Every so often Omaha’s “Modern Hit Music” radio station will actually play something modern instead of Pink’s “Who Knew” or something terrible by Buckcherry or Three Days Grace. The past couple of days I’ve been lucky enough to catch something new while driving around running errands: “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay. At first I didn’t get it (I still don’t really understand what Chris Martin is mumbling), but it’s grown on me. I think it’s quite catchy.

I used to be a pretty big Coldplay fan; I’ve seen them in concert a couple of times and would buy their albums the day they came out (or shortly thereafter). They’ve been on the backburner for so long that I kind of got over them. Now I’m debating whether to buy the new album. Does anybody have it and like it? Hate it?

Have you heard about this, though? A Brooklyn band called The Creaky Boards has accused Chris Martin of plagarizing a song, which is ironically called “The Songs I Didn’t Write.” Take a listen for yourselves. The similarities are definitely there…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUhFLiw6h6s]

And in a 2005 Rolling Stone interview, Martin actually said, “We’re definitely good, but I don’t think you can say we’re that original. I regard us as being incredibly good plagiarists.”

Yes.

According to this Rolling Stone article, Adam admits to having fake dreadlocks. I’m shocked. I really had no idea they were fake. Did you?

His dreadlocks — which he has always freely admitted are hair extensions — are fascinating up close. They’re so incongruous with the rest of his appearance (“I’m a Russian Jew American, impersonating African,” he sings on the Crows’ new album) that you half expect them to begin moving, like a giant tarantula. Not long ago, Duritz’s publicist urged him to shave his head, but he wouldn’t do it. “Whatever they hide or cover about myself, you know, they feel good,” he says. “And I did not want to be skinhead guy.”

In high school, when my obsession with Counting Crows was at its peak, I really wanted to dreadlock my hair before seeing them in concert. My mom nixed that one. I thought it would create some sort of connection between me and Adam, who probably would have cared and autographed my ticket and t-shirt after the show anyway.

In all of his recent interviews, Adam is also revealing that he has been suffering from a dissociative disorder, and that the meds he began taking for them a couple of years ago caused him to gain 70 lbs. So that’s why he looked the way he did when we saw him in concert, Linds! Apparently he has since switched doctors and medications and has been eating properly and working out, so he’s lost most of the weight.

I’m just not sure I can get over the hair extensions. He must have been in his twenties when he started using them. Who told him it would be a good idea? And what does he look like without them?

(image from rolling stone)