kerosene hat

Cracker lit a fire for alternative rock with the displaced junkie cosmonaut country voodoo blues of this swaggering sophomore surprise.  David Lowery had formed Cracker with his childhood friend Johnny Hickman during a break with Camper Van Beethovan.   Their self-titled debut became a hit on college radio; but didn't make a dent in the mainstream.  When it became clear that Camper Van had disbanded, they went to work on the followup.  'Kerosene Hat' was produced by Don Smith with David Lowery on vocals and guitar; Johnny Hickman on lead guitar and vocals; Davey Faragher on bass and vocals; and Michael Urbano on drums.  

Faragher recalls:   "It really came together in Pioneertown, recording it with Don Smith. He'd built this studio on an old movie soundstage out in the desert and it was this giant barn big enough to pull the truck into. The weather was horribly rainy and cold, and the first week seemed like mostly manual labor — literally going to junkyards to get old mattresses and stuff to put on the walls for insulation. I remember Don made us play 'Low' over and over, we must've done it twenty times. He was a real character. Had a funny voice you could hardly understand. He'd be chewing on a cigarette, mumbling something at you, and every once in a while you'd hear 'Keith' — because he'd worked with Keith Richards. He was like a voodoo producer, but the perfect guy for us at that time."



'Kerosene Hat' reached number fifty-nine on the Billboard 200 album chart and number one on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.  It has been certified platinum.   The album featured ninety-nine separate tracks, including the twelve listed songs and eighty-seven other tracks (most of them only a few seconds of silence) in which they hid three other songs.  







http://www.crackersoul.com/










"Low" was a huge hit for the band, becoming their only entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number sixty-four.  It hit forty-three in the UK, five on the US mainstream rock track chart, and number three on the US modern rock tracks chart.  It continues to be played on the radio and at sporting events.  

Lowery:   "That still freaks me out because we're definitely the geek-band nerds, not jocks.  But that's what a hit song really is. It becomes less your song than a cultural artifact, a part of the social fabric that you no longer control. It's kind of subversive, this song that rips off Baudelaire and romantic poets and 'The Wizard of Oz', mixed together for some stoner-humor cultural artifact. Zooming way back, that's probably a good outcome for the big picture... There were other songs on that album that we spent a lot more time on. But once it got to the label and the radio guys, where they'd play it for friends, 'Low' became the focus. Now, even though it was the first single, everybody wanted to move on to 'Get Off This' as soon as possible because they figured that for the big crossover song. But after they'd quit working 'Low' for that one, they had to stop and come back to 'Low' because nobody would quit playing it. A clusterjam, as my wife says. It really took on a life of its own."


Hickman:  "I honestly don't ever get sick of it because that one put us on the map. We're chagrinned by people who won't play their hits, although we've done 'Low'-less gigs once in a while. I'll sometimes think to myself onstage, 'I probably would not be playing this show in small-town Wisconsin with my friend David Lowery if not for this one.' The working-class kid who used to paint houses and play in scrappy punk bands in the early '80s is still very grateful." 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYdlqjiQPAc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnxfojqcKIk








"Get Off This" went to number forty-one in the UK (becoming their biggest hit there), eighteen on the US mainstream rock track chart, and number six on the US modern rock tracks chart.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnKypU9bAcY






"Sweet Potato" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PSslZXsmow






"Euro-Trash Girl" somehow made it to number twenty-five on the US modern rock tracks chart.  Hickman reveals:   "We’ve been to Europe and there are bits of some real experiences in that song and imagined experiences. David created this character and we took potshots at him. He’s this hapless young guy over and his dad’s married to some waitress and he feels a little neglected, so he’s over there and he’s having a tough time in Europe. He’s calling home for money. It’s something I’m sure a lot of people have been through. They’re college age and think, 'I want to go over to Europe. I’ll be fine there.' But then they realize (laughs) it’s not as easy as they thought it was going to be. This poor guy ends up getting stuck and bathing in a fountain and getting arrested and losing his passport. Some of these things happened to us, some not. They are real life experiences for the most part. It’s one of those characters who defined himself as the story went along...The story behind that was at that time we had a lot of songs. We’d been playing 'Eurotrash Girl' live for awhile and fans were really reacting to it. There were even a few radio stations playing live bootlegs of it. The word got out amongst the fans, “Hey, check out “Eurotrash Girl.” They were talking about it and it developed its own bit of momentum. We told our record company, Virgin Records at the time, we gotta put this one on here too. They said, 'But your record is already too long. People only have so much of an attention span. Save it for the next one. Blah blah blah.' We just snuck it on there anyway. We went to the mastering lab and just put that song and “I Ride My Bike” on there...We just went in and put it on anyway. We just snuck in the tape and said, 'Just put it deep in there.' It was Don’s idea to make it track 69 with his perverted sense of humor, which was fine with us. It was frustrating to some people with the song because they had things on shuffle. We basically just gave them another song. You only get paid for so many songs. We just said, 'Well, the fans obviously like this one. We’re just going to put it on there.' So we did."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n_KBxobnvo

full album:




1. "Low"   David Lowery/Johnny Hickman/Davey Faragher 4:36
2. "Movie Star"   Lowery 3:33
3. "Get Off This"   Lowery/Faragher/Hickman 4:26
4. "Kerosene Hat"   Lowery 5:36
5. "Take Me Down To The Infirmary"   Lowery 4:05
6. "Nostalgia"   Lowery/Faragher/Hickman 3:34
7. "Sweet Potato"   Faragher/Hickman/Lowery 3:16
8. "Sick Of Goodbyes"   Linkous/Lowery 3:10
9. "I Want Everything"   Lowery 5:53
10. "Lonesome Johnny Blues"   Hickman 2:48
11. "Let's Go For A Ride"   Lowery/Hickman/Faragher 3:08
12. "Loser"   Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter 6:11

15. "Hi-Desert Biker Meth Lab" (non-consecutive track) Lowery/Hickman/Faragher 0:41
69. "Euro-Trash Girl" (hidden track) Lowery/Hickman/Faragher/Peters 8:04
88. "I Ride My Bike" (hidden track) Lowery/Hickman 6:34
99. "Kerosene Hat" (outtake; hidden track) Lowery 1:23