Yesterday on iTunes, I noticed one of my favorite bands Cracker had released a greatest hits album. I was excited because there was some new stuff on it but I probably wouldn't buy it. Today I was reading the reviews on iTunes for it and they were all one stars. One Star? Cracker? WTF? I thought.
Turns out the greatest hits album is a bit of a farce. See, their old label, Virgin Records was releasing the hits because they owned the rights to the recordings. Cracker is no longer on Virgin and is doing just find on it's own. (I mean seriously, Cracker was a side project from Lowery's other successful band, Camper Van Beethoven). Virgin therefore is paying minimal royalties for the album since it is pretty much being released for Virgin to make a little bit of money cheap off of Cracker's prior success. Cracker hasn't released an album for Virgin in nearly a decade but Virgin stands to make a million bucks if Cracker's album only sells a mere 100,000 copies. Cracker gets pennies for this.
So what do smart asses like David Lowery and John Hickman do?
Release re-recorded live in studio versions with a similar track list on their own label titled "Cracker Redux", THE SAME DAY!!! Freaking awesome. Who re-records their junk for a greatest hits these days? Completely awesome and when I get done with this post, I am jumping over to the Apple and downloading it! Plus there is a new Cracker song called what else, Redux.
If you like country grunge rock, here's your album in Greatest hits form. Here is Cracker's real cover so you don't buy the fake:
and the Virgin money making machine version,
Buy the real one here unless you have iTunes.
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