Categories
NEWS

Club Med Still Sucks

Camper Van Beethoven is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a string of East Coast performances. We can’t give you a bite-sized new-media recap of the greatness of the Santa Cruz, Calif., band and all that it meant in the predawn of the alternative-rock era (this is in or around the ’80s). We’re not even interested in explaining this post’s headline. Maybe some other, longer day. Maybe over a pitcher of Tom Collinses with frontman David Lowery, who went on to some commercial success with Cracker.

But we can point you in the right direction: Camper Van Beethoven issued a greatest-hits record in June, the 18-track Popular Songs Of Great Enduring Strength And Beauty (Cooking Vinyl). After the jump, a quick assessment of the compilation and dates for the anniversary mini-tour.

Take a look at Popular Songs over there. That’s Lassie on the moon. This collection, of course, contains the party-starter that is “Take The Skinheads Bowling.” Camper Van Beethoven fools around with ska and folk, but it doesn’t suck. Toward the end of the record, you get the strange, romantic, heart-wringing slow-dance number “All Her Favorite Fruit” back to back with the weed-smokin’ California country jam “Good Guys And Bad Guys.” There’s a song called “ZZ Top Goes To Egypt,” and it’s an instrumental that sounds like beards and pyramids. The band had to re-record five late-’80s-era tracks for this collection because former label Virgin wouldn’t sell the rights to them, the likely result of a 2002 pissing match between Lowery and Virgin over a Cracker greatest-hits album. But that’s another story.

Tour Dates:
1.07.09  World Live Café  Philadelphia, PA
1.08.09  The State Theater  Falls Church, VA
1.09.09  Bowery Ballroom  NYC
1.10.09  Bowery Ballroom  NYC