Camper Van Beethoven: Cigarettes & Carrot Juice : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

In the fecund college-rock scene of the 1980s, Camper Van Beethoven were the experimenters, unafraid to delve into collisions of ska beats and gypsy fiddling and songs with titles such as "The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon." They were also funny as all get-out: sarcastic, free-associative and just plain goofy. Those qualities are in abundance on this box set of their first three indie albums, an outtake collection and a newly released live album. Camper's debut, Telephone Free Landslide Victory, may be the best thing here: The instrumentals are fresh and eclectic, the poppier songs such as "Take the Skinheads Bowling" are sharp and funny. Their next two records had good-natured gems such as "Good Guys and Bad Guys" coexisting alongside ever-weirder experiments. David Lowery defined the Camper aesthetic on "Shut Us Down": "I got a 'lectric guitar and half a bottle of warm beer/I got some funny ideas about what sounds good."

TOM NAWROCKI
(RS 914 – January 3, 2003)