POP MUSIC REVIEW : Quirky Camper Van Beethoven Travels Own Road to Success

While many Los Angeles rock trend spotters were looking elsewhere for the Next Big Thing, California’s own Camper Van Beethoven has quickly, quietly turned into a national phenomenon.

The Santa Cruz-based rock band, which built up a cult following through several small-label releases over the last five years, has finally released an album on big-time Virgin Records. The group’s new LP--which showcases a musical style as quirky and unpredictable as the band’s name--has been the hottest item on the alternative/college rock radio charts for weeks.

This success has not, of course, been lost on the marketing staff at Virgin, which has taken out trade ads that confidently associate Camper with other best-selling bands that have previously enjoyed similar college-radio chart reigns--similarly “weird” and “uncommercial” groups like Talking Heads, R.E.M., U2 and the Cure.

Camper Van Beethoven, however, may have a tougher time than the others translating that hep rep into Top 40 stardom and platinum sales. After all: You can dance to Talking Heads and R.E.M.

You can dance to Camper Van Beethoven too, but it’s likelier to be a hora or an ethnic jig than a modified twist or pogo.

The more exotic strains of the band--which played Friday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and Saturday at the John Anson Ford Theatre in Hollywood--are its greatest strengths and possibly its biggest commercial liabilities.

The eclecticism was certainly no stumbling block for Friday’s packed crowd, which reveled in the group’s Middle Eastern-sounding instrumentals as much as the rarer straight-ahead rockers.

Indeed, the show sometimes had more of the flavor of a Greek or Russian wedding reception than of a trendy rock show as the quintet slowed to a crawl before violinist Jonathan Segal speeded up again, leading the clapping-along crowd into a frenzied crescendo.

In its more homespun-rock moments, Camper’s set ranged from its early, folkish novelty songs (“Take the Skinheads Bowling”) to the much improved, more inflammatory material of its acclaimed new album, “Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart.”

Singer David Lowery is now capable of suggesting the gutsiness of the Clash’s Joe Strummer on a barnburner like “Turquoise Jewelry.” Violinist Segal now uses his instrument less as a country fiddle than for foreign influences or something more akin to the elegance of the late ‘60s-early ‘70s rock band, It’s a Beautiful Day. And inventive and richly melodic bassist Victor Krummenacher may be the group’s secret weapon.

The music itself was--with the exception of some perfunctory country ditties--consistently dazzling, as tight, tuneful and original as that of any new band in recent memory. Camper’s ability to break into Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” in the middle of a wandering instrumental and not play it for laughs was striking. This is a troupe that’s hip enough to be a thrash band and good enough not to have to be.

Those hoping that such compelling music trumpets the arrival of a band with something to say will not have their hopes rewarded. For those for whom it’s enough that a band lean toward the absurd (if stopping short of the anarchic) and play like demons, these boys are more than capable of producing a crowd full of happy campers.