From The Desk Of Camper Van Beethoven’s Jonathan Segel: Pure Pop, For Now And Then People

La Costa Perdida (429) kicks off Camper Van Beethoven’s 30th-anniversary year amidst an orchestrated (if deserving) surge in recognition for the group—everything from Paul Rudd donning a vintage Camper concert tee in the film This Is 40 to glowing quotes from members of R.E.M. and the Meat Puppets. The LP is CVB’s first album since 2004’s New Roman Times and was mostly recorded at multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Segel’s Oakland home studio a year prior to his move to Sweden. “The process was similar, perhaps, to the recording of Camper’s third album, in that we could experiment and had time to work on things,” says Segel. “The first two CVB albums were recorded in a weekend.” Segel will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on the band.

Segel: Lest you think I’m a total weirdo (or in spite of, I guess), I would like to say that I love pop music, by which I mean power pop, really. But smart. There’s a lot of it out there, of course, ever since those darn Beatles came to the USA. What’s funny is that people have really attached to the style and honed it and carved it like a jewel. There have been some bands that manage to create gems in nearly every song, like Big Star, XTC, the New Pornographers and maybe even Aimee Mann or MGMT. And yet, still so many unknown to the masses.

I could undoubtably write essays on any of Scott Miller’s bands: Alternate Learning, Game Theory, the Loud Family. In the end I think I like the Loud Family the best, where even he had worked his methods into their potentially quintessential forms. The lyrics are incredible, simultaneously convoluted and base, wordplay that goes beyond wit, beyond merely clever, to intelligent.

Likewise, John Vanderslice really has been incredible, ever since MK Ultra! (The band, I mean.)

Beyond every one of these artists I just mentioned, there are more that are little-known gems. Here’s a few:

1) The High Strung’s Get The Guests
This is a pop trio; incredibly hook-powered songs played simply and surely with a shaky vocal. Some of these songs stick in my head for days, or come back months later.

2) Gleaners’ Blessed
A short-lived band of New Yorkers, very Beatles but in their own special way of course.

3) Dealership’s TV Highway To The Stars
Some Berkeley kids; I think they were undergrads when I saw them play at the Stork Club. Typical of the post-’90s pop, a chick bass player. (Hey, I had one in Jack & Jill.) The songs are sweet and beautiful, with lovely melodic hooks.

4) Cardigans’ Super Extra Gravity
I include this because it wasn’t really out in the states, despite their previous fame. Oh, fickle fortune! It’s actually less pop than their early albums and way more raw. Beautiful recording, great songs.

5) Father Bloopy’s Ginger, Baby
Well, this is a weird one. Somebody gave it to me when I was working at a bookstore in S.F. It’s a guy from South Florida is all I can deduce.

6) In the instrumental world, John Moremen’s Flotation Device shows off his pop skills where he unbelievably plays everything himself! Crazy. He normally sings songs on his own as well, but he also plays with the Orange Peels and Roy Loney!

7) Have you heard Doug Hilsinger and Caroleen Beatty’s ENOrchestra doing all of Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy? It’s phenomenal. Doug’s guitar playing and arrangements are sparkling, and Caroleen’s vocals are perfect for a new reading of this album. It’s amazing.

8) Bob Hund: well, anything by them, really.
Bob Hund is awesome. They have been around for 20 years or so, but they sing in Swedish, so nobody gets them outside of Sweden. This is sad, so sad in fact that they made two albums in English under the name Bergman Rock. These are great also. The thing is, when you hear Bob Hund, you’ll realize how much every Swedish band since then that has become famous in the U.S. stole from them. The Hives? That guy sounds like he’s directly trying to copy Thomas Öberg’s delivery, but can’t actually write intelligent lyrics. The Sounds? Well, they think they got their sound from being retro-’80s, but Bob Hund started with this keyboards and guitars. Bob Hund is like a modern Monochrome Set, but rougher, in a post-Pere Ubu and Pixies sort of way. They are a very eccentric pop band. Every person who listens to rock music should know this band.

Video after the jump.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bIeYeiUqjk