Camper Van Beethoven-- Classic or dud?

Monks of Doom are seriously underappreciated. Their albums are like 90% filler, but occasionally they bust out with a song like "Taste of Tendon" that's truly badass. Cracker, I think, were just as good as they wanted to be--Lowery wanted to rock the MOR for a little while and he made some money doing it.

I'm gonna go put on Key Lime Pie right now, though.

I think that the songwriting is better on "Our Beloved," but the mood is more interesting and sustained on "Key Lime." "June" is a highly under-appreciated song. As is "My Path Belated." PLEASE: Does anyone know what that song means? There seems to be a story in that song, but I cain't figger it out. Something about a kid's mom who is a porn star and she can't give Dave Lowery a ride to school cause she's too buisy plucking her soda jerk-husband's monobrow?

Howdo, this kinda talkin makin me wanna put on that there Key Dime Try and sat out in da front lawn watchin da overgrewd kids play in the babypool with my Pabst in one hand and my lit Marl-red in the other. Ah! Ain't needin no sun lotion.

Although I've heard them all before, I've fallen in love all over again. Wonderfulness abounds.

i like david lowery's songwriting, but i think a lot of people would view cvb lyrics as too "quirky." actually, a classic bit of david lowery is the hidden track on the second cracker record. i presume it's called eurotrash girl.

I'm a Key Lime Pie man myself. Sure I love "Skinheads" et al but listening to the honey tunes of KLP takes me straight back to a glorious summer of love during my college years in England. Had the great tunes, harmonies and the barbed lyrics - bittersweet in true indie tradition.

What a crazy little song about stalking a girl. Classic.

There are a million live CVB shows at archive.org, also.

nice

crispy derson

Original liners are pretty funny

New ones not funny, but pretty solid, anyway. Also, they reprint the original liners, too.

OK, seeing them tomorrow night. When they tour in tandem with Cracker, who generally goes on first?

I just saw them, Cracker closed. boardid=41&threadid=102871

The Camper Van Beethoven Albums Poll

I like this thread better, dammit! Anyway, thanks, allows me to enjoy CVB and consider bailing on Cracker in real time.

there's some good stuff on Cracker's first album (Dr. Berenice felt like a Key Lime Pie b-side). I stopped paying attention after that.

Kerosene Hat was huge for me. I was disenchanted by "I Hate My Generation" but listened to it again recently and think I could give Golden Age another chance someday. I dipped back in with their Countrysides album, which in retrospect didn't sound so good, but introduced me to Terry Allen.

I recall liking Golden Age a lot. And I heard their new double album is really good.

Some of the Cracker stuff on the most recent double disc thing was actually very good

I saw one of Cracker's very first (maybe even the first?) shows in Santa Cruz and the most entertaining part of the show was when they broke into a Massive Attack cover, which Lowery seemed to think no one in the crowd recognized

https://archive.org/details/cracker1991-11-10-flac

haha wow yup that's it

i dont' know how it is that I've never seen CVB live. I miss these shows with cracker every year for some reason or another.

what a band

So classic. And ended on top. Hmm, I wonder how many band's first and final* albums are equally classic?

Zeppelin lol

they reunited tho! sellouts

Hmm, LZ1 and In Through the Out Door equally classic? Don't know about that. Equally good, perhaps!

xpost In their defense, reunited Camper albums are weird and intentionally erratic.

Don't think I agree with that re. New Roman Times (which I like a lot), but I know they took a different songwriting approach on the two California-themed albums. Still have not dug into those too much.

Well, all I know is that I don't listen to them, because I liked them only about as much as I liked the Camper Van Chadbourne albums. Which is an exaggeration, maybe, because I don't listen to those either, and can't remember if they're that good or not. Anyway, the last two CVB albums, they're fine, but they don't feature much of anything akin to what I love from literally everything the band did from Telephone to Key Lime Pie. New Roman Times, I can hum a song or two from that one, but as far as similar concept albums go, I think at the time I was focusing more on the Thermals record.

"51-7" might be their best song ever!

Well, that's not true, but it is the only song from that album I know off the top of my head!!

Huh, there's a new Monks of Doom record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phMv_db7Mgc

"Take The Skinheads Bowling" sounding really good to me today for some reason.

Wish the last couple of albums had been better. New Roman Times was awesome.

I was blasting She Divines Water on the way to work last week. Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart and Key Lime Pie are where it's at.

Key Lime Pie is super underrated by the people who rate things.

Listening to those late 80s albums it’s noticeable how melodic and imaginative Victor Krummenacher’s bass lines are

Not to mention Crispy Dersen’s drums! ESP on OBRS. Fuggin Xgau lambasting them for not having “chops”.

All Her Favorite Fruit may be my all time Camper jam. But that changes a lot because they have many excellent jams.

Saw them playing a split gig with Cracker a couple of years ago and they've still got it. Very good show. It was just weird seeing Camper open for Cracker when we know who the better band is.

Anyone who has ever heard the Monks of Doom know these guys have chops. I got to see one of their shows to, like, 20 people a couple of years ago, and it was a blast.

Who underrates Key Lime Pie? Maybe by indie snobs because it was the breakthrough "hit," but it's great, maybe my favorite. I think it's such a cool sounding record, and Pedersen's drums in particular are crazy good.

I'm trying to think if I'd consider any of their (prime) albums underrated. They're just all so full of good stuff.

3rd, 4th and 5th albums are my faves, but yes this band is all time to me, two of the best live shows I've ever seen

I have to shout out Anthony Guess's drumming on Telephone Free Landslide Victory, which I'm weirdly obsessed with. It's a small kit--I just hear snare, kick, and hi-hat--but the drumming is super-tight and dynamic, and my GOD the fills! Especially on the ska instrumentals like Yanqui Go Home, Border Ska, etc. Every time I listen I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next drum fill, and every time he just nails it in the tastiest way possible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWIbHcHDuII
This is such fun music!

Is he the only drummer on the first one? I think Lowery and Chris Molla play drums on some stuff, too.

I was just driving around and heard this hit by the Village Stompers and suddenly had CVB deja vu!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBOT6dfnerc

These guys have been my favourite "new-to-me" discovery this year. When I Win the Lottery is my most played song of 2020 according to Apple Music.

There's not a stinker in the catalog all the way up to their breakup. The only challenge is navigating the various Pitch-a-Tent reissues, since there are so many different track lists and bonus cuts.

Is there worthwhile stuff on the bonus tracks? I've got everything they put out and when they reissued those I didn't bother. But it itches at me that there's more stuff out there that I haven't heard.

I like everything up to La Costa Perdida.

Oh, belatedly, yeah, there are all sorts of good nuggets hidden in there. Lotta goofs, medleys, covers, different versions. The reissue sequencing is indeed a mess, though.

I just came across this great profile of the band in Rolling Stone in 1988:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/camper-van-beethovens-notes-from-the-underground-82927/

This is pretty great -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnTLxgEW6FI

Monks of Doom rule. I saw them here a couple of years ago and there were what felt like maybe 20 people in the crowd.

As a die-hard CVB fan, I have totally neglected MOD and CV Chadbourne.

Monks is sort of like CVB at its most proggy.

Remember when I finally saw CVB live decades ago and I was amazed at how tight they were.

Yes! I saw them on first reunion tour in Santa Cruz on the day Mister Rogers died. They all came out wearing red cardigans and dedicated Ice Cream Everyday to him, then tossed the cardigans into the audience. I got one but gave it to a friend. I think it was itchy or something.

I was a moderate fan at the time, I only knew a few songs. Bought the Cigarettes and Carrot Juice box at the show and binged that straight in my earhole

I recently got the CVB hits album, Popular Songs of Great Enduring Beauty or something like that. Got it for the rerecorded versions of the OBRS and KLP tracks. Not as good as the originals but nice to have new versions.

The best (and only?) musical adaptation of an Edward Gorey story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGTjYugm8Tc