Monday's music roundup

I spent most of the day brushing up on my HTML skillz in anticipation of a workshop I'll be attending on Wed. It is for this reason that I have pathetically little to show in the way of music listening.

10K Maniacs--MTV Unplugged
Counting Crows--New Amsterdam

Both discs are similarly mellow and, though I'd never thought of it before, the two groups are disarmingly similar. The Maniacs do have an activist leaning that the Crows don't, though. But both bands have lyrical depth and their lead vocalists both have rich, vibrant voices.

My favorite arrangement of "Rain King" is the slowed down version that smacks of the melancholy. I much prefer it to the more up-tempo version featured on August and Everything After. I always thought, lyrically, that that song lent itself to a slower arrangement, and the up-tempo version seemed untrue to the spirit of the song.