Alternative History: A Cracker Retrospective Cracker

• 1 Sick of Goodbyes (Re-Record with Members of Drive-By Truckers) 03:24
• 2 Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now) (Redux Version) 04:03
• 3 Mr Wrong (Feat. Leftover Salmon) 04:51
• 4 I See the Light (Redux Version) 05:28
• 5 Almond Grove (Re-Record with John Keane) 04:35
• 6 Low (Redux Version) 04:54
• 7 Merry Christmas Emily (Emily's Version) 05:10
• 8 The World Is Mine (Redux Version) 03:43
• 9 Sweet Potato (Feat. Leftover Salmon) 04:58
• 10 Turn on, Tune in, Drop out with Me (Live at the Rockpalast Crossroads Festival) 03:59
• 11 Seven Days (Live in Madrid) 04:24
• 12 Big Dipper (Redux Version) 05:45
• 13 Eurotrash Girl Waltz (Feat. Leftover Salmon) 06:14
• 14 King of Bakersfield (Acoustic) 05:24
• 15 I Need Better Friends 03:48
• 16 Father Winter (Hickman Demo) 04:10
• 17 One Fine Day (Live at the Rockpalast Crossroads Festival) 06:55
• 18 Gimme One More Chance (Live at the Rockpalast Crossroads Festival) 04:19
• 19 Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey (Live in Madrid) 03:42
• 20 River Euphrates (Live in Berlin) 03:00
• 21 I Want Everything (Live in Madrid) 06:05
• 22 Movie Star (Live in Madrid) 03:29
• 23 Don't F*Ck Me up with Peace and Love (Live in Madrid) 03:14
• 24 Ain't Gonna Suck Itself (Redux Version) 05:47
• Total Runtime 01:51:21

Info for Alternative History: A Cracker Retrospective

Alternative History: A Cracker Retrospective is a dynamic journey through the sonic landscape of Cracker, one of alt-rock's most enduring and beloved bands. This special compilation album offers fans a fresh perspective on Cracker's rich musical catalogue, featuring alternative versions, re-recordings, and live takes from the band's history. Spanning their entire career, this retrospective highlights the band's evolution, revisiting classic songs with new energy, creative arrangements, and live recordings that capture their unfiltered spirit.

Featuring 5 previously unreleased versions and 6 rare live recordings the album presents a mix of fan favourites and deeper cuts. Whether you're a long-time fan or new to their music, this retrospective is a celebration of Cracker's influence in the alternative rock world, offering a compelling new way to experience their music.

Extraordinarily, this is the first time that any of these recordings have been available on vinyl and a lead single of a country-leaning re-recording of their track ‘Sick of Goodbyes’ featuring members of Drive-By Truckers is out now. The project started as the band began a discussion with Cooking Vinyl to see if they could rectify a situation whereby their later material was ignored by streaming algorithms that seemingly focused on their first three albums. They wanted to produce a retrospective that would encompass the band’s entire career.

Unfortunately as the process developed, it became apparent that the cost of licensing tracks from the Virgin and Concord catalogs would be prohibitive. However not to be outwitted by ‘the man’ or indeed ‘the machine’, the band began to catalogue the recordings they controlled, and a far more interesting idea emerged. They had a collection of re-recordings, demos, outtakes, collaborations, and live tracks that told an alternate history of the band. And this collection would not only serve as an introduction to the band for new fans, but also provide long-time, hardcore fans with access to some rare and unreleased recordings. Thus, “Alternative History” came into being. As the band say “Hey, we re-recorded our greatest hits, so screw you, Virgin Records.”

Cracker is an American rock band, formed in 1990 by lead singer David Lowery and guitarist Johnny Hickman. The band's first album Cracker was released in 1992 on Virgin Records; it included the single "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)", which went to #1 on the U.S. Modern Rock chart. The band's follow-up, the 1993 album Kerosene Hat included the hit songs "Low", "Get Off This", and "Euro-Trash Girl".

Cracker has released nine studio albums and several compilations, collaborations, solo projects and live albums. The band mix influences and sounds from rock, punk, grunge, psychedelia, country, blues and folk.

Cracker

Cracker
During Cracker’s heyday in the 1990s, the Virginia-based band molded elements of alternative pop/rock and country into several irreverent, buzzworthy anthems. Singer/guitarist David Lowery made no attempt to mask his affinity for traditional roots music, but his own background was far from traditional, as he spent the ’80s fronting the quirky alternative outfit Camper Van Beethoven. Shortly after Camper Van Beethoven embarked on a long hiatus in 1990, Lowery began demoing new material with guitarist Johnny Hickman and bassist Davey Faragher. The three musicians named the project Cracker (although several of those early demos would later surface under the title David Lowery Demo Mixes) and set up their headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. By 1991, the band had signed a recording contract with Virgin Records and enlisted the help of several drummers (Jim Keltner, Rick Jaeger, and Phil Jones), all of whom helped shape the sound of Cracker’s debut album.

Kerosene HatCracker released their self-titled debut in 1992. Filled with guitar-driven rock songs and gravelly vocals, the album established Cracker’s presence in the rock arena, and “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)” became a number one modern rock single. A year later, the sophomore effort Kerosene Hat spawned another popular MTV/radio hit with “Low,” which charted in the U.K. and also cracked the pop charts in America. The album went platinum as a result. By the time Golden Age arrived in 1996, however, the band’s hitmaking lineup had begun to splinter. Bassist Faragher was replaced by Bob Rupe, while the drum spot was occupied by a trio of players: Charlie Quintana, Eddie Bayers, and Johnny Hott.

Golden Age spun off another hit with “I Hate My Generation,” and the band toured in support of its release. After returning home from the road, Lowery began focusing on his Richmond-based recording studio, Sound of Music, where he produced such artists as Joan Osborne, Lauren Hoffman, Magnet, Fighting Gravity, and Sparklehorse. He also co-produced the Counting Crows along with former Camper Van Beethoven producer Dennis Herring. Lowery’s work wasn’t limited to the music world, however, as he co-starred in director Eric Drilling’s independent film River Red (also composing the film’s score) and appeared in another film, director Matt Leutwyler’s This Space Between Us.

Gentleman’s Blues By the end of the decade, Cracker seemed to have settled on a somewhat permanent lineup comprised of drummer Frank Funaro, keyboardist/accordion player Kenny Margolis, and the preexisting core of Lowery, Hickman, and Rupe. This version of the band issued 1998’s Gentleman’s Blues, a more reflective album that saw the musicians paying homage to Southern rock and blues. Camper Van Beethoven unexpectedly re-formed shortly thereafter, and Lowery began splitting his time between both bands, whose other members frequently joined whichever group was on the road.

ForeverCracker (along with select musicians from CVB) issued a live album, 2001’s Traveling Apothecary Show & Revue, and Cracker followed its release with Forever (2002) and a rowdy set of country covers called Countrysides in 2003. The latter album also marked Cracker’s first effort as an independent band, as they had recently left the Virgin roster. Three years later, Cracker returned (this time via the U.K.-based indie label Cooking Vinyl) with Greenland, which featured help from guest artists David Immerglück and Mark Linkous. Another concert release, Live in Berlin, December 2006, arrived in 2008, and the studio effort Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey, which cracked Billboard’s Top 200 chart, followed one year later. That same year the band went on a tour of Iraq, playing for U.S. troops while working on the “Yalla Yalla” video, which was produced by compiling YouTube videos of American soldiers stationed overseas. Public radio network NPR profiled the tour on their weekly series The Show. A year later, the band played a series of sold-out shows with Camper Van Beethoven dubbed the 2010 Traveling Apothecary Tour.

Berkeley to Bakersfield In 2014, the core Cracker trio of Lowery, Hickman, and Faragher returned to the recording studio, joined by drummer Michael Urbano and keyboardist Thayer Sarrano. By the year’s end, the group had released an ambitious two-disc set, Berkeley to Bakersfield, with the “Berkeley” disc devoted to Cracker’s trademark brand of alternative rock and the “Bakersfield” chapter finding the band once again digging into their country influences with the help of a handful of guest musicians.

This album contains no booklet.