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Cracker stands alone
With choreographed pop, hip-hop and electronica ruling the airwaves, the witty lyrics and guitar rock of Cracker guard a lonely niche.
By GINA VIVINETTO
© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 30, 2001
[Publicity photo]
Cracker has scored hits with alternative rock songs such as Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now) and Low but lately feels like it is one of “the last rock bands on the planet.”
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David Lowery has been on the alternative rock scene for nearly two decades, first with quirky 1980s college rock faves Camper Van Beethoven, and later with Cracker, which scored alt-rock hits with Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now) and Low.
Cracker arrives in town Sunday to perform as part of Movement: A Multicultural Dance & Music Festival, 15 hours of big acts from diverse genres, DJs, educational and political booths -- even a gigantic inflatable UFO tent.
From Cracker's recording studio in Richmond, Va., Lowery, 40, calls to discuss the therapy of writing fake letters to the editor, what it's like to box with Sandra Bernhard and all the records you shouldn't play if you're in the mood for love.
Cracker, Lowery said recently, is one of the "the last rock bands on the planet." Does that mean the band won't be venturing into the hip-hop/metal hybrid genre?
Lowery laughs. "Well, we do a little rapping on our new album, which comes out in January. We all introduce ourselves and tell a little about ourselves, with different names and personas. It's all ironic. It's a parody of that genre."
What does Lowery think about the state of rock, the lack of good guitar bands?
"It's a big world and plenty of bands are out there," Lowery says. "But this is so typical. Record companies just find something that works and then milk it. In the mid 1990s it was all grunge. Now it's this hip-hop/metal stuff. It will be something else next."
Maybe Cracker could go the boy route, choreographed dancing in synchronicity. Headsets. Ballads.
"Imagine that?" Lowery says, laughing. "We could have all these fat, 50-year-old men dancing in our videos, doing all those cool moves."
Speaking of rap rock, the buzz is that Cracker forced rapper Uncle Kracker to add the avuncular title. Lowery says his band is involved, but because of legal obligations, he can't discuss the situation. "Although, believe me, I'd love to," he says.
The very opinionated Lowery writes lyrics filled with delicious rants, irony-filled diatribes and commentary on the state of the world. His lyrics offer little in the way of solutions, but they sure are fun.
Is lyric writing therapeutic?
"Oh, absolutely," Lowery says. "In fact when I worked as a press boy at a newspaper in California when I was younger, I used to write fake letters to the editor every once in a while, and I'd sign the name of this guy I hated. He was going into politics. But I just hated him, so I'd do that every so often. I think he ended up working in the Reagan-Bush administration, so I guess it didn't hurt him."
Lowery also uses characters in his songs, specifically unreliable narrators. Do listeners get confused?
"They're always confused," Lowery says. "It's really frustrating. A friend told me once that it was dangerous working with irony in America. People don't understand the concept. They don't understand satire. I have some sympathy for Eminem because he works with characters a lot in his songwriting, too. Of course, his characters are really creepy and they're doing all kinds of scary stuff, but I do understand what he's doing."
Lowery went head to head with Sandra Bernhard, boxing with the subversive entertainer in the 1993 video for Low. How did that happen?
"We just thought it would be really cool to have her in the video," Lowery says. "We didn't know her at all. Our manager called hers and suggested it. They told us she would do it if she liked the song. She liked it, so she comes in to the shoot with her posse, all these women. They were all saying," (imitates glamorous celebrity voice) " "This song is a hit, man. It's a hit!'
"At the time nobody was using celebrities in videos," Lowery says. "We just thought it would be really cool."
In real life, if Lowery were boxing with Bernhard, who would triumph?
"She's pretty scrappy." Lowery says. "I'm a man, so I've got more upper body strength and all that, and maybe a better reach, but Sandra's pretty scrappy. I think she could take me."
On Teen Angst, Cracker's biggest hit, the song's refrain lists a few things the world needs -- and doesn't need -- to be a better place. Lowery cuts to the chase when he sings that what the world needs is "a new Frank Sinatra, so I can get you in bed."
Actually, Lowery says he and some friends tried to make a list of music to help lovers fall into each other's arms.
"But we kept adding to another list of music you shouldn't play. That list became a lot more interesting. We had bands like Ween, They Might Be Giants, Rush, Primus. You should never play that Mr. Roboto record by Styx. It's not sexy. I said Devo, but then someone else said, "No, Devo is really good for that,' and I just thought, "Oh, man, you're sick. Devo?' "
TICKET WINDOW
Movement: A Multicultural Dance & Music Festival features Method Man, Cypress Hill, Better Than Ezra, Soul Asylum, Jungle Brothers, Cracker, Inner Circle, Robert Miles and George Acosta. The festival begins at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Ice Palace in Tampa. Tickets are $50, $60 (at the gate) and $50 (at the gate with out-of-state ID.) Call Ticketmaster (727) 898-2100 or (813) 287-8844, or visit www.icepalace.com.
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