here's the promised press kit. it starts with the little virgin logo an and inverted blue triangle, etc. Greetings to all: It is almost 11 years to the day that I finished recording my first album, CVB's _TFLV_. At the time I had just graduated from college and was working as the manager of a small farm near Santa Cruz, CA. No matter how great our pretensions in CVB--we thought we could be a kind of post-punk Beatles--I never dreamed that ten years later I would have a gold, much less platinum record. So it is with a certain absurd pride we named the new Cracker record _The Golden Age_. Absurd because both of my bands Cracker and CVB released albums that were completely out of sync [sic., actually all the mistakes are his. i only abbreviate to save myself from carpal tunnel syndrome.] with what our musical peers were doing at the time. CVB, an odd collabor- ation of unrepentant hippies and former punk rockers, oscillated wildly between the two poles of semi-acoustic folk music and semi-acoustic punk rock--ofdtentimes within a single song. This was at a time when one was most likely to hear Bauhaus, The Cure, or other English pur- veyors of gloom echoing through the hall of college dormitories. REM was still a cult phenomenon and only skate rats still listened to punk rock. Cracker's eponymous first LP, released in February 1992, took a kind of roots-rock and twang approach. This was inconveniently just as the original grunge wave was cresting. Although this LP sold more than the previous and best-selling CVB record (_KLP_), in a way it was hard- ly noticed. _Kerosene Hat_, released in September 1993, fared a little better. We had three bonafide hits on that record, "Low," "Get Off This," and "Eurotrash Girl" (although it took almost six months of touring before the first single, "Low," actually began to catch on.) Eventually this record went on to sell more than a million copies. So I feel very lucky indeed to be here today telling you about my ninth album, which of course is Cracker's third. _the Golden Age_ was recorded on and off between March and December of 1995. Tracks were cut at the legendary Ardent studios in Memphis and the not-so-legendary Woodland in Nashville, but the majority of the recording took place in a very untimely and lazy manner at our studio, The Sound of Music, in Richmond, Virginia (our first all southern record!). Production was handled by Dennis Herring (Oxford, Mississippi) and myself (for those of you who are keeping score, [DH] also pro- duced CVB's _KLP_). The record was mixed by Andy Wallace, who mixed Nirvana's _Nevermind_ as well as a kajillion other records, and is quite a nice guy...for a Yankee. Heh heh. OK, enough of the tech- nical stuff. On to the music. THIS IS PART ONE. PART TWO TOMORROW and (I hope) CVB press kit to come (from OBRS, I think). ------------------------------ Message-Id: <07MAY96.11950355.0259.MUSIC@MUSIC.CC.UGA.EDU> Date: Tue, 07 May 1996 11:03:54 EDT From: Artemis Subject: press kit ii without apologies, let me tell you right off that this is a big time and expensive record. it is our attempt at a pop rock record a la roxy music. there is a 15-piece string section on five of the songs! it is our attempt to explain our wierd songwriting approach to the masses. perhaps an early conversation between Cracker co-founder and lead guitarist John Hickman and I would be enlightening. The gist was since _Kerosene Hat_ had gone platinum, the typical route for artists like us--who've been kicking around in the Underground and Alternative scene for 15 or so years--would be to make our "cred- ibility" record and turn away from the mainstream, make our lo-fi, or punk rock masterpiece, or acoustic record, or whatever. But to the two of us it seemed this would not only be lame, but unchallenging, and really quite easy. we were more interested in making something slightly pretentious and big-time. To take our wierd songs so far they'd start to sound like pop songs and to take our pop songs so far they'd sound wierd. This was our goal and I think we have succeeded. But we are not really the final judges on this matter, are we? We could be totally out to lunch. And I could sound like a total idiot six months from now. The second thing about this record is: it sounds like John Hickman has lost his mind. Really, he's gone off on some wierd guitar tangent. I mean I was the chief songwriter in CVB and yet John continually startled me and surprised me with his parts for this record. IMHO he has entered the ranks of the great guitar stylists (no pun intended, even though John's former career was Hair Stylist). This is the main thing that sets this record apart from the previous two Cracker records. Finally I would like to mention some of the guests who worked on the new record. Most obvious is our friend Joan Osborne and her 2000 Grammy nominations. We share drummer Charlie Quintana with Joan. They were in Richmond doing a show and we fetched her from sound check, had her sing backing vocals on "Nothing to Believe In," and then dropped her back off at the gig. The pedal steel on this rec- ord is played by ex-CVB multi-instrumentalist David Immergluck. Charlie Gillingham from the Counting Crows plays all the hammond organ on the record, and an interesting fellow named david campbell arranged all the strings on this record. Much to our surprise it turns out that Mr. Campbell is the father of the artist (currently) known as Beck. Anyway I hope you enjoy our new record, we certainly enjoyed making it. Sincerely, David Lowery [phone numbers, blah blah] Fun Facts about Cracker 1.) Cracker personnel: John Hickman: co-songwriter, lead guitar, backing vocals, occasional use of synthesizer. David Lowery: songwriter, rhythm guitar, lead vocals, and habitual use of synthesizer Bob Rupe: bass guitar and backing vocals Charlie Quintana: drums 2.) Cracker is the only band in Rock histor to play support for both the Grateful Dead and the Ramones. 3.) Drummer Charlie Quintana was a founding member of legendary east L.A. punk band, Los Plugz. Bob Rupe was a founding member of critically acclaimed band, The Silos. [ed. Walter Salas-Humara of the same band tours solo now and opened for poi Dog ponderingfor several dates this last winter.] 4.) cracker's three records: _Cracker_ February 1992. Single "Teen Angst" _Kerosene Hat_ September 1993. Singles "Low," "get Off This," and "Eurotrash Girl" _The Golden Age_ April 1996. 5.) that pesky CVB stuff *founded in 1983 in Redlands, CA. Later relocated to Santa Cruz, CA. *Put out three albums and a couple EPs on their own label (Pitch- A-Tent) _TFLV_ June 1985. Single "Take the Skinheads Bowling" _II & III_ February 1986. _CVB_ December 1986. Single "Good Guys and Bad Guys" _VCMO_EP? 1987. (re-released with b-sides/oddities as _Vantiquities_) *then two LPs on Virgin _OBRS_ May 1988. Single "Eye of Fatima" _KLP_ September 1989. Single "Pictures of Matchstick Men" *Disbanded in April 1990 somewhere close to the Artic [sic.] Circle in Sweden 6.) Johnny Hickman and David Lowery are both part-time members of the German cult band FSK. [That's it, folks. CVB press kit from _OBRS_ to come. anybody know if mr. basehead's on this list?]