Cracker

Cracker biography

Cracker is an American alternative rock band led by its founders and songwriters, singer David Lowery and guitarist Johnny Hickman. It is best known for its platinum-selling 1993 album, Kerosene Hat, which includes the hit songs "Low", "Euro-Trash Girl" and "Get Off This".

Lowery and Hickman formed the band in 1991, soon releasing the album Cracker (with the hits "Happy Birthday to Me" and "Teen Angst") on Virgin Records. The band has been touring continually ever since, releasing ten studio albums and several compilations, collaborations, solo projects and live albums. Their most recent album is Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey, released on May 5, 2009, on 429/Savoy Records. Cracker mix influences and sounds from rock, punk, alternative country, psychedelia, blues and folk.

History

1990s

Shortly after Lowery's former group Camper Van Beethoven finished in 1990, he began demoing material along with his boyhood friend, the guitarist Johnny Hickman. After moving from California to Richmond, Virginia, Lowery and Hickman recorded a demo tape, later nicknamed Big Dirty Yellow Demos by the group's fans, which included early versions of songs that appeared on later albums. They eventually chose the name Cracker and teamed up with fellow Redlands bass guitarist Davey Faragher. A brief tour with the Virginia drummer Greg Weatherford followed.

By 1991, the newly formed band had signed a recording contract with Virgin Records and enlisted the help of several drummers/percussionists (Jim Keltner, Michael Urbano and Phil Jones), issuing their first album, Cracker, in 1992. From the album came the radio hit "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)", which peaked at #1 on Modern Rock Tracks, and a second single entitled "Happy Birthday to Me".

A year later, Cracker issued its best-selling album, Kerosene Hat. The album included the hit singles "Low" and "Get Off This", as well as a cover of the Grateful Dead's "Loser". The album sold almost half a million copies that year and eventually almost reached platinum status. Urbano performed on Kerosene Hat and toured with Cracker before leaving the band, along with Faragher. After a short spell with Bruce Hughes, Lowery and Hickman added Bob Rupe, formerly of The Silos, as bass guiatrist and Charlie Quintana (Bob Dylan, The JuJu Hounds) on drums. In 1993, Cracker contributed the song "Good Times Bad Times" to the Encomium tribute album to Led Zeppelin (which was recorded after a rendition of "When the Levee Breaks" had been deemed "too weird").

Three years later, The Golden Age was released, with "I Hate My Generation" as the lead single. However, the music scene was shifting away from guitar-driven alternative rock, and although critically acclaimed, the album sold only moderately. Following the long-term additions of drummer Frank Funaro and keyboard player Kenny Margolis, the band tried again in 1998 with Gentleman's Blues, with "The Good Life" as the lead single. Although the album received only a lukewarm critical response, it solidified an ever growing and devout following both in the U.S. and Europe who referred to themselves as "Crumbs".

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