David Lowery

With his band Camper Van Beethoven, vocalist David Lowery was college radio's preeminent smart aleck in the mid-to-late '80s, writing goofy, witty songs delivered with his trademark slacker whine. Although in retrospect not as acknowledged in pioneering American alternative rock as R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe or Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, Lowery embodied the independent spirit of college music with his unpolished, nasally vocals and irreverent, sometimes surrealistic lyrics.

Born in Texas on September 10, 1960, Lowery was a military brat, constantly relocating to different locales with his family until moving to Redlands, CA, where he attended high school. Lowery formed Camper Van Beethoven in Santa Cruz, CA, with Chris Molla (guitar), Chris Pedersen (drums), Victor Krummenacher (bass), Greg Lisher (guitar), and Jonathan Segel (mandolin, violin, keyboards). The band's 1985 debut LP, Telephone Free Landslide Victory, was hailed by critics and became an instant college-radio classic. The oddball cult hit "Take the Skinheads Bowling" eventually took a life of its own, immortalized on '80s flashback radio programs and compilation CDs.

Along with R.E.M. and the Replacements, Camper Van Beethoven were among a handful of American underground acts that prevented U.K. post-punk groups from completely dominating campus left-of-the-dial stations. Unlike those other two bands, though, Camper Van Beethoven weren't treated as seriously, praised for their genre-bending clash of punk, country, and folk but not viewed as making important, revolutionary contributions to rock & roll. Camper Van Beethoven had little success outside of the college circuit; they were too quirky and unpredictable for mainstream audiences. In 1989, accusations of selling out to AOR radio arrived with the group's slick and FM-friendly cover of Status Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men." The remake elevated them to regular rotation status on MTV; however, the band soon split up.

A year later, Lowery created a new band, Cracker, with guitarist Johnny Hickman and bassist Davey Faragher. Jettisoning the weirdness of Camper Van Beethoven, Lowery opted for more of a straightforward rock sound. Consequently, Cracker developed a much bigger following and scored a number of MTV and radio smashes such as "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" and "Low." Despite his increasingly commercial approach, Lowery's tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic observations remained intact. ~ Michael Sutton, All Music Guide