Camper Van Beethoven Get 'Box Set' Treatment

First garage makes a comeback, then post-punk and now...surrealist absurdist folk? Yes, Camper Van Beethoven are stepping back into the fray with the release of a five-CD box set, titled Cigarettes and Carrot Juice: The Santa Cruz Years (SpinArt). The title comes from the band's nick-name for the town that was their homebase. "Yeah, that's [cigarettes and carrot juice] kind of the hippie-punk thing of Santa Cruz," said CVB leader David Lowery. "But, that was also our slang for it; a rhyme like cockney slang: cigarettes and carrot juice."

The set, out Nov. 5, is a collection of CVB's pre-Virgin Records recordings released on Pitch-A-Tent, three of which have been out of print since 1994, plus one album of live material.

Included are Telephone Free Landslide Victory, II & III, Camper Van Beethoven, Camper Vantiquities, plus Greatest Hits Played Faster, a collection of never-before-released live material mostly recorded in Europe in April 1990. Included are "Eye of Fatima pts I & II," "My Baby Just Got Outta Jail," "She Divines Water," "When I Win The Lottery" and nine others.

CVB formed in Redlands, Calif., in 1983, then relocated that same year to Santa Cruz, a seaside community/college town 70 miles south of San Francisco. Lowery points out that it was CVB's isolation in "cigarettes and carrot juice" that aided Camper in creating their own sound and not feel pressured in to imitate the music trends of their day. This pitted the band against the post-punk scene in San Francisco. "SF bands were a lot trendier," recalled Lowery. "They changed more with every current of style. The Santa Cruz bands were anti-trendy. We pretended to be hippies, to be uncool. We identified with a subset of SST bands, like the Minutemen or the Meat Puppets — bands that were anti-fashion."

This is evident with the band's first album Telephone Free Landslide Victory, released in 1985, which became a college radio staple with the single "Take the Skinheads Bowling."

CVB gained notoriety for its ability to switch gears from rock to ska to country to polka to even Eastern European folk, a mix the band called "surrealist absurdist folk." Perhaps most indicative of CVB's own brand of humor were their quirky covers, ranging from Black Flag's "Wasted" to Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive."

It was their ability to draw together varied influences, matched with their offbeat wit and trademark violin, that made Camper a favorite among both the college set and the critics during their heyday in the '80s. CVB's first three albums could often be found on critics' Top 10 lists, including the Village Voice's "Pazz and Jop Poll." In 1989, they topped the modern rock charts with "Pictures of Matchstick Men" off of Key Lime Pie (Virgin). Over the years the group toured with bands ranging from The Minutemen and the Dead Kennedys to R.E.M. and 10,000 Maniacs.

After four albums with Pitch-A-Tent and two more with Virgin, Camper Van Beethoven officially broke up in 1990. Frontman David Lowery started the popular and ongoing alt-rock group Cracker, while the other members — including guitarist Greg Lisher, guitarist Chris Pederson, violinist Jonathan Segal, bassist Victor Krummenacher and drummer Chris Molla — played in the Monks of Doom, Hieronymus Firebrain and/or various solo projects.

CVB's willingness to experiment influenced a number of artists that came in their wake, and, generally, helped create the "anything-goes" mentality of some of today's indie rock artists. One can draw a direct line from Camper Van Beethoven to Beck's collage aesthetic or Stephen Malkmus' nonchalant vocal delivery. Lowery recounted how on one of Cracker's first tours, they played with Uncle Tupelo. During their downtime, Jeff Tweedy would grill Lowery on the mechanics of Camper tunes. "He was always, 'How did you do that and how did you do that,'" said Lowery.

Camper has also inspired current jam bands as well. "I think we had a big west coast influence," he said. "Jam bands seem to really like us. We [Cracker] toured with Dave Mathews because someone in the band, maybe Dave, really liked Camper." Now, Lowery has upcoming collaborations with such bands as Leftover Salmon and Moe due in large part to Camper's influence on them. "I don't think the hippies realized that we were making fun of them," he said. "The funny thing is that after a while, we became that."

The box set marks a busy year for a band that broke up over a decade ago. In the summer 2002, Camper Van Beethoven played reunion shows in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. While the music of CVB has remained the same, Lowery has found that the tastes of Camper fans have changed. "The important songs are different now," Lowery said. "People seem to forget we had some hits, some songs played on MTV. It was those songs people were excited about. Now, songs like 'All Her Favorite Fruit' get people really excited or 'Sad Lover's Waltz.' People are a lot more knowledgeable; they're really delving into the albums."

Camper played the shows to support the release of their cover album Tusk (Pitch-A-Tent), a song-for-song cover of Fleetwood Mac's infamous follow-up to Rumours. Tusk is not a new recording for CVB; rather, it is a freshly unearthed recording the band worked on back in 1987. Lowery is quick to point out that fans should not dismiss the album. "Some fans seem to think that it's a throw away record," he said, "but there is some great stuff on it."

Lowery confirmed that Camper will be playing more shows in 2003, most likely touring in the Midwest and then heading across the Atlantic for shows in London and Paris. As for recording a new album, the band has talked about it, but there are no formal plans. — Carlo Espinas [Friday, Sept. 27, 2002]