The Camper Van Beethoven Albums Poll

Great live band! Or at least they were in 1989, dunno about these days. Probably better!

They are more pro now, slightly less character, but the songs remain the same: awesome.

They are the only reunited band I have enjoyed live

Saw them live in 2003 and they were everything I wanted. They have a decent collection of recent shows up on archive.org

https://archive.org/details/CamperVanBeethoven

I saw them in the late 80s. They were ok, they sounded a little bit like the American Pogues at the time. They mixed several styles with a focus on folkrock and punk.

I saw them at the Knitting Factory in New York right after they first reunited and they were pretty good. I have not seen any of their shows in the subsequent ten or so years. It is kind of lame that they always tour with cracker as well, because I don't want to see cracker. Also, I missed camper van Beethoven drummer, who barely plays with them these days.

I saw them in like '87, and they were a killer live band with Led Zep covers zinging here and there, and the best version of Pink Floyd this side of Syd Barrett. Probably one of the top live bands I've ever seen, especially given that they didn't have any gimmicks/light shows/etc.

I'll add that Key Lime Pie winning this poll is just insane. The self-titled album is one of the best things in the history of R&R.

Huh. One of my favorite bands of all time, but self-titled might be my least favorite of their formative albums.

I think they were pretty fully formed by self titled. They were touring on that album when I first saw them, and if ever there was a band that was just firing on all cylinders, they were it. Like I mention the Led Zep covers, but they were doing *great* Led Zep covers, when other indie bands...weren't. And we all know their Floyd cover slays the original. I was kind of knocked out; front row at Bard.

Camper Van Beethoven:

Waka
Pictures of Matchstick Men (Status Quo cover)
Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China
The History of Utah
White Riot (The Clash cover)
Wasted (Black Flag cover)
Shut Us Down
R 'n' R Uzbekistan
Take the Skinheads Bowling
I Live in LA
L'Aguardiente
Northern California Girls
James River (Cracker cover)
Tania
Eye of Fatima (Parts I & II)
Too High for the Love In
All Her Favorite Fruit
S.P. 37957 Medley

Key Lime Pie is by far my favorite. In my youth I was really pushing to name a band I was in after that album. The others didn't go for it.

Cracker Whiskey A Go Go (Dec. 30, 2016):

Loser (Jerry Garcia cover)
Almond Grove
One Fine Day
Gimme One More Chance
Where Have Those Days Gone
California Country Boy
Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)
Redneck Mother (Ray Wylie Hubbard cover)
Wedding Day
Low
Euro-Trash Girl
Someday
Beautiful
Get Off This

Encore:
King of Bakersfield

i actually liked Cracker better. CVB seemed a bit more gimmicky and old, everyone had gray hair. Cracker came on and seemed to have some youth on more profession to their set, totally different guys outside the singer. i just liked the dad rock stuff better this night but my friend liked CVB better. so go figure.

plus Cracker opened with Loser and it lasted like 20 minutes and totally rocked, but most people left as it was really late.

sorry for bumping this thread instead of today but i already had CVB set list on this thread.

old, everyone had gray hair.

Join the club! These kids today, with their Cracker and youth ... bah.

Show was great, people were indeed old. We had the same setlist you posted, more or less. The medley at the end was half "Hava Nageela," with a bit of "Kashmir" and "Dazed and Confused," and the opening harmonics of "Roundabout" thrown in (which made some dude behind me yell "do it!!!"). Best was me listening in the back toward the beginning of the set, struggling to see the band and noting that Frank had put some extra effort into playing drums like the album. And then David introduced everyone, and ... it was Chris Pederson back on drums this tour! He lives in Australia and rarely plays with the group these days. He's one of my fave drummers of all time, so it was such a treat to listen to him, if not see him.

Whoah nice!

"She Divines Water" is a classic too; a spiraling song that I don't understand literally ("which was Zion")

Other times they sampled/repurposed their own work: on II and III, one of the songs (is it “Circles”?) is the another of their songs (is it “Ambiguity Song”?) backwards, with some overdubs. I think there’s a version of “Processional” or “The Fool” with lyrics, under a different title. I think there were a bunch more examples, but I haven’t listened to them seriously in probably 20 years & my auld memory is shot.

"Five Sticks" uses a different (drum-free) mix of "Ambiguity Song" played backwards with overdubbed (forwards) acoustic guitar and tambourine.
"Circles" uses the chorus of "Oh No!" ("Oh no, here it comes again, that funny feeling") played backwards.
"Border Ska" (instrumental) and "Heart" (which has vocals) are both ska songs with very similar guitar melodies, if that's what you're thinking of.
The beginning of "Stairway to Heavan" is a somber version of "Processional."

Ernest comes through! Another one that comes to mind is the they recycled some of the background vocals from “Peace and Love” into “Eye of Fatima Part II” (“Cowboys on acid”, “No-one ever conquered Wyoming”).

It’s actually pretty astonishing how productive they were during their few years together the first time. Five LPs, an EP, enough outtakes and B-sides to make a whole other LP, not to mention 2 Monks of Doom records and 3 albums of Camper Van Chadbourne stuff, was all written & recorded between ‘84 and ‘89.

"We're All Wasted and We're Wasting All Your Time" features backwards stuff from "Devil Song" and "Take the Skinheads Bowling."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-kguFNwwko

It's on that "Camper Van Beethoven Is Dead. Long Live Camper Van Beethoven" comp, which is itself pretty confusing, since some of it is old and some of it is new, but it's not always clear which is which. For example, this track features parts of "Devil Song" backwards, but "Devil Song" didn't show up until "Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart." But this "Wasted" mishmash also appears on the reissue of "Telephone Free Landslide Victory." So who knows.