than one drive during my exile in the Midwest. Despite being left and right coasters, Counting Crows wrote midwestern ballads that would impress John Cougar Mellencamp. Over here in Blighty, a Counting Crows track never fails to inspire a little pang of homesick patriotism. They may have been posers at the time, and I do think they were, but they had – and still have – some great chops. Enjoy “1492″ and “When I Dream of Michelangelo” and look out for the new one in March.

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