Camper Van Beethoven multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Segel will be releasing his new solo album shortly. The record, All Attractions , comes out on March 6th, with a companion EP, Apricot Jam , of improvised jams. The album was recorded with help from his CVB bandmate Victor Krummenacher, as well as members of King Missile , Counting Crows , Built To Spill and more. Listen to the track "(Ever And) Always" here: Continue reading »

Scan "Self-Portrait with Sheila " by me Howdy kiddos! How the fuck are ya? Me? Well just dandy dandy, thank you for asking... As many of you know, I've been a busy boy over at tsurufoto , takin' lots of pictures, starting a nudie blog , and, of course, running the #1 nudiezine in the world ! I've taken quite a hiatus from "new music" for a few months and I [...]

[screen cap from this youtube video ] Camper Van Beethoven has an extensive catalog dating back almost thirty years to their early 80s formation, which permits the band to play divergent setlists on any given night. But CVB has not released a new album since 20042s brilliant New Roman Times . So it was a bit of a surprise to hear that Camper has three new fully formed songs that have been played on each night of the current tour, including Saturday night at Highline Ballroom . Of the three, the most [...]

In this edition: Discover Palomino and City of Hope; The Caretakers focus on children of war; an excellent Camper Van Beethoven show on LMA, and this week's VIDEOS! Discover: Palomino Out of Brooklyn, Palomino recalls the post-punk period of the late 70s and early 80s. An era where Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg rose to prominence, and when The Clash moved beyond watershed year of 1977 to become giants. Their upcoming, self-titled EP is marked by [...]

Cracker performs with Camper Van Beethoven at 8 p.m. Friday, January 13th, at World Cafe Live; tickets to the show are $27–$50. Below, you can watch a live performance of the title track off the band's latest album, 20092s Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey .
This week in NYC shows is another mellow one compared to the normal onslaught of great concerts, but there are definitely some interesting happenings, including the New York Guitar Festival, Girls and Real Estate at Terminal 5, and Brother Past's return to Brooklyn Bowl...

Camper Van Beethoven are one of the weirdest bands to emerge from Southern California. During their heyday in the mid-80s they blended a kitchen sink mix of rock, ska, folk and country in a sound that foreran the alternative music explosion of the early 90s. Founding member Jonathan Segel (violin) left the band in 1988 and started a record label with fellow CvB alum Victor Krummacher. He also taught music composition at Ohlone College and worked as a listener advocate for Pandora. Segel has roots in Madison as his parents met here as grad students in the late 50s. [...]

Dear 2012, can we put on our wish list that PULASKI the band of Baltimorians make some more music for us this year? Whiskey and beer can sometimes coax the muse out of the best of bands in Pulaski's case it's the simple motivation like these except for maybe breakfast food. Ok they're prone to write the occasional break-up song like their classic "I want my records back" or the religious anthem the "Black Hand of g*d"? The inspiration is pleasantly misanthropic my friends so help reel in the vibe. They'll brew a song about almost anything using [...]
Hopefully this list will inspire you to get off your couch and check out some of these bands live. We all need a little rock n' roll to make us feel good. If you have additions to the list please email me at amy(at)rockerzine(dot)com and I will be happy to include them in the next update. Click the band you want to see dates for below, or scroll to see em all! Adam Ant *~* Ryan Adams [...]

DOWNLOAD : Camper Van Beethoven - Live at The Independent, San Francisco, CA 12-28-11 Cracker & Camper Van Beethoven's annual year-end California trek is underway and the last night of this run of shows is Dec. 29th in Petaluma. After which, Cracker heads further north to Portland on December 30th for a special one-off with bluegrass jam band Leftover Salmon, where the two bands will perform their highly-lauded 2003 album O Cracker, Where Art Thou? together in its entirety. The following night, Cracker & [...]
David Lowery's Versatile Rock 'n Roll Tour comes to the Pageant (6161 Delmar Boulevard, 314-726-6161) next Friday, January 6. Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven -- both projects featuring Lowery --... Continue reading "Win Tickets to Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven" >
David Lowery will be very busy on this tour: Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven will be playing a co-headlined bill at the Pageant on January 6th. Tickets are $20 and go on sale this Friday at 5 p... Continue reading "Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven are Coming to the Pageant!" >

With all the attention being paid to celebrating the legacy grunge bands this year, it's easy to forget that the early 19902s were also a true turning point for a genre that was previously known as college rock, but had been rechristened alternative thanks in part to MTV shows like Alternative Nation and 120 Minutes. Among the bands that found themselves suddenly gaining new fans, which included a young Scotty B, thanks to MTV airplay was the Boston-based act The Lemonheads . [The Lemonheads Late '80s Taang Promotional [...]

Alt-rock vets Camper Van Beethoven and frontman David Lowery's other band Cracker are going on tour together in December & January. They'll kick off the tour in their home state of California and make their way over the east coast after playing a New Year's Eve show in Chicago, stopping at NYC's Highline Ballroom on January 14 . Tickets for the NYC show are on sale now. All dates are listed below. Earlier this year, CVB went [...]
First, if you were an album getting played tonight, which one would you be? ► In advance of the annual Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven cookout in Pioneertown this weekend, David Lowery brings both of his bands to the Satellite with a special agenda: Cracker will be performing its 1993 album "Kerosene Hat," and Camper Van Beethoven will be performing 19892s "Key Lime Pie." ► Peter Hook & the Light visit the Music Box to take on the Joy Division album "Closer," and Hook and his band will be [...]

I've gone high concept this week, and that is not a reference to this week's cover art which is by my friend Davie Kaufmann. No, I mean there's a gimmick: all the songs on Summer Fridays 4.10 are less than two minutes long. All 33 of them (maybe even 34). With this kind of criteria, we don't really have much in the way of new music (two songs by my count) but quality remains high of course. I've tried to vary it up as much as possible because the bulk of the two-minutes-or-less songs in my collection are of the [...]
Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV's Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from '80s college rock to '00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite [...]
I posted some tracks from this release back in the early days of this blog. This seems to be a pretty scarce item, it's a 12" Promo EP with the songs "Turquoise Jewelry" and "Waka" from Camper Van Beethoven's great 1988 major label debut LP, Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart . It also contains three non-LP tracks "Love Is A Weed," a fantastic cover of the Buzzcocks' "Harmony In My Head" and the groovy surf-instrumental "Wade In The Water." I think I remember picking this up at the Annapolis Record & Tape Exchange back [...]

I can't tell you how many years I've been doing the summer concert series. It's my own personal concert series, but it happens every summer. The list of shows comes out and I'm picking my top ten for the summer. Ten might seem like a lot of concerts to you, but generally speaking I probably attend 10 or 15 between April 1st and September 20th. The other six months combined I probably see 5. They come and go so quickly I seem to space them as I look to the next one. Recently I have seen The Cars, Ray Manzarek & Roy [...]

Camper Van Beethoven performing at Tipitina's on May 19, 2011 I left Tipitina's on May 19 th both inspired by discoveries I made and lamenting the fact that I hadn't made them until now. The bill, a stacked yet aberrant group of musicians including seminal New Orleans alternative rock band Mahayla and the David Lowery-fronted acts Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker , had me wondering: would these acts – out of the spotlight for some time (and in the case of Mahayla and Camper, it's arguable whether they were ever [...]