Happier Campers

In defense, Joy, who lives on the East Coast, says, "I was trying to create a context where this stuff could be understood 30 to 40 years from now, when all the references had fallen away. To me, that couldn't just be a fact-finding mission. It had to be told in a setting that took liberties. The history isn't fictionalized; it's a fictionalized perspective. I had this raw material ... all the stuff about them is true. And all the stuff about Lowery and Hickman is true. All of that is true."

"I just sent an e-mail to the publisher," says Lowery. "It's really fiction. To tell you the truth, up until about halfway through the book, to me it was really funny, and I kept forgetting that it was sorta me in there, a fictionalized me. The thing that disturbs me is he wanted to get to the point where rock journalism and stalking his favorites were mixed together."

Andre Lansel

Camper Van Beethoven, shortly before the breakup.

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More About

• David Lowery
• Jonathan Segel
• Camden Joy
• Greg Lisher
• Camper Van Beethoven

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Such a postmodern approach is not entirely alien to the Campers, particularly the way in which they've handled their own work for the upcoming album. "I feel this new material is somewhere between making music and archiving things," says Lowery. "It's very modern and very of the age. It's not post-rock, it might be pre-rock."

"It's a very postmodern way of dealing with the legacy," says Krummenacher. "We went back and took old tapes and actively screwed with them. A lot of the live stuff had Morgan playing and Jonathan manipulating the tapes, so it was kind of a cool revenge."

The Camper family circle now remains only slightly broken: Fichter was last heard from on the front lines of the WTO riots in Seattle; Immergluck, who tours with Counting Crows, will appear when he can; former and itinerant member Molla and longtime drummer Pedersen (who lives in Australia) will not be around for this model of the Camper Van, which officially began rehearsals last week in the California desert, a stone's throw from where it began. Krummenacher and Segel say the set list includes songs from throughout Camper's history, from "Skinheads" to "Eye of Fatima." "David gave me 20 Cracker songs to learn, and I know 10 more, so we've got this huge set list to learn," says Krummenacher. "Once we get going, I think that's the idea, to just go out there."

"And if that girl Morgan shows up," adds Segel, "I'm gonna kick her ass."

Cracker plays Thursday and Friday, Feb. 10 and 11, at 8 p.m. at Slim's, 333 11th St. (at Folsom), S.F. Tickets are $20 in advance, $22 at the door; call 522-0333.