Amoeba windfall

Couple of interesting releases hit the stores yesterday: Camper Van Beethoven's New Roman Times, a rock opera about a disgruntled veteran-turned-domestic terrorist, and Calexico's World Drifts In DVD, which captures a live show at London's Barbican.

The Camper record might be the weirdest entry in an already weird canon. Judging by the subject matter, I expected it'd be the kind of record that would appeal to Camper fans who thought "Jack Ruby" was one of the best things they'd recorded. And while that might be true, it's also the most Monks of Doom-like record they've put out, which is to say it leans on tricky rhythms and spiraling guitar solos more than violin jigs or backwards faux-Arabic waltzes (though there's a share of that stuff too). As for the lyrics and the tale they tell, I'm occasionally reminded why Cracker hasn't really made an impact record in eleven years, but the old sarcasm can still be powerful. Anyway it's recommended.

It seemed to me that the great independent-minded rock bands of the 80s (Huskers, Minutemen, etc.) always seemed to be slowly moving toward commercial acceptance, as if they were falling in step with the times as the times caught up to them. But so many of them today are going the other way. Wilco and Radiohead used to play it relatively straight, and now they're becoming increasingly adventurous (though possibly less interesting, after a point). You used to hope your favorite band wouldn't sell out to the masses. Now you hope they remain coherent enough to remain worth listening to. (Maybe I'm just getting old.)

Anyway it seemed like Camper oozed toward normalcy during its Virgin years, while Cracker continued the frontman's path into commerciality; now, after a break, they're as weird as ever again. That's pretty cool. Mike Watt's latest album, by the way, is completely insane: another rock opera, this one about the burst perineal abscess that nearly claimed his life a couple of years ago, framed as a prog-rock epic with Uriah Heep organ and references to Dante's Il Commedia.

As for Calexico, who've called their music "desert-noir," the disc captures a few songs with a full mariachi band onstage (very cool), and a couple with a French chanteuse (not my favorite of their indulgences). I know I've seen them work absolute magic onstage, and the production values here are quite high, but I'm not sure it's their best work. Bonus points for including a couple of documentaries and tour films, as well as a few other goodies. They did this one right.