Festival Preview: Eight Top Bands To See At MIRRORS 2017

MIRRORS Festival (various venues across Hackney, 28 Oct '17) // Words: Saam Das

The third edition of MIRRORS lands in East London this Saturday, and we'll on hand to confirm whether autumnal music festivals are indeed all the rage. Adopting the popular formula of the bygone Camden Crawl and Communion's ever-popular Bushstock, MIRRORS will be taking over several venues in Hackney, and delivering a diverse and delicious range of acts. Headlined by the likes of Los Campesinos!, Pinegrove, Blind Pilot, we've plucked eight of the finest names on the roster for you to try to check out.

Festival Review: Live At Leeds 2016

Live At Leeds (various venues across Leeds, 30 Apr '16) // Words: Saam Das

It's been a long, long time since I was last in Leeds. But the pull of this year's stellar Live At Leeds lineup was enough to convince me that a last minute trip from London was a necessity. A trip from London that included tube, coach, and train travel, and a stay in a £30 B&B in Huddersfield. Totally worth it.

Download: Los Campesinos! - Little Mouth [Soundtrack Preview]

Words: Saam Das

To celebrate the UK cinema release of 'Benny & Jolene', Los Campesinos! are giving away a song they wrote for the film's soundtrack, 'Little Mouth'. It's not a new track, per se, having been recorded prior to the band's most recent album, 2013's 'No Blues' - but more importantly, it's an enjoyably breezy number.

Album Review: Los Campesinos! - No Blues

Los Campesinos! - No Blues (UK Release: 28 Oct '13) // Words: Saam Das

It's possibly fair to say that 'No Blues' sees Los Campesinos! at their most content since their enthusiastic debut 'Hold On Now, Youngster' back in 2008. Since then, the band has lost four of its founding members but they seem to have finally found a happier footing - 'No Blues' is perhaps their most cohesive effort yet, with a couple of particular highlights.

Listen: Los Campesinos! - Avocado, Baby [Album Preview]

Words: Saam Das

It's almost hard to believe that Los Campesinos! are (dare I say, already) on album number five. And despite the fairly regular departures of the original seven founding members along the way, they seemingly remain as impassioned and as brilliant as they ever were. At least on the evidence of new track, 'Avocado, Baby', which hints at strong things for forthcoming album, 'No Blues'.

Playlist: A Beginner's Guide To Los Campesinos!

Words: Saam Das

The first interview we ever did was in August 2006 with a band called Los Campesinos!. At the time, they were becoming arguably the UK's first blog hyped band. Thankfully, they're still going strong today and their newest album 'Hello Sadness' came out on Monday. To celebrate, I thought I'd take you through a potted history/chronological "greatest hits" of the band thus far...

Download: Los Campesinos! - By Your Hand [Album Preview]

Words: Saam Das

It's been five long years since I interviewed Los Campesinos!. They're back and are giving away an appropriately melodramatic free download to preview their forthcoming November album, 'Hello Sadness'. The aforementioned download, 'By Your Hand', is a bit good and hence a promising sign for the new record. Download the track below.

Festive Fifty 2009

So it's coming upto the Christmas Bank Holiday and I'm about to present you all with my favourite fifty singles (as well as free downloads, this year) of 2009.

All the songs should have been released in the UK in 2009 or made available for free download by the artists. No re-releases and only one song per artist. Unless I've made a mistake, in which case, anything goes.

Spotify playlist of most of the tracks here. Thoughts? Any other suggestions?

50) Flamboyant Bella - Get A Reaction
[YouTube]
Annoying. Catchy. Annoyingly catchy electro-pop.

49) La Roux - Bulletproof
See above.

48) Robbie Williams - Bodies
Painfully embarrassing lyrics ("UK and entropy, I feel like it's fucking me" being just one of many, many examples) but the electro pop elements and the "Bodies in the.." bridge just about make up for it.

47) The Antlers - Bear
Shame that the tender, intriguing moments are overpowered by retro-pop ambitions. But those tender moments are worth it.

46) Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning
For the most part, I'm not down with post-debut album Arctic Monkeys and their "mature" sound. But after repeated listens, the sense of menace on 'Crying Lightning' won me over.

45) Baddies - Open One Eye
[YouTube]
A thrilling opening which barely relents along the way from a band cited as a meeting of QOTSA and The Futureheads.

44) Chapel Club - Surfacing
[MySpace]
Imagine if Interpol covered 'Dream A Little Dream Of Me'. Intriguing. All the more so as I can't tell whether this was released on its November release date or not.

43) Blue Roses - Does Anyone Love Me Now?
This track appeared on one of my old podcasts, capturing the delight and wonder of Blue Roses' mystical folk leanings.

42) Little Comets - One Night In October
[YouTube]
Indie-pop done right, with hints of Vampire Weekend and The Maccabees.

41) Dan Black - Alone
Not quite the brilliance of last year's Festive Fifty topper 'HYPNTZ' but perfect indie dancefloor fodder.

40) Gossip - Love Long Distance
As much as I hate Beth Ditto, she has a great voice. Strong melody on the chorus to this cavorting disco number.

39) Banjo Or Freakout - Upside Down
[YouTube]
Alessio pulls it off again, this time with a burst of breezy, dream pop.

38) The Sound Of Arrows - Into The Clouds

The Sound of Arrows - Into the Clouds (Music video) from The Sound of Arrows on Vimeo.

Magical song. Magical video. Magical artwork. The future of Europop? Look out for more in 2010.

37) The Victorian English Gentlemens Club - Watching The Burglars
"Rumbling basslines, dissonant guitars, eccentric lyrics and catchy hooks" is what I said here, where you can have a listen.

36) Johnny Foreigner - Criminals
Spiralling guitar lines, crashing drums and the usual boy-girl vocals make this a bit by-numbers but still one of the singles of 2009.

35) Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work
Bustling indie-pop from one of the bands I tipped for the BBC Sound of 2010 poll.

34) Metric - Help I'm Alive
After starting off in a mellow, engaging manner with echoing vocals, 'Help I'm Alive' loses its way a bit after the intro, occasionally dropping into Miley Cyrus territory before regaining composure.

33) Vampire Weekend - Horchata

Picking up where the stunning debut record left off. Magical afro-pop.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND - HORCHATA

32) The XX - Crystalised
The obvious single from the self-titled album. Slow burning, brooding, pseudo-minimalism.

31) Jónsi - Boy Lilikoi
Not quite Sigur Ros but 'Boy Lilikoi' effervesces as every turn, bubbling under with a joyous sense of wonder. This fan-made video is a perfect accompaniment.

JONSI - BOY LILIKOI

30) Phoenix - Lisztomania
Setting the tone for a brilliant album, a simple but wonderful electro pop track.

29) The High Wire - Odds & Evens
This song is so fuzzy, it's almost like it's a beautiful summer's day and your best mate has come along and just given you a massive hug.

28) Pearl Jam - The Fixer
Finally, a Pearl Jam song to put up there with 'Alive'. A punchy alt-rock track with strong melodies.

27) Ebony Bones - The Muzik
A tribal dancefloor hit by a surprisingly ignored act, possibly hurt by her (faux?) eccentricities.

26) Fight Like Apes - Something Global
"GIVE ME MY HOOK" screams May-Kay repeatedly and perhaps ironically in this unrelenting, punchy synthpop album opener.

25) Walls - Burnt Sienna
Bending the rules a bit here. A mysterious, thudding instrumental from a joint collab between Banjo Or Freakout and allez-allez.

WALLS - BURNT SIENNA

24) Kids Love Lies - Count In My Head
The opening '1,2,3,4' gambit annoys me immensely but from there on, this is scuzzy, playful, catchy pop. Bit like Fight Like Apes' little sister.

23) Tubelord - Propeller
Hard, fast, slow, soft. If At The Drive-In did pop songs.

22) Good Shoes - The Way My Heartbeats
Interesting divergence from the immediacy of the first album but still with anthemic aspirations. Read more and download here.

21) Jack Penate - Tonight's Today
A splendidly unexpected turn from a much maligned character. His take on afro-pop.

20) Clock Opera - White Noise

Clock Opera - White Noise from Aoife McArdle on Vimeo.

Melodramatic pop song. Slightly bizarre, slightly exciting. Download b-side 'Alouette' here.

19) The Joy Formidable - Cradle
[YouTube]
"All I want to see is the end of this". I don't. The shoegaze-meets-pop comparison is lazy but that doesn't make 'Cradle' any less compelling, with its dizzying vocal hooks.

18) Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land
"The horns and string arrangements give the single a wonderful richness but I can't help feeling that it's a little tepid in comparison to Frightened Rabbit's previous output." Still, very good though. Download a live version here. The b-side 'Fun Stuff' is arguably even better, if you can see past the amateurish production.

17) Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling
I'm not even sure that the song title makes sense. What I am sure about is that this is an impeccable feel good anthem that makes up for the abortion that was 'Boom Boom Pow'. Mazel tov.

16) Bombay Bicycle Club - Always Like This
I called this Bombay Bicycle Club's finest work (in a post which has mysteriously disappeared, obviously thanks to Blogger and the IFPI being cunts - it was a cleared James Rutledge remix), a compelling mix of Vampire Weekend and Modest Mouse.

15) Pomegranates - Everybody Come Outside
[Last.fm]
"Playful vocals are enveloped in an irresistable warm fuzz and moments of quiet intensity, recalling the likes of Radiohead and Arcade Fire, intersperse an overwhelming sense of hypnotic rhythm that a Vampire Weekend or a Strokes would be proud of." Download here.

14) Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes
I've never really understood the love for Animal Collective but 'Summertime Clothes' clicked with me. Particularly due to the compelling Letterman performance. This experimental pop single has had me bouncing up and down.

13) Run Toto Run - Sleepyhead

Run Toto Run won over the blogosphere with this amazing cover of an already amazing Passion Pit song. The transitions between mandolin and violin are wonderful. Perhaps even better than the original.

12) Patrick Wolf - Hard Times
[YouTube]
Thankfully, not the single with the ridiculous bondage video but instead the one with incisive strings, Wolf's soaring vocals, and a majestic backing choir.

11) Passion Pit - Moth's Wings
[YouTube]
For a long time, I thought that Passion Pit were the new Black Kids (i.e one hit wonders with nothing left in the tank). 'Moth's Wings' proved just how wrong I was and a fantastic debut album followed. This sounds "sounds a bit like Michael Jackson covering the amazing Talking Heads track, 'Once In A Lifetime'." Download here

10) Fucked Up - Do They Know It's Christmas?
[YouTube]
"WELL TONIGHT THANK GOD IT'S THEM, INSTEAD OF JEEEEEEEEWWWWWSSS". Forget RATM. Forget X Factor Joe. This should have been UK Christmas #1. A cover of the Band Aid single, featuring all your favourite alternative heroes (Ezra Koenig, Kevin Drew, Andrew WK, Kyp Malone, Tegan And Sara, Yo La Tengo etc). And all for charity too.

9) The Big Pink - Dominos
[YouTube]
It's not big, it's not clever and it's been on a million adverts. But 'Dominos' still remains the singalong chorus of 2009. "THESE GIRLS FALL LIKE DOMINOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS"

8) Los Campesinos! - The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future

The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future from Los Campesinos! on Vimeo.

This free download was another step away from their twee days and towards a dynamically moody sound, contrasting both hope and hopelessness. Amazing lyrically, beautiful musically.

LOS CAMPESINOS! - THE SEA IS A GOOD PLACE TO THINK OF THE FUTURE

7) These New Puritans - We Want War

A 7 minute "comeback" single. Would you expect anything less from one of the most progressively brilliant bands around? Hip hop influences, operatic backing vocals and an overwhelming feeling of dread.

6) Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
[Pitchfork TV]
A brilliantly exotic taste of the forthcoming second album from Brooklyn's Yeasayer. "Stick up for yourself son, never mind what else done". Download here.

5) The Drums - Let's Go Surfing
[YouTube]
Matching Peter, Bjorn and John in the whistling stakes, 'Let's Go Surfing' was a statement of intent. The Drums do pop and they do it incredibly well.

4) Just Jack - Embers

Embers

JUST JACK>> ON TOUR OCT/NOV!!! | MySpace Music Videos

An astounding return from a bargain bin popstar. The multi-tracked vocals, handclaps and sweeping strings throughout make this stunning.

3) Jamie T - Sticks 'n' Stones
[YouTube]
A firecracker of a single, as feisty and lyrically compelling as he's ever been. Building on previous album 'Panic Prevention' and perhaps even surpassing anything from that.

2) The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition

Shimmering dream pop, with a beautiful lead vocal, jangly guitars and a pulsating drum beat. The perfect soundtrack to one of the year's best films '(500 Days of) Summer'.

1) King Charles - Love Lust

"The galloping drums, shredding guitar lines, sci-fi sound effects, double tracked vocals and brilliant lyrics ("with a guitar in my hand or a gun in my hand, I'd give it all up for your hand in my hand") make this psychedelic prog-folk ballad one of the singles of the year." Or so I said a couple of months ago. And here we are, where I'm proclaiming it my favourite song of 2009.

Download a live version here.

Los Camp! Take Two

Pretend Welsh seven piece Los Campesinos! have announced details of a new album, due out in October?! Their debut album 'Hold On Now, Youngster...' was only released in February so they are being eager beavers. Here's what they had to say:

Los Campesinos! are very happy to announce the release of a new record. Coming on October 13th is 'We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed': ten brand new tracks recorded in Seattle from June 12-23rd with our dear friend Mr John Goodmanson (Blonde Redhead, Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, Wedding Present, Wu Tang) and mixed immediately after at Monnow Valley in Wales.

And despite 'Hold On Now, Youngster...' being only 5 or so months old, LC! wanted to emphasise that this is no post-album cash in.

It's no B-Sides and rarities or "songs that weren't good enough to be on the album cobbled together with some remixes and field recordings of Cardiff's indie scene"; it's ten all-new tracks that none of you have ever heard before.

So the tracklisting looks like this:

1. Ways To Make It Through The Wall
2. Miserabilia
3. We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
4. Between An Erupting Earth And An Exploding Sky
5. You'll Need Those Fingers For Crossing
6. It's Never That Easy Though, Is It? (Song For The Other Kurt)
7. The End Of The Asterisk
8. Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown # 1
9. Heart Swells/Pacific Daylight Time
10. All Your Kayfabe Friends

ALSO...

News to come shortly on a tour featuring the best line-up to grace these (UK) shores since the NME one with Andrew WK!

Love, as ever, LC! X

As far as I'm aware, none of the songs have been previewed live yet so should be exciting to get those first listens in. People (i.e Drownedinsound.com messageboard folk) are hinting at No Age and Times New Viking as supports, which wouldn't surprise me at all. In celebration of the news, I've got an Usher vs Los Camp mash-up which has been on repeat for weeks on my computer. [The Hood Internet], who are both prolific and brilliant, have mixed 'Love In This Club' with Los Camp album closer '2007, The Year Punk Broke (My Heart)' to surprisingly ace effect.

USHER VS LOS CAMPESINOS! - THE YEAR THIS CLUB BROKE (MY HEART)

n.b this post is dedicated to an old school friend of mine who I just found out has passed away. I'm pretty gutted but I hope he would have liked this track. 2005 cricket tour wouldn't have been the same without you and it was a pleasure to have known you. RIP Mitesh Patel (1988-2008).

The Two Year Itch Part One

As part of my second birthday celebrations here at Keep Hope Inside, I invited a selection of my favourite music bloggers to offer their opinions on their favourite British album of the last couple of years. We'll be having a couple of pieces everyday for the next few days, under the slightly rubbish feature title of 'The Two Year Itch'. A big thank you to every blogger who wrote something!

First up is Simon of [Sweeping The Nation], probably my favourite British music blog. I guess it could be seen as the British version of Largehearted Boy. But better. Simon addressed the debut Los Campesinos! album, 'Hold On Now, Youngster...', read below:

The internet age has allowed us to theoretically get closer to our musical favourites, sending them Myspace comments of lust that only their management will ever really notice. Such is the speed of online movement that it feels far longer ago than it actually is that it wasn't all at the user's fingertips. Once upon a time, when 56kbps seemed like luxury, information was disseminated by a process of online Chinese whispers. Certain records were like religious icons, available from certain places perhaps only when the moon was in a certain part of the sky and with the aid of a magic word. The famed Belle & Sebastian mailing list Sinister once set out to track down all 1,000 original vinyl copies of 'Tigermilk' as if they were lost parts of some little known dinosaur or mythological document. Now, you can download such records in digitally transferred mp3 quality for a smaller outlay and have them sitting there disposably on your desktop My Music folder to do as you see fit with them. The whole process has been altered irrevocably.

The best thing about Los Campesinos!, the thing that for a slowly ageing pale indie boy like myself who was there with the Teen-C glitter kids in 1997, is that not only are they one of those bands, but the people in it are far more than likely seven of those people, taking in and discussing Broken Social Scene and Pavement but also Kenickie and Ballboy. There's a song on 'Hold On Now, Youngster...' called 'Knee Deep At ATP' which namechecks not only the selective holiday camp festival but also K Records and sums up a person as "you're the B-side", yet it's still a delicately poetic of the moment Gareth realised "so long as I value people according to what bands they like I am making myself expendable. Because there will always be somebody who likes the same bands as me, but is vastly more attractive or can drive or is a less fussy eater." And that's how Los Campesinos! won, through undermining expectations - loose enough to fulfil the falling apart pop criteria but tight enough to create a wall of melodic noise. The lyrics quote high and low culture, cynical but also hopeful, touching a nerve in a certain person who "spent the last seven years perched on the edge of my bed scratching 'I am incredibly sincere' into my forearms". They found initial attention through demos on Myspace, but they feel to their hardcore that this is their band, just for them.

Los Campesinos! - 'Hold On Now, Youngster...' (released February 25th 2008)

LOS CAMPESINOS! - KNEE DEEP AT ATP

Los Campesinos! vs Heavenly

Indiepop 'darlings' Los Campesinos! recently released 'The International Tweexcore Underground', a pretty amazing take on warring musical tastes, with Gareth on the twee side ("I never cared about Henry Rollins") and Aleks representing hardcore ("I never cared about Calvin Johnson"). Great video to boot, take a peek below. And not only that, they decided to flank that song with two cover versions (one twee, one hardcore) so that it would be a concept single. Crazy bananas.



Their cover of Black Flag's 'Police Story' didn't agree with me at all but I think their remake of 90's twee band, Heavenly's 'C Is The Heavenly Option' (or should that be Twee Is The Heavenly Option....sorry) is possibly my favourite cover this year. And considering how much I love covers, that is high praise indeed. Okay, they are just taking an already good song and adding a slight modern twist, LC! stylee, but maybe it's that relative simplicity which appeals to me. I think Calvin Johnson sounds a bit funny on the original too. It reminds me far too much of the B52s. Not that that's always a bad thing but it is here. Anyways, the LC! cover is below but for posterity, I've decided to upload the original as well - which do you prefer? It's like VHS vs Betamax all over again.

But the A-side is even better so I'm sticking that up as well. Admittedly, only a live version because you should buy the single obviously! Although (brace yourself for some rare negativity) I'm not sure LC! do the business live. I saw them again recently at ULU in London and thought there was something lacking. The sound in the venue wasn't that great though and they did a fantastic dance to 'Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks' but it's a bit sad if a gimmick is the best bit of your performance. On a brighter note, the album is almost destined to be a good un!

Los Campesinos! - C Is The Heavenly Option [Yourfilehost link]//[Sendspace link]
Heavenly - C Is The Heavenly Option [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]
Los Campesinos! - The International Tweexcore Underground (Live At London Calling) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]

'The International Tweexcore Underground' is available in all good record stores and download stores (iTunes etc). Los Campesinos! are also hitting Europe and USA, check their [website] for further details.

New Arctic Monkeys (albeit live) tracks

Salutations, I know everyone's turned into a music snob and now hates the Arctic Monkeys (it doesn't help that they seem to act like complete twats everytime they appear in the media a lá Lily Allen) but I've found some live versions of tracks that will be appearing on their new album 'Favourite Worst Nightmare'.

Obviously with the live recordings, the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired so it'd be unfair to judge the new material until better recordings appear. Nonetheless, first impressions seem to have already made the melodic 'Fluorescent Adolescent' a fan favourite with its catchy chorus. The stomping 'D Is For Dangerous' has the same energy 'Fake Tales Of San Francisco' did and the first single from the album, 'Brianstorm' is like the bastard child of Klaxons (producer James Ford's influence perhaps?) and Muse.

Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent (Live) // Sendspace download link
Arctic Monkeys - D Is For Dangerous (Live) // Sendspace link
Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm (Live At The Morecambe Dome) // Sendspace link

So far, so good I'd say.
-----
A couple of other new tracks I've come across are from the interesting new electro side project of The Wombats and MC Lars. The new MC Lars track comes courtesy of Live105 [link] and although nowhere near as great as his past material, still shows off some of his post-punk laptop rap skill. Perhaps a bit tongue in cheek but 2 Many JDs show they can not only produce brilliant indie pop as part of The Wombats but also bang out an impressive electro tunes. Good times.

MC Lars - White Kids Aren't Hyphy // Sendspace link
2 Many JDs - Intertwined // Sendspace link
-----
Oh and if you haven't already, hot foot it over to the Los Campesinos! website to download their new single. For free. How awesome of them. Relive my interview with them [link].

Los Campesinos! Interview!

You must have heard about Welsh-yet-not-so-Welsh uni student collective Los Campesinos! by now. If not, you've either been living under a rock or you actually have a life that doesn't involve the internet. Taking the best bits of American indie pop and adding their own secret ingredients, simply put they're grrrrreat. Better than Frosties in fact. But with no press release or biog in sight, Keep Hope Inside seeks to unpeel the layers of the Los Campesinos! onion....

Let's start with the basics, in a Cilla-Black-Blind-Date format. What's yer name and where d'ya come from?
Gareth: We are three sevenths Somerset, two sevenths London-way, one seventh Northern and a last seventh Russian. None of us are actually Welsh, but Cardiff is where we are home and happy. It’s our favourite city I think.
Neil: I’m Neil, the Northern part of Los Campesinos!. Neil, the token Northerner.
Harriet: I’m from Surrey but my gran is from the Rhonda Valley and her dad was a miner so he wouldn’t mind us being called a Welsh band. Also, my grandad on the non-Welsh side was in the navy and once spent a night in Cardiff prison when his ship left without him.
Gareth: I think that qualifies us as Welsh!

How did Los Campesinos! form?
G: I’m afraid the formation isn’t a very exciting story. It’s just a tale of friendship and indie snobbery. Basically we stopped recruiting when we were able to afford to hire practice rooms.
N: It's quite a romantic story. It started initially with the four of us when I was out and chatting about The Decemberists and Tom stuck his head into the conversation. He’d been in my lectures for a year and I didn’t even notice him. Or his hat. I live with Gareth and I knew Harriet and Ellen knew Alex. The band came together really naturally some time in March.

Where did the band name come from?
G: Once upon a time Neil was fluent in Spanish, and so I guess that’s where the idea for the name came. It doesn’t mean anything though.
N: Well, it literally means the peasants but the meaning has changed due to Spain’s social changes. It doesn’t actually mean anything to us though.
G: I just like the fact that it sounds nice and looks nice written down. The exclamation mark was added in an attempt to make us cool and hip. Actually, thinking about it, I think the initial idea for the exclamation mark may have been a joke. A good joke though.

There seems to be a Peruvian folk outfit who share your name, will you be Ctrl+Alt+Deleting their faces anytime soon?
G: Haha, quite crucially those folksters don’t have an exclamation mark in their name, so we’re hoping that that saves us. Also, there’s the comfort that I’d imagine nobody in Peru will ever hear of us.

Fellow Cardiff centric band The Victorian English Gentlemen's Club are also beginning to make it into the media spotlight - is there a burgeoning new music scene in Cardiff that we should know about?
G: Cardiff has an awesome music scene. If you manage to avoid the angry teenagers forming shouty bands in the valleys then bands such as Gindrinker, Little My And Friends, Yossarian, Stray Borders, Silence At Sea and Sweet Baboo are all really exciting and worth listening to.
N: Gareth’s got this one covered. Cardiff has an excellent music scene.
H: Yes, it’s fantastic to be in such good company.

How does it feel to be a quoteunquote blogging sensation?
G: I think it’s quite nice, as it is easy to avoid. It’s lovely when people have nice things to say about us, but I also find it quite scary, as, well, things were never meant to happen like this. Though it’s easy to hide from the internet, so I don’t know how big a deal it is.
N: It’s quite exciting, although weird. We were on The Hype Machine thing in the top 10 for 1 week. What’s that all about? The Peruvian Los Campesinos must have had a chart hit that week.

'It Started With A Mixx' seems to be inspired by Hot Chocolate's 'It Started With A Kiss' - why did you decide to "rework" that track?
G: It was just in case people ever got confused, I wanted to highlight the fundamental difference between myself and Errol brown. Whereas he gets to do kissing, I make mixx tapes for girls to try to make them love me. Somebody wrote about this song and said it was satire. It is completely not. Each word is from the bottom of my pathetic, simpering heart. If a single person puts this on a mixx tape for somebody they are trying to impress then my life will be whole. It mightn’t be very subtle though. That must be where I’m going wrong.

Following the fantastic news Los Campesinos! are about to support Broken Social Scene (huzzah!), are there any other bands about at the moment that you'd love to play with?
G: After the inevitable embarrassment I cause myself at this gig, I am going to hope and pray that we never get offered to play with a band I like, ever again.
N: I don’t think there’s another band around right now that I’d like to play with more. I’m shitting my pants already.
H: I know its going to be mega!

With major label interest around the corner (perhaps already here?), are there any plans to release a single/EP or a full scale tour in the near future?
G: We would love to do all those things. We just need to find people that will let us, and help us organise it because we’re rubbish at organising stuff.
N: We’ve still got one year of uni left, which means we’re going to be taking things quite slowly. A full scale tour is something that we all want to do. Touring sounds like the best thing ever.

Los Campesinos! - It Started With A Mixx
For other tracks and to read more about them, check out The Hype Machine [link]

And there you have it, my first ever band "interview" and apparently only the second one Los Campesinos! have done. I think their first one was with a porn mag. Awesome. Let me know what you thought of my interview and many thanks go to Gareth, Neil and Harriet Los Campesinos! for being ace.