Cracker
Nov 20, 2014
In December, Cracker will be releasing their tenth studio effort, entitled Berkeley To Bakersfield, via 429 Records on December 9th. It's a double album that finds this uniquely American band traversing two different sides of the California landscape, the northern Bay area and further down-state in Bakersfield. With founding members David Lowery and Johnny Hickman anchoring the project, they've brought in a host of musicians to help out, including putting together the original Cracker lineup for the Berkeley side. Berkeley to Bakersfield was recorded by Drew Vandenberg.
As Lowery explains, "On the Berkeley disc, the band is the original Cracker lineup - Davey Faragher, Michael Urbano, Johnny and myself. This is the first time this lineup has recorded together in almost 20 years. We began recording this album at East Bay Recorders in Berkeley, CA. For this reason we chose to stylistically focus this disc on the music we most associate with the East Bay: Punk and Garage with some funky undertones. To further match our sense of place we often took an overtly political tone in the lyrics."
Cracker is best known for its gold-selling 1993 album, Kerosene Hat, which includes the hit songs "Low" and "Euro-Trash Girl." Lowery and Hickman formed the band in 1991, releasing the album Cracker the following year (which included singles "Happy Birthday to Me" and "Teen Angst") on Virgin Records. The band has been touring ever since, releasing 10 studio albums and several compilations, collaborations, solo projects and live albums.