David Lowery and Cracker unleash their clever-saucy rock on Monterey.

Richmond, Va.-based musician David Lowery is lucky enough to have two great outlets for his quirky, irony-laden rock songs. There’s Camper Van Beethoven, the eclectic ’80s band that incorporated world music elements, ska and lots of violin into songs including “Take the Skinheads Bowling” and “Pictures of Matchstick Men.” The group has been uniting sporadically since 2000.

Then there’s Cracker, Lowery’s more straight ahead rock band – which dips pretty heavily into roots music – that’s best known for the soaring 1992 alt-rock hit “Low.”

Lowery, who performs with Cracker bandmate Johnny Hickman this Friday at Monterey Live, says there have been some instances where he discovered a song penned for one outfit would work better for the other. As an example, he cites “That Gum You Like is Back in Style,” a lush reverie that he wrote for Cracker though it appeared on Camper Van Beethoven’s 2004 comeback CD New Roman Times. “I’d say two-thirds of the time it’s obvious which band it would work with,” Lowery says.

Formed after Camper Van Beethoven went on hiatus in 1991, Cracker released its self-titled debut in 1991. Cracker went in a more straight guitar rock direction than Camper Van, but Lowery still retained his typical tongue-in-cheek lyrics on songs including “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now),” where he sings: “What the world needs now/ Is a new Frank Sinatra/ So I can get you in bed/ ’Cause what the world needs now/ Is another folk singer/ Like I need a hole in my head.”

The backbone of Cracker is a collaboration between Lowery and guitarist Hickman, who Lowery has known since his childhood in Redlands, Calif. Lowery says there’s a fairly simple reason why his musical relationship with Hickman works so well. “I think it’s the classic rock-band archetype,” he says. “I talk shit about something, and he does some guitar riffs.”

Cracker’s latest CD, Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey, due out May 5, is surprisingly heavy on spiky punk-rock guitar riffs. Lowery says the new direction was inspired somewhat by his oldest son’s recent discovery of ’80s skate-punk bands including Fear.

The album includes the big brash rock opener “Yalla Yalla,” which is rife with images of American soldiers fighting in the Middle East, and “Hand Me My Inhaler,” a minute and 30 second blast where sharp punk riffs circle the song like shark fins around an unlucky surfer. The group also detours into boozy country with “Friends,” a duet that Lowery sings with Patterson Hood of the alt country group the Drive-By Truckers.

While the fast riffs of the new CD will probably strike some Cracker fans as a departure, Lowery says undercurrents of that sound can be found in his past work. “There’s always been a fair amount of punk rock in Cracker and, even, Camper Van Beethoven,” he says. “It was just this time we were more interested in that.”

CRACKER ACOUSTIC DUO plays 7pm Friday, April 3, at Monterey Live, 414 Alvarado St., Monterey. $15/advance, $20/at the door. 373-5483.