avid Immergluck is in serious need of some mole. Unfortunately, the guitarist for pop-rock group Counting Crows will have to curb his cravings for the unique dish of nuts, seeds, spices, Mexican chocolate and chiles until the band comes through Utah.

	The members of Counting Crows do their best impersonation of a Gap ad during the commercial break of an episode of "Friends."

During his days as a full-time member of rock outfit Monks of Doom, Immergluck used to time tour runs from California so that the band could make it to Salt Lake City for dinner.

“Red Iguana is probably my favorite Mexican restaurant in America,” he says.

Yet no matter how powerful the lure of habeneros and chicken, there’s little chance of Immergluck straying from his professional commitments and right now, that means playing with a group that has no immediate plans to come to town.

Counting Crows is currently holding fast to its California roots with a series of holiday shows through San Francisco and Los Angeles. The 10-date tour is a much-needed homecoming for a band that has spent most of the past year appearing in separate corners of the country promoting the recently released retrospective Films About Ghosts. Immergluck, who was born and raised around the East Bay, cites the area as a great influence on the group’s sound.

“We are a California band for sure,” he says. “You can take the boy out of Berkeley, but you can’t take Berkeley out of the boy.”

Like many lyric-driven bands, Counting Crows is defined by its frontman. Adam Duritz, with his carefree dreadlocks and anguished soul, dominates the spotlight, leaving a supporting cast of musicians in the background.

Of course, standing in the shadows has its own benefits. After collaborating with Duritz for nearly 20 years, Immergluck still reaps satisfaction from his role in the band.

“I get a lot of free reign in arranging my parts and helping to arrange other people’s parts,” he says. “I love the music that we do. I also find time to do a lot of other stuff.”

In addition to Monks of Doom, Immergluck has also played with John Hiatt, Joan Osborne, Sheryl Crow and the popular decade-of-greed college/indie rockers Camper Van Beethoven. Although the extra room to stretch creative muscle is certainly welcome, Immergluck’s loyalty lies elsewhere.

“I love Counting Crows. I love the music that we do,” he says. “I have pride that we’re still around—a lot of our peers aren’t.”

Immergluck attributes the band’s continued longevity to its commitment to performance. He says that other bands are more focused on making videos and creating personas than with the music that initially led to their formation. The members of Counting Crows, on the other hand, strive for “a transcendent musical experience that other people can witness.” The commitment to live shows has paid off.

Since the band skyrocketed to success with “Mr. Jones,” a radio-friendly cut from their 1993 debut, August and Everything After, Counting Crows has maintained a secure (albeit often low-profile) position in the contemporary music scene. 1996’s Recovering the Satellites and 1999’s This Desert Life enjoyed decent critical acclaim, but it was 2002’s Hard Candy that put Counting Crows back on the map.

In a rather bold move, the group included a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi.” According to Immergluck, the decision to tackle a Canadian icon occurred during the last few days of the Hard Candy recording sessions.

Before breaking down the studio, they kept the engineer around and started tinkering with some covers.

“It was a diverse collection of stuff and ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ just happened to be amongst the pile,” Immergluck says.

The impromptu jam session also included renditions of songs by Sparklehorse, Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt, among others. Although the songs were not recorded with the intention of producing a marketable product, the idea of selling the collection is a viable option.

“I thought we were going to put it out at some point—and still we might,” Immergluck says. “It would be the sort of apocryphal Counting Crows release.”

Fans can base debates over the merits of such an album by listening to “Big Yellow Taxi,” the only cover record-company executives deemed worthy of a position on Hard Candy.

The last-minute addition resulted in a departure from the band’s normal production process. First, the rough recording was handed to a producer for fine tuning. Once those refinements were made, the song returned to its creators for additional editing.

“It became this ‘Exquisite Corpse’ of a recording, which is really cool,” Immergluck says. “It’s a totally different way of working than we’ve done with any other song or producer.”

Now “Big Yellow Taxi” is all over the airwaves, and whether listeners adore or despise it, the cover is receiving significant attention. The same can be said for the band itself. Counting Crows keeps things just interesting enough to maintain a strong fan base. Even those who aren’t especially keen on the band’s sound can’t deny the appeal of musicians who continue to play from the heart—just as long as their stomachs are satisfied.
jamie@red-mag.com