Ace Simple As That
For many people Camper Van Beethoven will be like a distant childhood memory, a long forgotten kiss or a weekend in Leeds. They just happened; then sort of went away again only to be recalled randomly, briefly and hideously infrequently by they’re loyal but sparse fanbase. Listening to Popular Songs Of Great Strength And Enduring Beauty you can’t help but ponder why this ramshackle, mildly insane bunch didn’t blow the whole alt-rock US indie scene wide open when they were at their 80’s peak.
This is a treasure trove of their best work, none of it bad, some of it good, most of it excellent. In fact taken as a career CV only Guided By Voices and R.E.M can really claim to have bettered the group at the art of US art-rock.
For starters ‘Take The Skinheads Bowling’ has got to be one of the cheekiest, most listenable politically loaded songs of the last fifty years. On ‘Opic Rides Again/Club Med Sucks’ the band show off a lethally energetic grungy, punky sound far removed from the more radio friendly efforts found elsewhere on the compilation. As far as the other standouts go I can’t stop listening to the violin madness of ‘ZZ Top Goes To Egypt’ and opener ‘The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon’ as both are more addictive than water after a week in the gobi dessert with only full fat goats milk to drink. It’s only when the songs at the tail end of this album come on that things slip down a gear, but that’s not to say that individually these aren’t pretty decent efforts in their own right.
It was in conversation with Silver Jews frontman Dave Berman that I really came to appreciate the relevance this group had, not just on their record buying fans, but on the more adventurous US musicians of the last twenty odd years. Influential, tuneful, witty, lyrically rich, musically decent and generally marvellous this is a fantastic collection from one of the worlds most underrated groups. Don’t bother buying it though, just take the hit and spend your hard earned shillings on their back catalogue you’ll not even be slightly disappointed.