What the World Needs Now: David Lowery Releasing Solo Debut, Cracker & Camper Van Beethoven Touring January 2011

RadioVA interviewer, Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven frontman Dave Lowery is releasing his first solo record on 2/1, The Palace Guards.

A little Appalachian-woven folk, a little psychedelia, and a little of the usual suspects for a Lowery song, the record is meant to show many of the musical sides of Lowery and his cohorts. “One of the reasons the album sounds the way it does is that I have pretty strong personalities playing with me,” says Lowery, “guys who I’ve worked with for years, who have done engineering or playing on Camper and Cracker albums. There’s that instant easy rapport that shines through. Working with them brought out the more extreme edges in these songs and amplified them. It was also liberating to start with no preconceived notions of what they would end up sounding like or worrying about how they might sound in a live setting, as I have to do when I write songs for Cracker."

The Palace Guards has many of the musicians that Lowery has played with over the years at his Richmond, VA-based studio (Sound of Music), as well as Cracker bandmates Sal Maida and Johnny Hickman, and the late Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) who played keyboards on “Big Life.”

Tracklist for The Palace Guards
1. Raise 'em up on Honey
2. The Palace Guards
3. Deep Oblivion
4. Ah, You Left Me
5. Baby, All Those Girls Meant Nothing To Me
6. I Sold the Arabs the Moon
7. Marigold
8. Big Life
9. Submarine

Give a Listen: The Palace Guards-Dave Lowery/Buy The Palace Guards

In January, Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker will join together to perform Key Lime Pie and Kerosene Hat respectively, in their entireties, live as a doubleheader on the east coast. New music from both bands will be out in 2011.

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN & CRACKER'S "KEY LIME & KEROSENE" SHOWS
1/14: NY, NY, Highline Ballroom
1/15: Toronto, ONT, Lee’s Palace
1/16: Cambridge, MA, Middle East Downstairs