HATE TO ADMIT IT, BUT…
Cracker
“Low”
Kerosene Hat
1993 | Virgin

Not unlike the Mother Love Bone-to-Pearl Jam turnover, Cracker rose out of the ashes of 80s college-radio faves Camper Van Beethoven – loved for their goofy punk classic, “Take The Skinheads Bowling.” They still showed their country-punk roots on their eponymous debut album in 1992. The same brash, irreverent humor that was CVB’s trademark remained a part of the Cracker spirit, best exemplified by tracks like, “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now),” and “Mr. Wrong.” The band’s principal members, singer-guitarist David Lowery and guitarist Johnny Hickman, have since soldiered on with various sidemen, releasing a new cheekily irreverent Cracker album every few years (in between recording new material with the reconstituted Camper) to a small but rabid following.

It’s weird, then, to think that Cracker’s one brief dally with stardom, “Low,” (from their 1993 sophomore album, Kerosene Hat) contains none of that off-putting but lovable sense of humor Lowery has always been known for. “Sometime I wanna take you down / Sometime I wanna get you low.” David Lowery’s tobacco-stained croon made him sound like a lower middleclass ladies’ man – the guy who’s always at the bar, cigarette in one hand, whiskey in the other. He looks good, but he’s still always at the bar (like Billy, who, unsurprisingly is still peeling the labels from his bottles of Bud) David Lowery, who once railed on Club Med, who recorded a cover of the entirety of Fleetwood Mac’s double-album Tusk, now sounds like an old lech in a shitty singles’ bar, coming on to a girl half his age.
More on Cracker | “Low”

ART OF SONG
Low
“Throw Out the Line”
Long Division
1995 | Vernon Yard Records

For those unfamiliar with the band, Low was formed in Duluth, Minnesota, a husband-and-wife duo serving as the band’s core. Although the aforementioned husband, Alan Sparhawk, concentrates on guitar and his wife, Mimi Parker, plays drums, the twosome’s shared vocal duties is part of what makes Low memorable and acclaimed. Parker and Sparhawk each have their own distinctive singing styles that, perhaps because of their marriage, complement each other well, without hindering either.

On “Throw Out the Line,” off 1995’s Long Division, Sparhawk and Parker showcase their aptitude for harmonization.. Taking their trademark minimalistic approach, “Throw Out the Line,” a song about a passenger falling overboard a ship, rests on a clean, repetitive drum beat layered with a drawn out guitar that manages to mimic waves collapsing upon a shore after a storm. The song stands out from Low’s catalogue, however, due to Parker and Sparhawk’s vocal interplay during verses. Parker croons angelically while Sparhawk half-mumbles, half-sings lines like, “Maybe the angels’ll take him/Come back no more.” Parker lays the drowning passenger down to rest, Sparhawk gives him one last call from the living. Since Duluth overlooks shipwreck-prone Lake Superior, the song’s influences and content make sense – and the frigid temperatures and last-ditch attempt of saving a life come alive through its dynamics.

by Ben Benson

Throw Out The Line - Low

In conjunction with a short tour, Low is scheduled to release a holiday 7-inch EP on November 4, featuring a version of “Santa’s Coming Over” and a cover of the reggae song “The Coming of Jah.”

The tour will take place at a handful of small-sized venues in the U.S and Europe. A number of these shows are being listed as “An Evening With Low,” which means a longer, more in-depth set due to having no opening acts. And then there are the presumably self-explanatory mid-November “Holiday Concerts.” (Do Christmas cover songs and holiday-themed shows mark the beginning of the end for Low?)

In addition to this upcoming activity, the band’s singer and guitarist Alan Sparhawk’s band, Retribution Gospel Choir, are playing a fair amount of shows in the U.K. Read more to see the dates…
More on Low EP and Tour