Telephone Free Landslide Victory

One of the flashpoint moments of the heyday of US 80s college rock, landing smack in the middle of the decade, Camper Van Beethoven’s debut album Telephone Free Landslide Victory was almost emblematic of the form in several ways. There’s its skew-whiff sense of humor, guitarist Jonathan Segel also busting out violin, above all its generally scrappy energy, drawing from any number established sounds and styles worldwide – not for nothing is the opening number a Tex-Mex ska instrumental called, simply enough, “Border Ska” – but clearly only existing right there and then. With punk already seen as something established and past – breakout single “Take the Skinheads Bowling” is the obvious reference, but so is a separate song called “Skinhead Stomp,” the woozy and slow runthrough of Black Flag’s “Wasted,” the full-on hardcore parody of “Club Med Sucks” – there’s almost a sense of an adept but never overly flashy quintet seeing what they can get away with. Meanwhile, David Lowery’s regular-guy-drawl speak/singing nearly invents slackers and Pavement at the same time.