The First Five Camper Records.

(A sidebar to “I Hate This Part of Texas.”)

Telephone Free Landslide Victory (1985)

Camper’s debut remains both weirdly original and surprisingly cohesive. Sing-song punk novelties like “Where the Hell is Bill” and a brilliant roots-rock rendition of Black Flag’s “Wasted” sit alongside a passell of gypsy/ska/folk/psychedelic flourish. And “Take the Skinheads Bowling,” with its ragged harmonies, undeniable hook and Reaganomics subtext, is anything but a novelty song. “Best $450 I ever spent,” Lowery says of the recording budget. The record sounds a lot better than such a figure would suggest.

Camper Van Beethoven II and III (1986)

“It really was two different recording sessions,” Lowery says of the disc that has a “Side 2" and a “Side B.” II and III is the sound of Camper absorbing things like the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and Kaleidoscope — music people assumed had influenced Telephone, when in fact they had to seek it out after the comparisons were made. Standouts include the Nuggets-worthy “We’re a Bad Trip,” a cover of Sonic Youth’s “I Love Her All the Time” and the nonpareil pre-Americana grace of “Sad Lover’s Waltz.”

Camper Van Beethoven (1986)

Both tuneful (“Good Guys and Bad Guys) and lysergic (a dazzling cover of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive”), album #3 marks the full-time debut of drummer Chris Pederson (“Crispy Derson”), and is also a showcase for guest star Eugene Chadbourne. The record has no name a la Led Zeppelin IV, “but we forgot to come up with symbols,” Lowery says. “It actually does have a title, but we didn’t want anyone to know. On the vinyl, it’s etched into the inner groove: Soviet Spies Swim Upstream Disguised As Trout.” Ah, the Cold War.

Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (1988)

Camper’s major label debut is up there with R.E.M.’s Life’s Rich Pageant and U2's War as a bigger-budget album that embraces polish and commercial possibility without sacrificing the band’s essential sound (or soul). Segel’s violin is the restless, cajoling force behind a set that includes the hard-rock jam of “Waka,” a pre-Americana (or is that post-bluegrass?) “Oh Death” and mostly, crackerjack pop song after crackerjack pop song, both sprightly (“One of the These Days”) and unsettled (“She Divines Water”). “It’s funny, because we didn’t really intend to write it that way,” Lowery says. “I look fondly on that record. We still play lots of songs from it.”

Key Lime Pie (1989)

Arguably, Camper Van Beethoven without Jonathan Segel isn’t Camper Van Beethoven, but the performances and songwriting remain top-notch on this moody and majestic swan song. Greg Lisher lists the two Virgin records as his favorites. It felt like we were really able to pull together with the money behind us,” the guitarist says. “We were very lucky.” Laid-back (“Sweethearts”) and elegiac (“All Her Favorite Fruit”), this one *does* include a novelty song: a cover of Status Quo’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men,” which bookends the band’s ouevre along with “…Skinheads.” “The first and the last records define Camper Van Beethoven to most of our fans, and in a way to the public,” Lowery says.