Think of the bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven as something akin to the separate but very intertwined families in the ABC television show “Modern Family.”

The father in the sitcom, played by Ed O’Neill, is the common link among the three subgroups. In Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven (which fans just call “Camper”), that linchpin arguably is David Lowery, dubbed the “creative genius” behind both bands. It’s important to note most members of both bands have collaborated and played together since the early 1980s.