Telephone Free Landslide Victory

Telephone Free Landslide Victory is an album by musical group Camper Van Beethoven, released on Independent Project Records and released in June 1985.[1] It featured the band's best known song, "Take the Skinheads Bowling". The album has sold well over 60,000 copies.[2]

Telephone Free Landslide Victory
Studio album by
Camper Van Beethoven
ReleasedJune 1985
RecordedJanuary–February 1985
StudioSámurai Sound, Davis, California
GenreAlternative rock, jangle pop
Length39:37
LabelI.R.S.
Camper Van Beethoven chronology
Telephone Free Landslide Victory
(1985)		 II & III
(1986)

About

The band's lineup at the time of recording was David Lowery (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Jonathan Segel (violin, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Chris Molla (guitar, backing vocals), Victor Krummenacher (bass, backing vocals), and Anthony Guess (drums). The album is the only Camper Van Beethoven record not to feature guitarist Greg Lisher. Lisher is actually listed in the album credits as a band member, but he did not join the band until after the album was recorded.

Musically, the album is a combination of songs and instrumentals. The former are simple garage tunes, with a folk-punk sound and absurdist lyrics, often simultaneously mocking and affectionately celebrating aspects of 1980s underground counterculture, with references to punks, skinheads, surfers, skaters and hippies. These songs are comparable to other humorous 1980s underground bands like The Violent Femmes, The Dead Milkmen and The Young Fresh Fellows. The instrumentals, however, are completely different: they combine ethnic melodies (often Eastern Europe, Mexican or spaghetti Western) played on Segel's violin and Molla's guitar, with ska beats supplied by Guess, Lowery and Krummenacher. The alternation between the instrumentals and songs creates an almost split personality that is one of the most unusual aspects of the record. Later versions of the band would integrate the ethnic influences with the actual songs, but here they are quite separate. The one thing that the two song-types have in common is that they are both quite droll, leading to the band being inaccurately typecast as a novelty group.

Despite the considerable musical growth that the band would show in its later work, Telephone Free Landslide Victory has remained one of its most enduring albums. The reunited Camper Van Beethoven frequently features several of the album's songs in their set lists to this day, including "Take the Skinheads Bowling", the countrified Black Flag cover "Wasted", the hardcore send-up "Club Med Sucks", "The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon", "Ambiguity Song", and several of the instrumentals.

The band originally intended for the album to be titled Telephone Tree Landslide Victory: however a friend who was producing advance copies of the LP on cassette mistakenly replaced "Tree" with "Free".[3]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[5]
Spin Alternative Record Guide7/10[6]
The Village VoiceA−[7]

Michael Stipe named Telephone Free Landslide Victory one of his ten favorite albums of 1985 in a list he wrote for Rolling Stone.[8]

Track listing

Original 1985 version

Side one
  1. "Border Ska" - 2:50
  2. "The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon" - 3:14
  3. "Wasted" - 1:59 (Greg Ginn, Keith Morris)
  4. "Yanqui Go Home" - 2:41
  5. "Oh No!" - 1:54
  6. "9 of Disks" - 2:36
  7. "Payed Vacation: Greece" - 1:52
  8. "Where The Hell is Bill?" - 2:06
  9. "Vladivostock" [sic] - 2:22

Side two
  1. "Skinhead Stomp" - 1:48
  2. "Tina" - 1:37
  3. "Take The Skinheads Bowling" - 2:32
  4. "Mao Reminisces About His Days in Southern China" - 1:59
  5. "I Don't See You" - 2:23
  6. "Balalaika Gap" - 2:13
  7. "Opi Rides Again - Club Med Sucks" - 3:55
  8. "Ambiguity Song" - 2:29

2004 CD reissue
  1. "The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon" - 3:14
  2. "Border Ska" - 2:56
  3. "Wasted" - 1:55
  4. "Yanqui Go Home" - 2:41
  5. "Oh No!" - 1:54
  6. "9 of Disks" - 2:36
  7. "Payed Vacation: Greece" - 1:52
  8. "Where The Hell is Bill?" - 2:05
  9. "Wasting All Your Time" - 2:59
  10. "Epigram #5" - 0:09
  11. "At Kuda" - 2:14
  12. "Epigram #2" - 0:21
  13. "Cowboys From Hollywood (Original Version)" - 1:41
  14. "Colonel Enrique Adolfo Bermudez" - 2:09
  15. "Vladivostock" - 2:22
  16. "Skinhead Stomp" - 1:47
  17. "Tina" - 1:37
  18. "Take The Skinheads Bowling" - 2:32
  19. "Mao Reminisces About His Days in Southern China" - 1:59
  20. "I Don't See You" - 2:23
  21. "Balalaika Gap" - 2:13
  22. "Opi Rides Again" - 0:50
  23. "Club Med Sucks" - 3:05
  24. "Ambiguity Song" - 2:30
  25. "Heart (Remix)" - 3:07 (Hidden Track)
  • Track 9 is a previously unreleased studio outtake.
  • Tracks 10-14 originally released on the Take the Skinheads Bowling EP.

Personnel
  • David Lowery - lead vocals, guitars, drums
  • Jonathan Segel - violin, backing vocals, keyboards, mandolin, noises
  • Chris Molla - guitars, backing vocals, drums
  • Victor Krummenacher - bass, backing vocals
  • Anthony Guess - drums [9]

Charts
Chart (1986) Peak
position
UK Indie Chart[10] 30
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References
  1. Popoff, Martin (2009-09-08). Goldmine Record Album Price Guide. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-4402-2916-9.
  2. "Count On More Surprises From Camper Van Beethoven". Chicago Tribune. 1989-11-10. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
  3. Fricke, David (19 May 1988). "Camper Van Beethoven's Notes from the Underground". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  4. Raggett, Ned. "Telephone Free Landslide Victory – Camper Van Beethoven". AllMusic. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  5. Considine, J. D. (2004). "Camper Van Beethoven". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 132–33. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  6. Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  7. Christgau, Robert (April 1, 1986). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  8. Buckley, Peter (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. pp. 1987. ISBN 9781858284576.
  9. http://www.discogs.com/Camper-Van-Beethoven-Telephone-Free-Landslide-Victory/release/2236928
  10. Lazell, Barry (1997). Indie Hits 1980-1989. Cherry Red Books. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
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