A sequel of sorts to Camper Van Chadbourne, the 1987 collaboration between
Eugene Chadbourne and Camper Van Beethoven, The Eddie Chatterbox Double
Trio Love Album features a six-man ("double trio") band half
comprised of CVB members. The album is split between five of Chadbourne's
originals and five fairly straightforward covers of Tim Buckley songs.
Chadbourne's songs are fully realized, accessible compositions that rank
among his best, particularly the hilarious "Life x 2" and "Used
Record Pile." The heavy metal parody "Voodoo Vengeance"
resurfaced a year later in a different recording on the Monks of Doom's
album The Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company. The political content is unusually
low on this outing except for "Sword + Shield," a general critique
of Star Wars-type defense programs. The band works up the same kind of
horns-and-strings cacophony heard on Camper Van Chadbourne, sounding like
a Salvation Army band tooting through the apocalypse, with a few extended
jams and noise-fests Chadbourne fans have come to love or tolerate. The
Buckley songs show Chadbourne's sensitive side and fall in line with his
ongoing tributes to the work of great songwriters. Whether or not it was
Camper Van Beethoven's influence that ushered him toward conventionality,
Chadbourne's collaborations with CVB are among his most approachable efforts.
(by Greg Adams, All
Music Guide)
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