Los Campesinos

"A fifteen year-old editorial (something)/The last man standing is a girl/Four sweaty boys with guitars tell me nothing about my life"

Which female-lead guitar bands came through in 93? Sleeper?

sleeper, elastica, err

echobelly was '94 i think.

When were Republica? I was thinking today as I stood at The Valley that it would be a sad day when "Ready To Go" was no longer played at football league grounds before kick-off.

"The last man standing is a girl" would imply that the lead singer went on to have some sorta career after the band, so it must be Wener or Frischman.

republica was later, 96-7

"The last man standing is a girl" would imply that the lead singer went on to have some sorta career after the band, so it must be Wener or Frischman.

― The boy with the Arab money (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Saturday, January 10, 2009 9:45 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

sleeper was 3 boys 1 girl and wener 'went through' all the other manz in the band iirc which sort of makes sense there? elastica had the reverse proportion.

Sleeper had an EP out in '93, I think...

im such a fanboy

http://i43.tinypic.com/2zfl4rp.jpg

it says, "jordan, thanks a lot dude. love gxo"

^_______________^

hearing them live tonight reminded me of how complicated a lot of their arrangements are

This is a pretty good album, this is. (The new one, at least.)

the actual single is just ridiculously good

ooh, there's a new record?

wait — there's a download-only single and a tour-only single? i just can't keep up with these indie kids.

yeah "the sea is a good place for the future" (or w/e) was a download 'teaser' of some sort, this new one has been sent to radio, is under 3 mins, etc etc

it's streaming on their website - loscampesinos.com

AH. Wow. The Sea was certainly enjoyable and ambient etc. But this is more like it. Punch-in-the-gut-Campesinos! are back!

thx jordan.

gareth really sells the pleading of the chorus - i think his "trying to sing now, guys" voice is kinda great in a way

I dunno, it feels like just another album track (which could be potentially great). Wish they carried on being the band that made awesome singles though after We Throw Parties and You! Me! Dancing!

ya i feel you. "my year in lists" is actually my fav single of theirs.

i dno guys i think i get more out of this sea song

more something they haven't done before. this is good obv.

yeah fair. i mean, i probably will end up liking the sea more after the shock of this wears off, but it's nice to know that they haven't totally ditched the old mode. the sea continues the trend of doing interesting but dissonant things with the music while amping up the focus on gareth's lyrics - which are evocative, but more SERIOUS i think then they used to be (or at least less funny, because there was a time when they were both). it's a good look for them, and it's a needed shift, because they've probably plumbed the depths of the Hold On Now, Youngster sound by now. but absent the context of the album i'm not sure exactly how much I'll end up loving the Sea is a Good Place.

"my year in lists" is actually my fav single of theirs.

^^^ OTM. Short and fast and dirty, with a pretty awesome video to boot.

loscampesinos Finally finished typing up the lyrics to our new record. 3,530 words, without repeated choruses. I hate myself.
about 4 hours ago from UberTwitter

I = EXCITED.

i already know that this is gonna be in my top 3 albums of 2010, it's basically preordained

I'm sorta behind: is this material with or without the one singer replaced?

One minor thing that's always fascinated me about them is that they've always broken a basic rule of production, which is that you (generally) want to have all the sounds on a record in some realistic spatial relationship with one another. (Unless you don't.) Whereas they've had one loud shouty back-off-the-mic singer and then one quiet small-voiced close-on-the-mic singer, and they've had to just go with that. Either one of them alone would sound totally normal over the music they play, but having both is kinda strange: he always sounded like he was in a room with a rock band, whereas she wound up pitching in all close-miced like an announcer's voice appearing out of nowhere. I haven't yet heard how the new singer (it's his sister, right?) works, like whether that dynamic remains the same or whether she'll wind up changing it. It's a pretty weird dynamic -- the vocals on their records are really spatially wonky!

the new album has vocals from the old female member, she basically quit after the album was completed and a recent tour. the new girl will be signing her parts on tour & presumably the recorded material from here on out, but she doesn't have anything on the new album

re the spatiality, i always thought that she was super close-miced because her wispiness wouldn't be able to be heard when the band is full going, but it's very much like gareth uses her as his own internal voice. she never really raises her singing voice or inflects much, it's very much like she is the steady hand mirror to gareth's out of pitch screaming and flailing

Romance is Boring:

"It is a record about the death and decay of the human body, sex, lost love, mental breakdown, football and, ultimately, that there probably isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel."

So friggin' excited.

well yeah, exactly -- she doesn't have a strong enough voice to be in the same space as him (and obviously it'd just be dumb for him to be close-miced like her), so they just sit where they sit. (and people always go to their concerts and then say "I couldn't hear her! turn up her mic!") you're right about how the contrast works and how they totally use it, but then there's also this whole just-production level on some songs where it still feels really odd to me. it must be very interesting to produce them.

yeah it's weird because they have some elements that are outwardly twee — wordiness, mousy girl vocals, glockenspiel — but they really aim to make lots of noise while still making glock lines a central part of the arrangements (along with the strings). and i think it makes sense that they are produced by one of the broken social scene guys, not sure if many other producers could handle the dynamic of 7 band members all trying to be heard at once.

yay more football references. i hope one song is dedicated to losing an epic football manager savefile.

oh how i love this band.

i never got the reference to "tony cascarino circa 1995" - what is the significance of player & year

it rhymes?

tony cascarino is a bit of a nob actually but he was a great goalscorer.
1995 is an odd year to pick because he went to marseille after they were done for match fixing and were made to be relegated etc. for it.

i guess 'hristo stoichkov in 1995' didn't sound as good.

i love los campesinos, i can't wait for there new album

kinda prefer johnny foreigner

kinda prefer getting my balls twisted off by an angry lesbian

think i might see them on Saturday. can anybody vouch for their live show?

very fun imo

They do have swine flu, mind you! Even had a bucket on stage with them tonight in Oxford, just in case. But yes, lots of fun!

copy haho who are touring with them now are good & fun too

yes they are

(copy haho's too pure 7" out now folks)

(don't ask the Copy Haho singer about his German girlfriend! Sore subject tonight!)

"I think we need more post-coital and less post-rock" is the ultimate expression of music nerd sexual frustration t/f

Hello,
We, the band Los Campesinos!, are delighted to inform you of the details of the release of our imminent fourth album, Hello Sadness.
The 14th November (15th in North America) will see the record's birth in CD, Vinyl and Digital format.
Conceived in Girona, Spain earlier this year, under the watchful eye of producer John Goodmanson, Hello Sadness is ten songs of love, loss and heartbreak nail-gunned to a back-drop of broken, tangled bodies, creeping, dead-eyed animals, suffocating, looming shadows and World Cup exits. It is an honest, bare bones documentation of breaking up and trying not to break up in the process.
As an incentive for you to get in early and pre-order your copy, we've put together what we consider to be a pretttttty impressive pre-order bundle, only available direct from Los Campesinos! and for a limited time. This includes:
CD/Vinyl copy of Hello Sadness before store-release date.
Digital download of Hello Sadness
Exclusive Limited Edition DVD of footage from the recording of the new album. Including Documentary and a “How To Play...” feature.
Exclusive LC!.com pre-order only 'Palmist' t-shirt.
Hold On Now, Youngster... 'The Demos' CD – recently unearthed demo versions of songs from our first album. Including rare track How I Taught Myself To Scream and the previously unreleased No Tetris.
Just head on over to our website to get it while you can.
As ever, we thank you for your interest and support. We're really excited about this new record, and we're looking forward to you joining us in that excitement,

All the best,
LC!

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

^^^

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Huzzah! Now they just need to get Heat Rash #2 out. Only quarterly zine I know that publishes on a yearly basis. (I kid. Psyched for the new album, although the title is a bit :/)

I don't know, the title is very much in character for these guys.