Camper Van Beethoven-- Classic or dud?

these guys just seem to have been totally forgotten. namechecked constantly in the late 80s, i haven't heard them invoked--except almost accidentally--in many years.

In 1993, the band Sublime's singer and songwriter Bradley Nowell covered the Camper Van Beethoven song entitled "Eye of Fatima." The chord progression of this song was also used in the Sublime song entitled "What Happened." Sublime frequently covered other Camper Van Beethoven songs live, and Camper Van Beethoven eventually returned the favor by covering the Sublime song "Garden Grove" for the 2005 Sublime tribute album Look at All the Love We Found.

Teenage Fanclub's cover of Camper Van Beethoven's 1985 staple "Take the Skinheads Bowling" was used as the title track for the 2002 Michael Moore film Bowling for Columbine. A portion of the original Camper Van Beethoven recording can be heard as an introduction to the DVD release of the film. The song has also been covered by the Manic Street Preachers, and can be found on their B-sides album Lipstick Traces.

[I <3 "Eye of Fatima" btw]

We had a pretty good thread about Key Lime Pie here earlier this year.

Is it my imagination or is their catalogue in a serious state of disrepair?

Those Virgin albums really need a remaster/rerelease (preferably with the era B-sides, becuz I'm having a hell of a time finding me the Turquoise Jewelry + 3 EP and I don't think that was ever released except on vinyl anyroad - someone prove me wrong).

Second this, but I'm pretty sure that Lowery's relationship with Virgin is in a serious state of disrepair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMrUHJx0bEU

there are no B-sides on that, it was a promo-only 12" (xp)

http://www.discogs.com/Camper-Van-Beethoven-Eye-Of-Fatima-Turquoise-Jewelry/release/1086892

I would also love to see nice reissue packages for the 2 Virgin LPs.

A serious state? Nah. If anything the Pitch-A-Tent stuff has been reissued too much (with different bonus tracks and confusing running orders to boot) . The Virgin stuff - my CDs sound fine, I think, and various esoteric tracks and alt-versions have appeared on comps. Though with this band, it's always hard to tell what material was contemporaneous and what was recorded recently or re-recorded. I mean, "Tusk" was presented as a "lost" album but was (and is clearly) relatively recent in vintage. Those other odds and sods collections and round-ups are equally mysterious in provenance.

Josh, your post illustrates exactly what I mean. The stuff is very ill-curated. I know the band thrives on creating a "fun" sense of mystery and confusion around itself, which is all part of their whole aesthetic, but I do think they'd be well served by a set that issued all the available music (including comp tracks) in one uniform set.

I realize the Virgin relationship is shattered - even worse than XTC's. But what doth it profit a Branson to sit on OOP records? Key Lime Pie still sounds pretty good, I agree, but OBRS has always sounded like ass on CD and really needs a beefing-up.

***

Xpost sleeve I was talking about this one:
http://www.the-van.com/discog/result.php?detail=tracks&id=37
Camper Van Beethoven: Turquoise Jewelry

Format: EP
First released: 1988 (USA)
Media: 12in. vinyl
Label(s): Virgin Records (PR2471)
Performing artists: Chris Pedersen, David Lowery, Greg Lisher, Jonathan Segel, Victor Krummenacher

Notes:
Promotional release

1. Turquoise Jewelry
2. Waka
3. Love Is A Weed
4. Harmony In My Head
5. Wade In The Water

***

I saw it once in a record store circa its release - don't know why I didn't buy it, same reason I didn't buy the "Take the Skinheads Bowling" EP - a bang-for-buck issue I think. The "Skinheads" B-sides eventually resurfaced on the Pitch-a-Tent reissues as bonus tracks (though they really would have been better as a new rarities comp along with the rest of the bonus tracks - this is what the digital age is good for; nobody had to buy the reissues with "lost" tracks interpolated, just the single cuts).

BUT

Where is CVB is Dead"? New Roman Times? Again: those stellar Virgin albums have been out of print so long it seems like they never existed. And the Virgin-era B-sides! It's tough to spread the gospel when all you've got is half a stone tablet.

oh yeah, I had totally forgotten about that Buzzcocks cover! now I remember...

That is so weird. Why is "CVB is Dead" OOP? Or "New Roman Times?" Strange. "OBRS" and "Key Lime Pie" are both in print, though.

http://www.amazon.com/Beloved-Revolutionary-Sweetheart-Camper-Beethoven/dp/B000000WGD/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1263160065&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Key-Lime-Pie-Camper-Beethoven/dp/B000000WGZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1263160045&sr=1-1

Oh, waow. I didn't realize. That's kind of cool. They're not available thru iTunes - is this a Virgin thing, I wonder? *lies on his side, eating grapes, too lazy to check*

this band takes me to a good place

a few years ago I chatted at the SF Eagle with Victor Krummenacher, now a handsome gray-haired gay guy.

yeah he's the one who works for the Guardian, iirc?

this band takes me to a good place

I sold a pile of crap back to the record store two weeks ago and got enough credit to pick up a used copy of Cigarettes & Carrot Juice. Most of it I'd had on vinyl or old tapes so I've been rocking these discs in the car, also putting me in a good place.

Also: did not realize until this morning that there are some 200+ live shows of theirs on the Live Music Archive on archive.org. You can pretty much follow their II+III tour all the way through.

I'll skip over the stuff everybody knows and say that "New Roman Times" (the song, not the whole album) is great. I didn't even realize they'd made an album in the '00s until I found it at a dollar store a few months ago.

Got really excited about that archive.org thing, but the show I saw them do in '87 (I think) wasn't there. Rats. I recall a bunch of Zeppelin covers, and it was probably one of the top 10 shows I've seen. II+III was one of a handful of albums I've run into in my life where I pretty much locked myself in a room and played it nonstop for about a week...

I once told David Lowery that Camper Van Beethoven is so good I had everything they ever did on my iPod. "Even 'Tusk'" he asked, incredulously. No, I conceded. Not "Tusk."

the show I saw them do in '87 (I think) wasn't there. Rats. I recall a bunch of Zeppelin covers, and it was probably one of the top 10 shows I've seen.

I saw them in November '87 and yeah it was top ten material. I have a decent soundboard cassette boot that I still haven't gotten around to ripping. The Led Zep action can be found on the Camper Vantiquities CD as 'SP 37957 Medley".

I saw em on the reunion tour in Philly and just as they started Tusk Lowery complained that someone from the crowd had sprayed mace in his face (?!). They left and didn't come back...

Lowery's letter regarding the incident: http://pwblogger.com/articles/5098/columns--letters

I missed that -- thanks!

New CVB coming! "La Costa Perdida." First listen reveals it to me as perhaps the dope-iest, most psych-y thing they've done since the self-titled third disc.

http://www.429records.com/sites/429records/429details/d_campervanbeethoven.asp

Artists that just touch you so many times over the course of your life.

Interesting! I'll have to check this out. I couldn't get into the last one, but hey! It's been eight years. Could be an anything. They were my absolute favorite band when I was in high school which was after they had broken up and the albums were a real passion in the ass to track down.

pain in the ass

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/