Los Campesinos!

A hat tip to Nothing But Green Lights for discovering ! I don’t like to throw around a “next big thing” tag very often, but these guys could genuinely be it. Over the past week alone, they have picked up a ton of blog buzz. Something that I’m now going to obviously contribute to.

Los Campesinos! are a seven-piece from Cardiff who have seemingly already mastered how to make the perfect pop song. Best of all, they manage to bring a glockenspiel to the proceedings. Standout song ‘You! Me! Dancing!’ is just sheer joy from start to finish, it’s six and a half minute runtime actually feeling like half that. Jangly guitars combined with harmonising combined with witty, gleeful lyrics, and you’ve got a winning comnbination. Don’t allow that to overshadow the other songs though. ‘It Started With A Mixx’ is a 90 second song covering the risks of a new band (“Trying to find the perfect match between pretentious and pop / Some crappy artwork that took way, way too long to draw”), while ‘Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks’ is one of the best lyrical presentations I’ve heard from any new band in a long time.

There will be big things in the future of Los Campesinos! if they keep putting out music like this, and it’s well deserved. It’s not often that a new British band comes along that has a pretty unique sound that I really like, so these songs are a real treat. That said, it does seem that British bands are finally breaking out of the stereotypical mould and playing around with original ideas. The last month or so has seen me find a number of genuinely interesting and talented new bands, a couple more of which will be coming up in the next few days.

MP3 Los Campesinos! – You! Me! Dancing! (expired)
MP3 Los Campesinos! – It Started With A Mixx (expired)
MP3 Los Campesinos! – Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks (expired)

Los Campesinos!: Myspace