The ever-touring machine that is Cracker will be making another stop in Eastern Iowa at the end of this month at The Mill in Iowa City. Cracker is touring behind their new rocking release and debut on 429 Records Sunrise in the Land of Mint and Honey. Their stop at the Mississippi Moon bar in Dubuque in February was great– they played a handful of the new songs, but I’m hoping to hear more of the new album in a live setting.
The show will be at 9PM on Sunday, 8/30 with doors at 8PM. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased here. The opening act is garage rock band The High Strung.
As posted earlier here, Cracker has been working on a new album– their last studio album Greenland was released in 2006. The album titled Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey will be released on May 5th, 2009 on a new label 429 Records. 429 Records is “a unit of the Savoy Label Group (SLG). SLG is the North American unit of CME (Columbia Music Entertainment), the oldest music company in Japan.” According to Wikipedia, CME is not affiliated with SonyBMG, who own the U.S. label Columbia Records. I guess that is why this company operates as Savoy Label Group in the U.S. Either way, I’m sure Cracker got a better deal than they ended up with at Virgin.
According to the Press Release the first single will be “Turn On, Tune In Drop Out With Me” which will be added to whatever radio plays Cracker on April 7th. “Turn On” has been getting a workout on the road lately, and it is a pretty spirited rocker like the other tracks seem to be on the record, which was produced by one-time Sugar member David Barbe, which seems like a copasetic partnership. Other noted musicians joined the fold for Sunrise. In addition to Barbe’s production, Patterson Hood from Drive-By Truckers (who was also produced by Barbe) lends a hand on long-time live favorite “Friends” as well as Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows on “Darling One” and John Doe from X on “We All Shine A Light.”
Here is the tracklisting with links to archive.org when a song has been played:
I apologize for the headline on this. It gets tricky to come up with better headlines than “New album.” Cracker announced today via their website and Facebook that their new album to be called Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey will be released in May of this year, which likely means that the building list of tour dates are gearing up for an album tour! It will be cool to hear new songs from Cracker.
Additionally, Cracker has posted a video for a new track from Sunrise called “Hand Me My Inhaler” which is a short and punky affair, and showcases the fancy guitarwork of Mr. Johnny Hickman.
Click Here to see if Cracker is coming to a stage near you!