Crackers – Sir Crackers! Ultimato, I Can’t Have Faith // Light Blue Dress, Your Heart (TwinTone Records) 1980. This one is for Steve Almaas Completists. Well, I guess that is dependent on whether there is any such things as a “Steve Almaas Completist”? But for the sake of this post, let’s assume that there is. And let’s say that said Completist was such a fanatical fan of the Suicide Commandos and the early Beat Rodeo material, that upon finding this record at Roadrunner Records on a visit to the Twin Cities, said Completist had to buy it immediately. What then would said Completist think of this? How the fuck should I know? Personally, I always thought the Suicide Commandos were a bit over-rated. Getting there first does give you some bragging rights but they lacked songs baby and the production on Make A Record lacks punch. The Beat Rodeo stuff? Too dang reverential for me. My favourite Almaas stuff up to this point has always been the material on Big Hits of Mid-America he did at the end of his Commando run. Shortly after recording those, the band broke up and Steve joined Crackers, who add just the right amount of grease to Steve’s pop sensibilities. So if you are a Steve Almaas Completist, then this is probably one you should hear. Unfortunately, Steve was only in Crackers long enough for this one EP before he left Minneapolis and headed East to Hoboken to hang with Richard Barone and the Bongos posse. Barone and Almaas then went down to North Carolina and boogied with Mitch Easter who was busy creating this “New South” thing. A few years later REM had a couple of hits and kick-started alternative nation which became indie rock. So if you are looking for someone to blame for Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes, it is clearly Steve. Kapische?
Hardcore Podcasts
September of 2010 I put together eight Hardcore Podcasts. You can check them out here if you are interested. For more insight into how I came up with the years 78-90 for the First Wave you can read about The Hardcore Superiorty Myth.
Actually, I have been looking for someone to blame for Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes for quite some time now. Thanks!
Who are Fleet Foxes and Vampire Weekend? In all seriousness, I have been meaning to get familiar with more TwinTone artists and unfortunately haven’t heard much tuneage from Crackers. Thank you for the bio + post. And out of curiosity, didn’t R.E.M. help kick start college/modern rock for which then became “alternative nation”? I’ve always thought of the likes of GBV, Pavement and other similar bands for helping birth indie rock.
Dk…point taken. But where does Flying Nun fit into all of this?
Hi, Joe. I wasn’t trying to fit Flying Nun into it. I’m sorry if I gave that impression. I was only making an inquisitive observation. Please don’t mind me. I have a really short attention span and sometimes easily become distracted. Not with your awesome blog, though
Hey Dk,
I was just trying to be humorous but it just didn’t translate. by bringing in additional bands you expanded my historical timeline and I immediately thought of Flying Nun bands as precursors to Pavement and GbV. In fact, I don’t think you mentioned Flying Nun at all.
Sorry about that!
Wow Bongos connections way cool, I put up some of them. Cool, thanks. I remember when Todd owned Roadrunner and the Bad Trip guy does now Beggs. Great store with the latest Radio K releases. And anybody who knows anything about Vampires knows that the best is Vampire Hands! Check my youtube post to see ‘em if ya want. Good blog here, thanks again:>}
Joe your blog and a few others basically turned me into a Steve Almaas completist…right down to that Barone-produced EP haha…
I think my copy of this is still sealed. If not, I suppose I really should give it a play …