Camper Van Beethoven - Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart 1988

After making most of their earliest records on their own dime, Camper Van Beethoven moved up to the big leagues with 1988's Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart, their first album for Virgin Records. While some fans wondered if a larger budget and corporate oversight were going to change the shape-shifting folk-punk smart alecks, the results offered a decisive answer: yes and no. Producer Dennis Herring gave CVB a much bigger and glossier sound than they had ever had before, and between the horn charts, the gated drums, the tasty electric guitar tones, and the keyboards that no longer sounded like they'd been rescued from a junk shop, Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart made the band sound like professionals rather than enlightened (and slightly sloppy) amateurs, which had always been a certain part of their charm. There was also a greater snark in Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart, as the cockiness of their humor developed a sharper and more defensive edge on tunes like "Never Go Back," "Life Is Grand," and particularly the darkly witty paean to Patty Hearst, "Tania." But for all the polish, Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart is still very much a Camper Van Beethoven album, especially when Victor Krummenacher's loping bass kicks in, Jonathan Segal's fiddles and keyboards color the melodies, and David Lowery spins his tales confirming that, despite his loose-limbed attitude and goofy sense of humor, he wasn't a hippie -- or a hipster for that matter. Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart revealed you could clean up Camper Van Beethoven but you couldn't necessarily make them behave, which was certainly a good thing. AMG.

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Camper Van Beethoven - Telephone Free Landslide Victory 1985

They say "never say never," but it's still extremely unlikely something so goofily low-key, inventive, and fun will ever achieve cult status so quickly again, especially in terms of musical range on display. Not simply a rock group but not anything else, Camper Van Beethoven pulled off a series of entertaining fusions throughout its debut record, as the opening song "Border Ska" indicates by name alone. Eastern European folk, tropical grooves, post-punk atmospherics, country laid-back good times, psych/garage band aesthetics, lyrics about Mao, Greece, and more -- a lot of stuff went into the Santa Cruz band's brew, and most of it came up trumps on Telephone. Lowery's lead vocals aren't much like what his more famous work in Cracker would indicate, being more speak-singing through shaggy dog stories (even one about Lassie) of all stripes. Hearing his tale of woe on "Wasted" -- "I was a punker, and I had a Mohawk/I was so gnarly and I drove my dad's car" -- delivered in a "yeah dude" tone of voice is pretty darn funny.Segel's keyboards and violins color the arrangements with a fun touch, while rhythm team Krummenacher and then recently departed drummer Anthony Guess try out nearly everything at least once. The production is eminently suited for the proceedings, sounding a bit like the thick, fuzzy flow of many Shimmy-Disc releases but with just enough of a crisp edge. When it comes to humor, it's everywhere -- for instance, the plaintively sung chorus of "Where the Hell Is Bill?," not to mention the various speculative answers ("Maybe he went to get a Vespa scooter"). Or, of course, the song that kick-started the band's reputation, "Take the Skinheads Bowling," two and a half minutes of chiming, goofy nonsense with references to Jah and incomplete rhymes. AMG.

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Camper Van Beethoven - Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty 2008

Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty collects 18 cuts from mercurial post-punk/indie pop/garage folk legends Camper Van Beethoven, marking the group's first foray into the murky world of the "career overview." Like the band's nearly 25-year career, Strength and Beauty is built on the CVB holy trinity of endurance, charisma, and attitude, all three of which were put to the test when the band approached Virgin Records about buying back the rights to 1988's Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart and 1989's Key Lime Pie. In keeping with big-label stereotypes, the answer was no, so CVB re-recorded five tracks for the anthology, doing everything in their power to re-create the magic as faithfully as they could. David Lowery's voice tries admirably to emulate its '80s incarnation on classics like Key Lime's "All Her Favorite Fruit" and "When I Win the Lottery," and the musicianship and production are top-notch, but fans who held those final two records close to their hearts during the ensuing Cracker years will notice the difference. That said, the rest of the album is top-notch, featuring enough instant classics like "Take the Skinheads Bowling" and "The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon" to turn a whole new generation on to punk-infused, ska-kissed Americana. At best, it's a tasty sampler on which to judge whether or not a listener is ready to dive into the mammoth five-disc Cigarettes & Carrot Juice: The Santa Cruz Years, and it dutifully doles out all of the quirky charm, genre-bending musicianship, and good-natured invective that infected so many people during the band's heydays. AMG. listen here