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Closing in on 20 years after their formation, Camper Van Beethoven proudly announce the release of a box set entitled "Cigarettes & Carrot Juice: The Santa Cruz Years." "Cigarettes and Carrot Juice" contains 4 albums of classic recordings dating primarily from 1984-1987, the prime years of the bands existence in Santa Cruz, California, a sleepy coastal college town which proved to be an idyllic place for the prolific young band to woodshed their talents. Camper Van Beethoven are looked upon as one of the seminal "college rock" bands of the 1980s, predating the 1990s wave of micro-marketed alternative rock. A wildly diverse mixture of personalities and music, "Cigarettes and Carrot Juice" features the work of a unique band as they captured their voice on outings for small independents such as Independent Project Records, Rough Trade, and their own Pitch-A-Tent label.
Camper Van Beethoven are looked upon as one of the seminal "College rock" bands of the 1980’s, predating the 1990’s wave of micro-marketed alternative rock. A wildly diverse mixture of personalities and music, Cigarettes and Carrot Juice features the work of a unique band as they captured their voice on releases for small independents such as Independent Project Records, Rough Trade, and their own Pitch-A-Tent Records.
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By P. Couture (Santa Cruz, CA USA)
This box gives us the first three CVB albums as originally released. Recent reissues have new track sequences with bonus material mixed in. This may not be a terrible idea, but I don't plan on buying them.
The Vantiquities disc is an interesting collection of outtakes etc between both sides of the "Vampire Can Mating Oven" EP (1987). The latest version of Vantiquities (2004) adds five demos from the "Beloved/Pie" era, but sound quality is muddy throughout. Maybe the master tapes got lost. The disc in this box sounds MUCH better.
The live album is a little disappointing. I saw them in 2002 (here in Santa Cruz) and when one of the songs broke down, David said: "Actually we're playing this stuff better than when we were a real band." True. They've gotten a lot better since 1990.
This set is a great way to get the first three albums in their original form, with the original artwork, at a decent price. Vantiquities is a fun sampler of good-to-great leftovers. The live album is solid but no substitute for hearing them live. Five stars.
[In case you were wondering: "II&III" contains the faster/polished version of "We're a Bad Trip". The earlier take is now a bonus track on the 04 reissue.]
By G. M. Guyer (Denver, CO USA)
My wife tried ordering this item thru a Amazon listed seller (caiman) December the 10th it was due to ship out in 3 days (for a x-mas present nonetheless), by end of January it had not shipped. I cancelled our order with caiman and tried to order thru AMAZON itself the same day Feb 3rd i believe. Here it is March the 20th. No nothing , just an endless extending wait. Apparently AMAZON & their sellers feel they can list items they dont , wont and cant stock. Dont waste your time. I just cancelled my order and bought it on E-BAY , it will ship tommorow. Forget Amazon, or unless you like being blown off endlessly by email with no LIVE person to talk to, then by all means order this thru Amazon (or Caiman!). I prefer to spend my money else-where, this has really soured me.
By
5 great CD's with great songs like "Crossing Over" or "Mao Reminices About his Days in Southern China". The songs on Greatest Hits Played Faster, the live CD, sound better than the recordings on Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart or Key Lime Pie. It is relatively cheap for a 5 CD set.
By
In my wallet I keep a "want list" of music and movies for all of those times I find myself in a store and can't remember that album or movie I wanted. One of the first entries is "Camper Van Beethoven--First three albums". Finally, this wonderful boxed set is available. The collection includes, as stated, all of the band's work from the Santa Cruz years. The CD cases are cardboard miniature reproductions of the original album jackets and the fourth and fifth discs are rarities and a live disc. If you remember the fun of their music and haven't heard it for a while, get this set. It brought back memories of a less responsible time and the music, it seems, hasn't been remastered leaving the vocals slightly buried which was always a part of their sound I liked. They could entertain you with light ska instrumentals or rock with catchy guitar riffs. The extensive liner notes are interesting too, except the part where the writer tries to defend the band's selling out as not selling out but simply wanting to sign to a bigger label to make their music more available. No problem here with selling out if you don't change your music to do it; and that's exactly what they did. I feel their major label stuff just isn't as fun as the early stuff..... and Cracker was horrible. If you remember why you liked Camper Van Beethoven in the first place, buy this set.
By
Last year a friend of mine invited me to see Camper Van Beethoven on their recent limited reunion tour, and although I only had Key Lime Pie, their last full album of new studio material, I agreed. While still a pretty good record, their set proved "Key Lime Pie" to just scratch the surface of their musical diversity. Basic guitar pop songs would rest beside russian can can ska instrumentals, straight country ballads, hardcore punk satire and power-book enhanced Fleetwood Mac covers. Needless to say, I was intrigued by their earlier releases, and the next time I had enough cash to blow, I found myself the proud owner of this box set. Although the first disk is the best in my opinion, all three of the original albums show a creative, clever, unique, and musically talented band at work. In addition, the rarities colection camper vantiquities, despite being a compilation of 3 years worth of material, doesn't feel any more or less cohesive than the rest of their albums, a credit to their freewheeling style, and is far less mixed than one would expect from such a compilation. Finally disc five is a live album mostly drawn from what was to be their final tour in europe, which focuses on material from their two major label albums. While a bit dissapointingly slow for something called "Greatest Hits Played Faster", it still captures some fine perofmances of the band, and is a nice extra, though probably not something you'd want to buy the whole box set for if you already own the rest of the albums. All in all, if you're curious about the band or just want to hear some challenging but catchy diverse rock music, this is a great place to start.
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