Well, it's time for our first post on our new blog, AudioVino! In short, the theory of the blog is this: every week, we will pick a completely random CD and a completely random wine, and we will listen to the CD while we drink the wine. Then, we will blog about the listening/drinking experience! Sounds simple, right?
Now, when we say random, we mean completely random. For our first post, we went to Deaf Ear Records, a resale music and smoke shop, and picked up the CD "Telephone Free Landslide Victory" by Camper Van Beethoven. Now, we have never heard anything about this group before - we haven't had any recommendations from friends, read any reviews, or even seen their poster on anyone's wall. This band is completely new to us. We want to keep our music listening and wine tasting as random as we can so that we can blog about the music and the wine with as little bias as possible.
Next, we went to the Wine and Spirits department of Festival Foods (where Nick used to work as Assistant Manager!) to pick out our wine. We decided on Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz, which is a shiraz from the Limestone Coast of Australia.
 Jip Jip Rocks 2007 Shiraz, on our wine rack |
Because of his career in the wine industry, Nick knows a lot about wines and the regions in which they are grown. Wines from the Limestone Coast are grown in an extremely rugged landscape, so the grapes are grown in very rough and rocky soil. This generally means that these wines are pretty rugged, strong, and high in tannin (the compounds from the stems and skins that cause wine to taste dry). Shiraz (the varietal we tried tonight) is the leading red wine of Australia, so it is a fairly good representation of Australian wine. Jip Jip was given a 90-point rating by Robert Parker's Wine Enthusiast, a magazine which grades wines on a 100-point scale. So, we knew going into our tasting tonight that the Shiraz is well respected in the world of wines. We poured the wine through a Vinturi and allowed it to decant for two hours before we drank it.
The Experience
So, we popped in the CD and popped the cork (figuratively.) Camper Van Beethoven's first song was "The Day that Lassie Went to the Moon," which immediately struck a familiar chord (pun intended). Maggie thought it sounded a lot like The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" and Nick added that it sounded a little like R.E.M. This was a catchy song, but didn't sound very fresh or original. It's a good thing we didn't base our opinions for the rest of this album off of this song, though, because the album got much more interesting and unique.
As for the Jip Jip, the first thing we noted was that it had a very full and chocolaty taste at the onset. There was some heat (that "alcohol-heavy" taste) to the wine, and we noted that the nose had a saltiness to it, like an ocean breeze, but we weren't sure yet how to marry these smells to represent the wine.
The next song on the album was "Border Ska." The song was perfectly represented by it's title: it sounded like ska that would be played down near the Mexican border! It had some really interesting Hispanic musical themes played over a ska band, and sounded really original and fresh. It was an instrumental piece that could have been heard at a Mexican restaurant, yet wasn't over-simplistic or stereotypical.
Throughout the next few songs, we heard lots of interesting material, including the sound that turned out to be the group's signature sound: the dissonant violins. It was a very interesting sound - in a number of tunes, there is a pair of dissonant and out-of-tune violins that manage to add an offbeat feel to the music while still sounding harmonic and pleasant.
A lot of the material on the CD sounded quite retro, with a vibe similar to that of a lot of the retro-pop-revival bands of indie music these days. Many songs, like "Oh No!" and "Wasting All" would have fit right in with groups like Sonny and Cher and The Monkeys. As soon as we would become accostomed to this retro-pop vibe, we would hear a dissonant violin, Middle-eastern scale, American cowboy tribute, or Jewish dance tune to throw us for a loop. Camper Van Beethoven really kept things interesting.
After about seven tracks, we tried to describe the relationship of the music to the wine. Nick said that the wine tasted like certain songs that gave a nod to the American western frontier, like "Cowboys from Hollywood" and "Opi Rides Again." These songs had a very authentic "American western" feel to them, which was mirrored in the wine by it's rough taste and feel (on the front palate).
Maggie had a less enthusiastic taste of the wine. Though both of us agreed that it had a chalky taste to it, Maggie felt that it tasted almost medicinal. It had some full flavor, but wasn't funky or eclectic like the music. Nick agreed that there was heat to it, but he enjoyed its Tums-like chalky finish which gave the wine a nice full-mouth feel. Maggie figured that this was an attribute of the salty smell we had experienced earlier.
The lyrics of the music should also be noted, as they range from slightly political to all-out funny. The song "Where the Hell is Bill?" was Maggie's favorite, especially when Nick inquired, "Do you think they just wrote this one day when one of the members of the band was gone?" We should probably provide some lyrics for reference:
"Where, where the Hell is Bill?
Where, where the Hell is Bill?
Where, where the Hell is Bill?
Where, where the Hell is Bill?
Well, maybe he went to get a sideways haircut
Maybe he went to get a striped shirt
Maybe he went to get some plastic shoes
Maybe he went to get some funny sunglasses
Well, maybe he went to get an Air Force parka
Maybe he went to get a Vespa scooter
Maybe he went to get a British flag
Maybe he went to go Mod Ska dancing
Well, maybe he went to get a mohawk
And maybe he went to get some gnarly thrash boots
Maybe he went to go ride his skateboard
Maybe he went to see the Circle Jerks"
Then we would be thrown a loop with slightly deeper and more political lyrics like those of "Take the Skinheads Bowling."
"Take the skinheads bowling, take them bowling.
Take the skinheads bowling, take them bowling.
Some people say that bowling alleys have big lanes
Some people say that bowling alleys all look the same"
The album finished up with "Ambiguity Song," which was separated into two distinct halves. The first half was decidedly offbeat pop, similar to groups like She & Him or The Killers. The second half was, as Maggie described it, "absolutely delightful," with a fusion of relaxed dub beats, happy tones, and eerie fading synthesizer techniques. We both agreed that this was our favorite song of the album.
 Maggie's notes throughout the AudioVino experience |
Nick's Final Reviews
Audio
What can I say about Camper Van Beethoven? I had no experience with there music going into the listening but I will say I have a fondness for dub, ska, and Latin music. Well that is exactly what I received from this album. At some points I felt like I was watching a gritty Clint Eastwood or John Wayne epic while at other points I could swear it was the back track music for Schindler's List. They even managed to give tastes of Smashmouth, The Killers, and The Hives (but with more complexity and musicality). I would highly recommend this album to anyone interested in international music or anyone who wants to maintain interest in an album for 65+ minutes.
Rating: 7.8/10
Vino
Jip Jip Rocks 2007 Shiraz is your stereotypical Australian Shiraz with bold dark fruit flavors, lots of heat, and a dark (almost black) color. I feel that Parker's 90 point rating may be a bit of a stretch and I would place this wine more in the 87/88 point range. I did appreciate the lack of oak which tends to crowd out the fruit in some other popular Australian Shiraz (Peter Lehman for example). The nose on the first glass reminded me of a salty sea breeze with a bit of decaying seaweed, the second and third glasses found the nose to open up to the fruit and as expected the tannins to relax. All in all it was a great pour for $14.99 and I would definitely recommend this wine to be poured with some nice grilled meats.
Rating: 88 pts
Maggie's Final Reviews
Audio
The main thing I appreciated about this album was the fresh sound. Camper Van Beethoven has lots of ideas, and all of them are mingled in this album. From Latin, to dub, to pentatonic scales, to retro-pop, to Jewish jigs, to light oriental melodies, Telephone Free Landslide Victory is truly an international album. There were a few songs that were a little gimmicky, but overall the group's sound was fresh and quite complex. This is a great album to listen to it you are in the mood to truly think and listen, yet still maintain a happy and relaxed mood.
Rating: 8.5/10
Vino
I won't lie, this wasn't my favorite Shiraz. Though my palate is still learning and growing, I found the taste to be quite medicinal and chalky, without the gamy flavors I usually enjoy in Shiraz. I will say that the wine tasted better and better the longer I let it breathe, and by the second glass the fruits and flavors were much more pleasant than they had been the first time around. Overall, I would say it did it's job, but didn't impress me as much as I thought it would.
Rating: 86 pts
What can I say about Camper Van Beethoven? I had no experience with there music going into the listening but I will say I have a fondness for dub, ska, and Latin music. Well that is exactly what I received from this album. At some points I felt like I was watching a gritty Clint Eastwood or John Wayne epic while at other points I could swear it was the back track music for Schindler's List. They even managed to give tastes of Smashmouth, The Killers, and The Hives (but with more complexity and musicality). I would highly recommend this album to anyone interested in international music or anyone who wants to maintain interest in an album for 65+ minutes.
Rating: 7.8/10
Vino
Jip Jip Rocks 2007 Shiraz is your stereotypical Australian Shiraz with bold dark fruit flavors, lots of heat, and a dark (almost black) color. I feel that Parker's 90 point rating may be a bit of a stretch and I would place this wine more in the 87/88 point range. I did appreciate the lack of oak which tends to crowd out the fruit in some other popular Australian Shiraz (Peter Lehman for example). The nose on the first glass reminded me of a salty sea breeze with a bit of decaying seaweed, the second and third glasses found the nose to open up to the fruit and as expected the tannins to relax. All in all it was a great pour for $14.99 and I would definitely recommend this wine to be poured with some nice grilled meats.
Rating: 88 pts
Maggie's Final Reviews
Audio
The main thing I appreciated about this album was the fresh sound. Camper Van Beethoven has lots of ideas, and all of them are mingled in this album. From Latin, to dub, to pentatonic scales, to retro-pop, to Jewish jigs, to light oriental melodies, Telephone Free Landslide Victory is truly an international album. There were a few songs that were a little gimmicky, but overall the group's sound was fresh and quite complex. This is a great album to listen to it you are in the mood to truly think and listen, yet still maintain a happy and relaxed mood.
Rating: 8.5/10
Vino
I won't lie, this wasn't my favorite Shiraz. Though my palate is still learning and growing, I found the taste to be quite medicinal and chalky, without the gamy flavors I usually enjoy in Shiraz. I will say that the wine tasted better and better the longer I let it breathe, and by the second glass the fruits and flavors were much more pleasant than they had been the first time around. Overall, I would say it did it's job, but didn't impress me as much as I thought it would.
Rating: 86 pts
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