Customer Reviews

Camper Van Beethoven is Dead. Long Live Camper Van Beethoven.

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Many of these songs had been included in the band's live shows and perhaps didn't make it onto an lp due to the band's break-up. But what we have here is no mere outtakes compilation, but a fully developed and cohesive new album. The campers were not content to string just any old tracks together, but worked hard at remastering and remixing old tracks, adding new elements and arranging a track order that flows very well. All of the classic CVB elements are included here from masterful ethnic dance tunes ("L'aguardiente"&"Balalaika Gap(demo)") to wacked out ska with backwards backing vocals ("We're all wasted") Zappa-esque insanity ("Who are the Brain Police") beautiful Key Lime Pie style psychedelia-laced ballads ("Tom Flower's", "Klondike"&"All Her Favorite Fruit") and the definitive S.P.37957/Hava Nagila/Dazed and Confused medley...plus more songs that no CVB fan should be without.
CVB is Dead is a much better effort than the seemingly thrown together "Camper Vantiquities" collection. Hopefully there will be more projects like this offered from the band. Camper Van Beethoven was just too good and too unique to be forgotten or ignored. It seems that the band members still feel the same way, having been disbanded for a decade there is no band quite like them.

Careful not to bilk their loyal cult, Camper Van Beethoven put out five records from 1985-1989, and one posthumous rarities collection in 1993. That's it. Eleven years after their last full-length comes CVB Is Dead, Long Live CVB, a set of live tracks, oddities, and deconstructed snippets that's not exactly for fans of the band. Though CVBID, LLCVB shares the surreal pan-cultural experimentalism of the early stuff, it's not the work of an operative band but mad studio scientists on an inspired weekend bender. Weird thing is, the disparate elements cohere, so that what starts as odds-and-ends comes to organic fruition, the Mothers of Invention (covered here) dabbling in world music, say, or Captain Beefheart produced by Brian Eno. It's the damnedest CD. It is and isn't Camper Van Beethoven. If you want to know about them, check out Telephone Free Landslide Victory or CVB III. If you like discordant, avant-garde music, check this out. All others, you've been forewarned.

Interesting album for camperphiles. Great addition for anyone wishing to round out their collection. The album gives an insight into a live cvb performance with the standout track for me being all her favourite fruit(orchestral version). The sounds of violin etc are great to have back, missing for much of the time on Cracker. (No hidden tracks on this one!) Probably not the best example for new listeners, I would recommend "key lime pie" for anyone interested in getting on board!

If you are a Camper Van Beethoven fan, I would recommend getting this. If you aren't a fan, I would recommend getting another Camper album first. This is not exactly their most accessible work, but it IS their first new release in years. The album is arranged so that one song often seems to flow into another, making it difficult to review any one particular song, but I would say that two of the highlights are the orchestral version of "All Her Favorite Fruit" and the "SPwhatever Medley," which includes a stirring violin-led rendition of "Hava Nagila." Also in the mix are instrumentals, experiments with backwards tracks and the like (although calling them "experiments" might be amiss for a band that used such techniques so frequently), and other oddities. This is probably my least favourite of the Camper Van Beethoven albums (out of the ones I own, anyway; why can't "II & III" and the self-titled album go back into print?), but it is still a wise buy for a fan.

It's nice to hear something new from CVB (it's been almost a decade since Key Lime Pie.) This new disc offers primarily stuff you won't have heard before, including a wonderful All Her Favourite Fruit played with an orchestra, Who are the Brain Police? (sounding strangely non Chadbourne-ish) and others. For fans it's a must. For everyone else it's a chance to hear a band who was never afraid to try new things (nothing clears a room faster than a polka) or poke fun at the status quo.

No, not Status Quo, the band. Status quo, the expression. Buy this disc if you're a son of the chief of police, or a trout swimming upstream.

While not liekly to win over any new fans, Camper Van Beethoven is Dead, Long Live Camper Van Beethoven is sure to please most hardcore CVB fans and completists. As stated in another Amazon.com review, it's an album of odds 'n ends left from CVB career which were too good to be left wasted, so they are tied together through digital editing and/or tape looping into a complex whole, meant to be listened to from start to finish, reminding me of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother or Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark's Dazzle Ships in structural style (this is meant as a compliment). For me, the highlights are the orchestral version of "All Her Favourite Fruit", the cover of Frank Zappa & the Mother's "Who are the Brain Police?", "Staying at Home with the Girls in the Morning (Vienna Club Mix)", S.P.37957 Medley, and the album ender "We're All Wasted and We're Wasting All Your Time".

This cool, thoughtful collection is a must for CVB fans - reminds me of how great they were and makes me look forward to the upcoming Cracker/CVB shows in September!

This CD, though not as cohesive as some albums, really gives a great overview of CVB. It is amazing that they were able to make this stuff sound like a new album. The version of All Her Favorite Fruit is unbelievable. The album reminds me of what Beck is trying to do today minus the too cool lyrics. Anyone that wants to hear a great CD should start with this.

Although I only got to see them once--on their last tour, their song titles, dead pan humor, and music have always resonated with me. I really like this cd, particularly S.P. 37957 and We're All Wasted. As a whole, this cd is not up to the calibur of Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart, but it will do just fine. So, Camperphiles, give into the quirkiness!