Thursday, January 09, 2003
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Listening Station

Camper Van Beethoven

Cigarettes & Carrot Juice: The Santa Cruz Years Box Set

Camper Van Beethoven might not be the only band that could sing about "the mind of Ronald Reagan," but it's probably the only band that could do it in a song called "Sweethearts." Which throws us right into some of the most perplexing questions about this paragon of '80s alt/indie rock: Were they joking? And, if so, when? And if not, what were they doing? And do I like it?

Certainly, a lot of us did like it, and Cigarettes & Carrot Juice gives you most of what you might have missed in one package. It includes CVB's first three albums; Camper Vantiquities, a collection of outtakes and b-sides that was released in 1993; and Greatest Hits Played Faster, a previously unavailable live recording from the band's 1990 European tour. The live album gives a taste of some of the best songs from the two albums not included in this set, including a gorgeous version of "All Her Favorite Fruit."

This is the band at its earliest and most inventive. Famous for genre-bending and -blending, these California nerds combined poppy, punk-inflected rock music with influences as diverse as country, ska, psychedelic, klezmer and a host of others from all corners of the mother-loving globe. This and its oddball lyrics ("Take the Skinheads Bowling" being the best known) often caused the band to be regarded as a novelty act. But the work collected here demonstrates that it was up to something more, although it's tough to say just what exactly it was.

For me, the joy is in the ambiguity, the impossibility of figuring out whether there's a joke there, and whether you're in on it or not. Like this lyric--is it beautiful, or stupid, or sentimental, or what? "And on a mission over China/ The lady opens up her arms/ The flowers bloom where you have placed them/ And the lady smiles.../ Just like Mom."--Dan Ionascu

Joseph Arthur

Redemption's Son

It's a desolate world singer/songwriter/visual artist Joseph Arthur inhabits. From his bleak musings and ghostly compositions, to the earthy and barren artwork that graces each album release, Arthur tackles the woes of the human spirit from a perspective that implies a necessary isolation brought upon himself or another person. On his latest album, Redemption's Son, the acclaimed (and underexposed) musician puts less of an emphasis on himself, broadening his scope to include the rest of the world. While the soul-searching approach he used on 2000's Come to Where I'm From was a revelation, this time around Arthur looks from the inside out. As a result, both his words and his music reflect a greater accessibility, one that nevertheless cements his reputation as a visionary with no immediate equal.

That said, some of the newfound warmth and external connectivity is traceable to Peter Gabriel, who signed Arthur to his Real World label. As both a songwriter and producer, Arthur exudes a worldly postmodern identity while finding expressionism comfortable to both himself and his listener--a dual directive evidenced in Gabriel's work. Arthur, however, confesses and confronts with greater focus and deeper awareness. He also pulls no punches in his spiritual discourse; in "Blue Lips," Arthur sings, "The devil is the Lord/ of this confusing world/ where all the wrong dreams come true." It's quite the interpretive line, as most of his are, one of many facets of this instinctive artist to behold.--Mike Prevatt

Jovis

The Inevitable Doom of Failure

In case you dunno, local sadcore outfit Jovis rose from the ashes of Penny's Pet Dragonfly--well, actually, taking the music as a cue, it didn't so much rise as sort of yawningly slump out of the ashes and crawl away. That's to say that The Inevitable Doom of Failure suggests that Jovis isn't exactly in a rush to do anything, and in this case, that's a good thing. Inevitable luxuriates in its own silken nest of unfurling feedback lines, shoegazing guitar fuzz and scratchy, cryptic voice samples--but not so much that this 14-track disc is a self-wallowing arty affair. Fortunately, Jovis leadman Micah Tamblyn knows how to write a song; Inevitable sometimes loses steam to its own sense of emotional exhaustion, but at its high points it shines with confident songwriting that sweeps, hooks and doesn't look back; check out "Sailing Through," a '90s alt-rock throwback with a hair-raising call-and-response chorus, the spirited "Sunk," or "Refracting," which builds from noodling guitar figures to a full-bore, eyes-clenched-shut chorus.

A bonus is that Tamblyn, refreshingly, can sing. His phrasing takes equal parts boyishness and passion, and lends the songs that certain melodic ache that makes Failure an inevitable success.--Andrew Kiraly