Let’s go camping with five discs of Camper Van Beethoven!
Kronomyth 7.0: Camper Van Box Set.
The faithful, feasting on the crumbs of Cracker and Krummenacher, were finally treated to a Camper Van Beethoven boxed set. Only it was 80 poor scent straight repackages of their first three albums, the catch-all Camper Vantiques and an unreleased live disc from mostly 1990. If you own the a-four mentioned fourmal releases, Greatest Hits Played Faster isn’t much of a carrot for fourty bucks. However, if (like me) you picked up the Campers after “Eye of Fatima” (and, really, how could you resist that song?), then Cigarettes & Carrot Juice fills in the cracks nicely.
Honestly, the first two discs didn’t do a whole lot for me; too many instrumentals and not enough pop. “Where The Hell Is Bill?,” “Opie Rides Again/Club Med Sucks,” “(We’re A) Bad Trip,” “No More Bullshit” and “Down And Out” stand out. The third disc is much better, beginning with the classic “Good Guys & Bad Guys” and careening into “Jo Stalin’s Cadillac,” “We Saw Jerry’s Daughter,” “Still Wishing To Course” and the bizarre “Peace & Love.” Camper Vantiques (the fourth disc) follows in the same vein, including a great cover of “Photograph” and a couple of instrumentals that for the life of me sound like Penguin Café Orchestra. The live disc sticks pretty close to the originals, focusing mostly on Revolutionary Sweetheart and Key Lime Pie.
The Santa Cruz Years underscores the band’s debt to such psychedelic pioneers as Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd and The Doors. If they’d simply swapped out the last two discs for the remaining studio albums, you’d have a nifty collector’s set on your hands. Instead, Cigarettes & Carrot Juice leaves the two most accessible Camper albums out in the cold, just to be cranky I suppose. Personally, I’d tell you to save your money for their last three albums, then weigh the options of owning their third twice.
Disc One: Telephone Free Landslide Victory
1. Border Ska
2. The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon (David Lowery/David McDaniel)
3. Wasted (Greg Ginn/Keith Morris)
4. Yanqui Go Home
5. Oh No!
6. 9 of Disks
7. Payed Vacation: Greece
8. Where The Hell Is Bill?
9. Vladivostock
10. Skinhead Stomp
11. Tina
12. Take The Skinheads Bowling
13. Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China
14. I Don’t See You (David Lowery/Chris Molla/Eric Laing)
15. Balalaika Gap (David Lowery)
16. Opie Rides Again – Club Med Sucks
17. Ambiguity Song
All songs on Disc One written by Victor Krummenacher/David Lowery/Chris Molla/Jonathan Segel unless noted
Disc Two: II & III
1. Abundance
2. Cowboys From Hollywood
3. Sad Lovers Waltz
4. Turtlehead
5. I Love Her All The Time (Robert Bertelli/Kim Gordon/Thurston Moore/Lee Ranaldo)
6. No Flies On Us
7. Down And Out
8. No Krugerrands For David
9. (Don’t You Go To) Goleta
10. 4 Year Plan
11. (We’re A) Bad Trip
12. Circles
13. Dust Pan
14. Sometimes
15. Chain of Circumstance
16. ZZ Top Goes To Egypt
17. Cattle (Reversed)
18. Form Another Stone
19. No More Bullshit
All songs on Disc Two written by Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Molla/Jonathan Segel unless noted
Disc Three: Camper Van Beethoven
1. Good Guys & Bad Guys
2. Joe Stalin’s Cadillac
3. Five Sticks
4. Lulu Land (Paul MacKinney)
5. Une Fois
6. We Saw Jerry’s Daughter
7. Surprise Truck
8. Stairway To Heavan (sic)
9. The History of Utah
10. Still Wishing To Course
11. We Love You
12. Hoe Yourself Down
14. Peace & Love
15. Folly
16. Interstellar Overdrive
17. Shut Us Down
All songs on Disc Three written by Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Pedersen/Jonathan Segel unless noted
Disc Four: Camper Vantiquities
1. Heart (David Lowery)
2. Never Go Back (David Lowery/Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/Chris Pedersen/Jonathan Segel)
3. Seven Languages (David Lowery/Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/Chris Pedersen/Jonathan Segel)
4. Axe Murderer Song (David Lowery)
5. SP 37597
6. Crossing Over (Victor Krummenacher/David Lowery/Chris Molla/Jonathan Segel)
7. Guardian Angels (David Lowery/Chris Molla)
8. I’m Not Like Everybody Else (Dave Davies)
9. A.C. Cover (David Lowery/Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/Chris Pedersen/Jonathan Segel)
10. Porpoise Mouth (Joe MacDonald)
11. (We Workers Do Not Understand) Modern Art (David Lowery/Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/Chris Pedersen/Jonathan Segel)
12. We Eat Your Children (David Lowery/Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/Chris Pedersen/Jonathan Segel)
13. Six more Miles To The Graveyard (Hank Williams)
14. Ice Cream Everyday (Eric Curkendall/Chris Hart/David Lowery/Chris Molla)
15. Processional
16. Photograph (George Harrison/Richard Starkey)
17. Om Eye (Sweet Isthmus) (Victor Krummenacher/David Lowery/Chris Molla/Jonathan Segel)
Disc Five: GREATEST HITS PLAYED FASTER
1. All Her Favorite Fruits (Orchestral) (Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Pedersen)
2. Sweethearts (Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Pedersen)
3. Tania (Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Pedersen/Jonathan Segel)
4. Eyes of Fatima Pts. I & II (Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Pedersen/Jonathan Segel)
5. My Baby Just Got Outta Jail (David Lowery)
6. Borderline (Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Pedersen)
7. Turquoise Jewelry (Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Pedersen/Jonathan Segel)
8. She Divines Water (Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Pedersen/Jonathan Segel)
9. L’Aguardiente (David Immergluck/Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Pedersen)
10. Life Is Grand (Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Pedersen/Jonathan Segel)
11. When I Win The Lottery (Victor Krummenacher/Greg Lisher/David Lowery/Chris Pedersen)
12. James River (David Lowery)
13. One of These Days
The Players
Morgan Fichter (violin, vox), David Immergluck (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel, vox), Victor Krummenacher (bass, vox), Greg Lisher (guitar), David Lowery (guitar, vox), Chris Pedersen (drums), Jonathan Segel (violin, guitar, vox, keyboards) with Anthony Guess (drums) and Chris Molla (guitar, vocals, drums). Disc 5 engineered by Woody Nuss; post production by John Morand.
The Pictures
Layout by J.J. Jephosephat. Photography by Victor Krummenacher, Jonathan Segel, M. at, Edie Winograde. Disc 5 cover illustration by Spain.
The Plastic
Released as 5CD boxed set on November 5, 2002 in the US (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 247).
