Cracker (US)
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www.crackersoul.com/
BESKRIVELSE
Cracker, the group that veritably introduced brash irreverence and irony into alt-rock, are back and
in top form on their 429 Records debut, Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey.
This rich new trove of sharp-witted songs showcases a bristling, late 70’s – early 80’s power pop
punk aesthetic, which hits as hard as it did at the band’s formation 17 years ago. Eight albums (one
platinum and three gold) and a barrel full of anthemic hit songs later, Cracker endures, using their
ability to weave decades of influences into an album that is seamlessly riveting.
In Sunrise…, long-time partners David Lowery and Johnny Hickman, 12-year Cracker drummer
Frank Funaro and bassist Sal Maida (since 2006), train a watchful eye on the current socio-musical
landscape as they weave an eerie yet strangely soothing story of escapism, apocalypse and renewal.
Friends John Doe, Patterson Hood and Adam Duritz (whose mega-band Counting Crows was once
produced by Lowery) make spirited guest appearances. The recording was helmed by Athens, GAbased
producer/engineer David Barbe, a longtime friend of Lowery who has manned consoles for
the likes of Son Volt and the alt-Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers.
The explosive title track that wraps the 11-song collection is thematic, belying its seemingly cheery
title to take a tough-edged look at the precarious times we live in. Ever the observant storyteller,
Lowery calls it like he sees it: the affluence and wealth America seemed to have these past decades
was built on a mirage. The sun shines a harsh light on a landscape of decay. The golden age, the
promised land, the land of milk and honey, never materialized.
For Sunrise…, Lowery and Hickman took a new approach to their creative process, joining Funaro
and Maida to write most songs from scratch. (Whereas on previous albums, Lowery and Hickman
would bring near-finished tracks to the rest of the band.) Cracker were self-disciplined— writing
together one week every two months, between tours, for a year. The goal was to work on two songs
per day—and somehow, the combined force of their distinctive and mutual influences gave rise to a
crackling, raw musical factory of sorts.
Says Lowery, “The coolest part of making the new album was the self-imposed time structure we
created, the fact that we all gathered to write these songs like it was an actual job. At one point,
when we had four songs that needed lyrics, Johnny and I went to the legendary punk studio, The
Blasting Room, in Ft. Collins CO, and rented the B room, where we stayed until we had the right
words. It was refreshing to do it this way, to challenge ourselves to write with the clock ticking. It
was like starting a band and committing to a rehearsal time. We weren’t kicking back on an island
in the Caribbean, waiting for the muse to hit us. We got down to work, found the punk and glam
rock in our blood and woke up to Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey.”
Considering drummer Funaro’s background playing with The Dictators and Joey Ramone, and
bassist Maida’s background with Roxy Music and Sparks, it was inevitable that the new album
would acquire its own unique edge.
“It was a little different involving Frank and Sal’s musical tastes and their background from the getgo,”
says Lowery, “but this led us to realize the common element we all share. We all came of age
playing power pop-punk and that early new wave stuff. Once we got on this path, it started
surfacing in so many songs that it became a thematic element for the whole project. We all started
playing music in that era so we weren’t surprised when those sounds started rising up.
Sunrise…isn’t the ‘Cracker punk record’ but it’s definitely got that time stamp, the ’78-’83 flavors,
all over it. The other thing we did differently was actually playing all the songs in concert before
ever committing them to digital. Most bands do the album first, then take the tunes on the road.”
“In a lot of ways, the methodology behind this album brought us all back to when we all started our
early bands, when the opportunity to write and record albums came after playing tons of live
shows,” adds the Richmond, VA-based singer. “I think one of the reasons Cracker has survived this
long when so many of the bands that started in the early 90s faded is that we’ve always made the
record we want to hear right now. We’ve always had the belief and confidence that others will feel
like we do. Eclecticism was the norm for bands in the 60’s, 70’s and into the 80’s, and that freedom
leads to great bursts of creativity and the potential to make classic albums that stand the test of time.”
The first album track explodes with a slicing guitar riff from Hickman. “Yalla Yalla” is a colorful
rumination on an Arabic phrase meaning, “Let’s go.” Lowery heard U.S. soldiers greeting each
other this way at the Atlanta airport. “Like rock musicians, soldiers in every era have their own
language of bravado and machismo,” he says. The band dives deep into the punk on the frenetic
“Show Me How This Thing Works,” a song inspired by Lowery helping a friend with a quantitative
finance problem; the singer is proud that he was once a budding mathematician.
“Turn On Tune In Drop Out With Me” is a lilting pop/rock reminder that in these precarious times,
many may feel like returning to the bold escapism of the 60s, of the hippies who left the rat race
behind to “drop out” into spiritual refuge. The blistering “Hand Me My Inhaler” finds its hapless
protagonist blustering at an ex-girlfriend's door, “gonna reform the band without you." Hickman
says of the blues-funk “I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right,” “When I hand David a melody like
this one, I have no idea where he’s going to take it, and I love that. Suddenly the devil and members
of the Lewis and Clark expedition were caught up together in some sort of a psychedelic love conspiracy.”
“Time Machine,” a black-booted, Celtic-riffed, early-punk kick to the jaw of any pretenders, was
inspired by a conversation Hickman had with Black Flag and Descendants drummer Bill Stevenson
(who co-founded The Blasting Room studios). Hickman and Stevenson both realized that they had
been caught up in the same early 80s punk rock riot at a legendary Dead Kennedys show. It’s a
message to today's punks that they perhaps couldn’t have survived what the previous generation
endured. “I took a couple of billy club hits that night,” Hickman says, “I got off easy.”
Punk-and-now-Americana legend John Doe harmonizes on the throbbing, surf guitar driven, “We
All Shine a Light.” This swarming, Buzzcocks-like rocker is a comment on multicuturalism and
tolerance, by way of an ode to Pakistan’s cricket team, the Peshawar Panthers. Patterson Hood of
the Drive-By Truckers duets with Lowery on the swampy, folk-Americana of “Friends,” a drunken
tale of dysfunctional but loving friendship. One of the album’s more poignant moments arrives
when Adam Duritz guests, singing alongside Lowery on the romantically selfless “Darling One.”
The stomping, harmonica-laden “Hey Brett, You Know What Time It Is” came from a sardonic line
uttered to Lowery by Built To Spill’s Brett Netson, during an exchange of ever-escalating
shockeries. Lowery recalls, “He walked into our dressing room and joked, ‘Will we know when it’s
time to start dragging rich people from their cars and killin' em'?’ For Frank and me, it grew into a
text message exchange and later a song.”
A brief rundown of Cracker’s history: Lowery, in the mid-80s, in Santa Cruz, California, formed
Camper Van Beethoven, and their “Take the Skinheads Bowling” became an instant college radio
staple. When CVB disbanded on tour in Sweden, following their second major label release,
Lowery formed Cracker with his longtime friend Johnny Hickman. (The pair had met on the local
music scene as teenagers in Redlands, CA.) Cracker’s emergent sound had less in common with
Camper’s exotic excursions and was more in synch with the Kinks and Southern roots music. They
released their self-titled debut on Virgin, and following the #1 Modern Rock hit “Teen Angst (What
The World Needs Now),” the band became a minor commercial sensation (complete with thensignificant
MTV exposure). The platinum-selling Kerosene Hat contained the enormous, eradefining
hit single “Low,” as well as “Get Off This,” and “Eurotrash Girl.” When the dust settled,
Cracker found themselves with an ever-growing, devoted following both in the U.S. (where fans
refer to themselves as Crumbs) and throughout Europe. Today the band stays well connected to yet
another generation of fans via internet, many of whom were kids when these alt-rock godfathers
were first ruling rock radio.
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