Don’t Define California by the Dreamy Songs of Yesteryear
Two Contemporary Bands Evoke the Glorious Grit that Binds Our State Together
What’s the fastest way from Berkeley to Bakersfield?
Just flip to the second disc of the album.
California’s disparate regions are nearly impossible to connect. But over the past two years, two music bands—with overlapping members—have pulled off the trick, issuing three albums that examine today’s state, thoughtfully and lovingly, from its coast to its inland deserts, from north to south. It is precisely by exploring the state’s divides so thoroughly that those two bands—Cracker and Camper van Beethoven—have shown what really connects California.
Those connections are more about the wrong turns and …
