I wanted to have something nice to say about Santa Cruz, really I did. Especially after all the OTHER things I've said about the home of the fighting Banana Slugs. (For example here, here, and here).

So when I saw this accolade to the re-formed 80s band from Santa Cruz named Camper Van Beethoven, the pump was primed.

After all, I've got about a half-dozen of their albums. Even after the debut album, with "Take The Skinheads Bowling," it was one smart-alecky, highly musical morsel after another. Oodles of stringed instruments played really well, intriguing arrangements, and attitude.

Well, it may all still be there. Sounds like it is, actually. Especially the attitude. Only some of MY attitides have changed. I'm not sure I'm about to rush out and get their latest CD.

"New Roman Times," the first album of new material from Camper since the group re-united in 2002, is a wild ride of musical styles — Clash-like ska, prog-rock, sleepy country rock, even a swing-your-partner fiddle tune — all in the service of a darkly cynical story of militarism, paranoia and political extremism leavened with CVB’s anarchistic sense of humor.

"A lot of the songs had sort of gathered themselves around the idea of warfare," said David Lowery, the group’s singer and frontman. "It really wasn’t supposed to be about the war in Iraq or the election. It was really more about the blue state/red state divide than anything else."

Cool so far, right? Now this:

"New Roman Times" follows a young unnamed idealist as he enlists in an elite military unit, engages in combat, returns home broken and resentful, falls in with drug dealers and arms traffickers, joins a resistance group and becomes a rebel suicide bomber, all played against a backdrop of a torn nation dominated by the religious-led breakaway republic of Texas "occupying" the independent republic of California.

Michael Moore with a dobro, bouzouki and Stratocaster. Wunnerful, wunnerful. Then again who knows? Sounds from the review like the hefty musical chops are still there. Strange for a writer to say, but I never cared that much about lyrics; more the music. Probably because so much music with lyrics is really lyrics with wallpaper music. Anyhoo, I've got a number of albums or CDs where the political content of the lyrics doesn't jibe with my politics: Palestinian hip-hop; trippy 60s peace songs, etc. Maybe I'll just check this one out of the library.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at February 17, 2005 03:44 PM

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