Everyone’s got those bands that soundtrack certain points of their life. You know, the ones that happen to strike a chord and continue to play that chord until you get bored of it and you move on? Well, I’ve had this band that I first pegged as a 6-7 month obsession, tops. It’s been three years now, and I can safely say they are THE band of my mid-twenties.
Their name is ‘Los Campesinos!‘. I first heard them the same year I moved to Vancouver, when I was passed their debut EP, and I haven’t been able to shake them since. It’s because they’re a heartstring-tugging dying breed, one of the last purveyors of twee and one of the best at capturing the swoony romanticism of that sound.
The band has put out a release every year since that first one, and each album has been a progression of style that has not flagged in its catchiness, cleverness or loudness. The barebones production and frantic guitar and glockenspiel driven Sticking Fingers Into Sockets slowly transformed the epic shoegaze fullness of later releases like Romance Is Boring and their latest, Hello Sadness.
Yeah, OK, Budweiser used one of their songs in a commercial. But if there’s one time to sell out, it’s right at the start, so you get a swack of cash before the desperation of trying to make it for years on end destroys any desire for creativity and credibility you have left.
Check out Los Campesinos!, worldwide 2012 tour dates right here on SCENE IN THE DARK.
We’ll be co-presenting the Los Campesinos! show in Vancouver, BC with Timbre Productions on February 3rd. Click here to purchase tickets!
Words by: Andrew Tape
