Thu, December 31
New Year's Eve!
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Cracker Website
Camper Van Beethoven Website
Cracker have just released their tenth studio effort, entitled Berkeley To Bakersfield, a double-album that finds this uniquely American band traversing two different sides of the California landscape the northern Bay area and further down-state in Bakersfield. Despite being less than a five-hour drive from city to city, musically, these two regions couldnt be further apart from one another. In the late 70s and 80s a harder-edged style of rock music emerged from the Bay area, while Bakersfield is renowned for its own iconic twangy country music popularized, most famously, by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard in the 60s and 70s. Yet despite these differences, they are both elements that Crackers two cofounders, David Lowery and Johnny Hickman, have embraced to some degree on nearly every one of their studio albums over the last two decades. On Berkeley To Bakersfield, however, instead of integrating these two genres together within one disc, theyve neatly compartmentalized them onto their own respective regionally-titled LPs. As Lowery explains, On the Berkeley disc the band is the original Cracker lineup Davey Faragher, Michael Urbano, Johnny and myself. This is the first time this lineup has recorded together in almost 20 years. We began recording this album at East Bay Recorders in Berkeley, CA. For this reason we chose to stylistically focus this disc on the music we most associate with the East Bay: Punk and Garage with some funky undertones. To further match our sense of place we often took an overtly political tone in the lyrics. This Bakersfield disc represents the California country side of the band. Throughout the bands 24-year history weve dabbled in Country and Americana but this time we wanted to pay homage to the particular strain of Country and Country-Rock music that emerges from the inland valleys of California. Cracker has been described as a lot of things over the years: alt-rock, Americana, insurgent-country, and have even had the terms punk and classic-rock thrown at them. But more than anything Cracker are survivors. Cofounders Lowery and Hickman have been at it for almost a quarter of a century amassing ten studio albums, multiple gold records, thousands of live performances, hit songs that are still in current radio rotation around the globe (Low, Euro-Trash Girl, Get Off This and Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me to name just a few), and a worldwide fan base that despite the major sea-changes within the music industry continues to grow each year.
Back in the day, before alternative rock was invented and indie rock was still shy of roots music and other folk elements, Camper Van Beethoven's merging of punk, folk, ska, and world music was truly a revelation. Singer/songwriter David Lowery's smart-aleck lyrics, delivered in laid-back California style, combined with Jonathan Segel's violin as lead instrument, were the band's instant trademarks. Decades after their inception, CVB's sound is still remarkably fresh and their influence on alternative music undeniable and resounding.
HOTEL PACKAGE
Finish off the night with a stay at the Doubletree Hotel. For only $109 enjoy a quality room at the hotel and travel to and from the venue with the convenience of a FREE shuttle service provided from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.
CLICK HERE TO BOOK HOTEL ROOMS
Camper Van Beethoven Website
Cracker have just released their tenth studio effort, entitled Berkeley To Bakersfield, a double-album that finds this uniquely American band traversing two different sides of the California landscape the northern Bay area and further down-state in Bakersfield. Despite being less than a five-hour drive from city to city, musically, these two regions couldnt be further apart from one another. In the late 70s and 80s a harder-edged style of rock music emerged from the Bay area, while Bakersfield is renowned for its own iconic twangy country music popularized, most famously, by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard in the 60s and 70s. Yet despite these differences, they are both elements that Crackers two cofounders, David Lowery and Johnny Hickman, have embraced to some degree on nearly every one of their studio albums over the last two decades. On Berkeley To Bakersfield, however, instead of integrating these two genres together within one disc, theyve neatly compartmentalized them onto their own respective regionally-titled LPs. As Lowery explains, On the Berkeley disc the band is the original Cracker lineup Davey Faragher, Michael Urbano, Johnny and myself. This is the first time this lineup has recorded together in almost 20 years. We began recording this album at East Bay Recorders in Berkeley, CA. For this reason we chose to stylistically focus this disc on the music we most associate with the East Bay: Punk and Garage with some funky undertones. To further match our sense of place we often took an overtly political tone in the lyrics. This Bakersfield disc represents the California country side of the band. Throughout the bands 24-year history weve dabbled in Country and Americana but this time we wanted to pay homage to the particular strain of Country and Country-Rock music that emerges from the inland valleys of California. Cracker has been described as a lot of things over the years: alt-rock, Americana, insurgent-country, and have even had the terms punk and classic-rock thrown at them. But more than anything Cracker are survivors. Cofounders Lowery and Hickman have been at it for almost a quarter of a century amassing ten studio albums, multiple gold records, thousands of live performances, hit songs that are still in current radio rotation around the globe (Low, Euro-Trash Girl, Get Off This and Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me to name just a few), and a worldwide fan base that despite the major sea-changes within the music industry continues to grow each year.
Back in the day, before alternative rock was invented and indie rock was still shy of roots music and other folk elements, Camper Van Beethoven's merging of punk, folk, ska, and world music was truly a revelation. Singer/songwriter David Lowery's smart-aleck lyrics, delivered in laid-back California style, combined with Jonathan Segel's violin as lead instrument, were the band's instant trademarks. Decades after their inception, CVB's sound is still remarkably fresh and their influence on alternative music undeniable and resounding.
HOTEL PACKAGE
Finish off the night with a stay at the Doubletree Hotel. For only $109 enjoy a quality room at the hotel and travel to and from the venue with the convenience of a FREE shuttle service provided from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.
CLICK HERE TO BOOK HOTEL ROOMS