Cracker’s “Low.” One of my favorite alt-rock hits of the ’90s. I remember the first time I heard it on the car radio, I loved it instantly. This was back when NY had a commercial rock radio station. More than one even! Anyway…
In the left corner we have Get On With It: The Best Of, from Virgin, who dropped the band years ago and is aiming to cash in one last time (in case you missed the Cracker package they put out six years ago). In the right, Greatest Hits Redux, the band’s “officially sanctioned” version on Cooking Vinyl, released THE SAME DAY as Get On With It. Clever, boys.
Redux in this case means rerecorded. So, while Stereogum is always rooting for Dave and Johnny, the new version…
Cracker – “Low (Redux)” (MP3 Link Expired)
…can’t compete with the original.
Cracker – “Low (Original)” (MP3 Link Expired)
It’s not the first time Cracker has re-imagined its biggest hit. On 2003’s O, Cracker Where Art Thou they teamed with jam band Leftover Salmon and, banjo and pedal steel in hand, gave us a cool countrified version:
Cracker & Leftover Salmon – “Low” (MP3 Link Expired)
David Lowery is still great live. At Bonnaroo ‘04, his set (billed as “Cracker And Camper Van Beethoven”) was one of my favorite of the weekend. The tent dwellers sang every word. You can download the whole thing as MP3s here. And some pics I took of the show:
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I love Cracker. The first 2 albums are brilliant. Teen Angst is their best song IMHO.
Good to see some SG luv for Dave & Johnny and the rest of the Cracker/CVB crew. I saw the combined Cracker/CVB show in Chicago in 2004 and it was one of the best concerts I’ve seen. Outstanding musicianship. And the “Greatest Hits Redux” has something the Virgin release doesn’t: the fabulous cover of American Minor’s “Something You Ain’t Got”.
I love “O Cracker Where Art Thou”… Cracker has such a cool way of reinventing themselves. One thing that always confuses me it their naming convention. Are they “Cracker” or “Camper Van Beethoven”? What is the difference?
The difference, Matt, is the hat.
Listen to the “banter” intro on the first mp3 download from glidemagazine that’s linked to above.
My favorite David Lowery song will always be “Sweethearts” from CVB’s “Key Lime Pie.” It includes the perfect lines …
“Cause in the mind of Ronald Reagan
Wheels they turn and gears they grind
Buildings collapse in slow motion
And the trains collide, everything is fine
Everything is fine…”
Of course, he could update it to the mind of W.
Cuz he’s always living back in Dixon/ circa 1949
could be
Cuz he’s always snorting lines of white stuff/ circa 1979
“Nostalgia” from Kerosene Hat is one of my all-time favorites. And, as usual, SD99 has great taste with “Sweethearts”.
Key Lime Pie is a great album! I love “When I Win The Lottery”!
O’ Cracker, Where Art Thou was released in 2003, not 1993. Just a nitpick thing.
Thank you for the original, it brings me back…
The video for low is so awesome: boxing with sandra bernhardt, anyone remember it?
i had low on 10″ vinyl when it was released and never ever knew nuffin bout cracker.
i still don’t but it’s good to hear something like this unexpectedly.
My bad. Thanks Bryan.
Excellent! I saw Johnny Hickman play with Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers and I think I was by far the most excited person there. Cracker was my first concert ever, I was way into them in like 1993-1994. Still am.
Johnny Hickman and Roger Clyne played a few Cracker songs (Get Off This, Teen Angst, and Low). You can get em on the Live Music Archive:
http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=29266
Have fun!
euro trash girl
david lowery is an douchebag. ive had the unfortunate opportunity of working for him, and he is a pompous arrogant asshole.
Yes! It’s true! That’s the only song by Cracker I know, but I will always associate it with a particular moment in time: Summer between junior and senior year of high school some friends and I were trying to go see Ottmar Leibert at the Zoo (how punk rock is that?), so a friend’s older sister was driving us there in a crappy Jeep covered in white powder(ceramic dust, apparently) and she kept playing really crappy hip-hop and pop(was she being ironic? do you think?) At one point or another THIS song came on- a precarious car weaving in and out of traffic, being driven by a maniac…Ottmar was sold out.
Old version = alt rock perfection
New version = bleh
“Key Lime Pie” is one of my top 10 favorite albums ever.
Seriously, it is pure genius and completely underrated. They really moved beyond their jokey, So-Cal roots on that record.
Interesting harmonic textures, chord progressions, moving and insightful lyrics.
It’s a pity that “Matchstick Men” is the single most people know from that album.
Total classics:
Sweethearts
All Her Favorite Fruit
Jack Ruby
I Was Born In A Laundromat
Borderline
Humid Press Of Days
wait a minute…did i download the right one? they sound pretty similar…to me.
Low.
Poor Poop. Never liked it, never will.
Eric, gotta agree with you about “Nostalgia”. Such a great, great song.
Wow, i didn’t know so many people into stereogum were into shite.
He did a tune with Mark Linkous from Sparklehorse called “sick of goodbyes”, the sparklehorse version is cooler…but its just a great tune
that wasn’t me
One of Cracker’s albums has or used to have a hidden track that *may* be called “Cinderella.”
It goes, “I left my Cinderella at the pay phone / With a pocket full of dimes / I get the feeling she’ll go on searching / Gonna leave me behind…”
Does anyone know if this is a cover, who the female vocalist is, and *which* Cracker album it is on?
Two new hits albums in ADDITION to 2000’s Garage d’Or, their FIRST hits/b-sides compilation. I love Cracker, but that’s a lot of best-of’s from a band that arguably only had 1-2 (or zero, depending on criteria) actual ‘hits.’
FS,
The song “Cinderella” is a hidden track on the “Gentleman’s Blues” record. The singer goes by the name of “L.P.”. I think it was written by the Cracker guys, but I’m not sure.
Didn’t Kerosene Hat have like 79 tracks and 16-78 were each three blank seconds? Not a CD you wanted to put on shuffle! Or am I thinking of a different album?
dont write anything about him, youll feed his ego. having had the opportunity to work with many musicians, both famous and not, lowery is by far the biggest asshole ive ever met.
he eats babies for lunch.
You can’t be 26782 serious?!?
Ok im going crazy does anyone remember a video Cracker did in the desert? Its kind of telling a story. Its a guy and girl and they are riding around in his car, and she has cut offs on and a shirt that say “Baby” on it. I could have sworn it was a Cracker video but cant find it anywhere. I bought the Greatest hits DVD and its not on there. Maybe im off but I have a memory of it!