Los Campesinos! A Journey Through Their Music

 

Los Campesinos! is an indie pop band from Wales formed in early 2006 at Cardiff University.

History

The only remaining original members are Gareth Paisey (vocals), Neil Turner (guitar) and Tom Bromley (guitar), followed by Rob Taylor (guitar), Kim Paisey (keyboards and vocals), Matt Fidler (bass guitar) and Jason Adelinia (drums), but as stage names, they all replace their surnames with "Campesinos!", that in Spanish translates to "peasant" or "country person".

The band's earliest compositions were influenced by post-rock, though no recordings from this era are known to circulate publicly.

The band performed their first gig on 8 May 2006 at a student union club night and an early demo was recorded featuring the songs "Death To Los Campesinos!", "It Started With A Mixx", "Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks", and "You! Me! Dancing!". The songs were posted on the band's Myspace account, making their reputation grow. In November 2006, the band were signed by Wichita Recordings.

Early Career

They debuted in 2008 with the album “Hold on now, Youngster”, that introduced their listeners to the indie rock/pop themes. The same year, they released “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed”, much angstier and angrier than the songs released previously.

 

Between 2009 and 2010, Los Campesinos! Released their third and most famous album “Romance is Boring”, preceded by the single "The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future" and by "There Are Listed Buildings", released between September and November 2009.

 Quite different songs compared to the band’s fourth studio album, “Hello Sadness” had slower songs, described by Gareth as having a more pop-oriented sound, it was preceded by "By Your Hand", released as a free download in September, and title track "Hello Sadness" in October 2011. To promote the album the band played several tour dates across the UK, the US and Japan. 

 

In August 2013, the band released a teaser trailer for their fifth album, No Blues. Lead single "What Death Leaves Behind", released on SoundCloud as a free download. This was followed by a second single, "Avocado, Baby", released in October. No Blues was officially released on 29 October 2013.

A year later, on the 8^th of December 2014, the band released a six-song Christmas EP, “A Los Campesinos! Christmas”.

On 24 February 2017, the band released their sixth studio album “Sick Scenes”, preceded by singles "I Broke Up in Amarante" and "5 Flucloxacillin" and was accompanied by the announcement of the band's North American tour.

Recent times

In 2018, the band announced that their first two albums would be remastered and reissued on vinyl on 12 October, with an additional EP featuring unreleased tracks, they also announced that they would perform a concert in commemoration of both albums' tenth anniversary show on 13 October at the London Forum.

In February 2020, the band performed the album's full track listing at two sold-out shows at Islington Assembly Hall.

Two songs of the band, both from their first album, are incorporated in the 2021 animated film, “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”.

On 7 May 2021, the band released Whole Damn Body, an EP of remastered tracks from the Hello Sadness era, and, as confirmed by Garreth in an interview in 2021, they’re now working on their seventh album, but in 2023 the remastered version of “No Blues” came out.

 

 

If what I told you about this band has got you intrigued and you’d like to listen to some of their songs, I may suggest you to start with “Allez Les Blues”, “Romance is Boring”, “Knee Deep at ATP”, “Straight in at 101” and “Miserabilia”.

 

Today’s Blogger

Hello there! I'm Lucrezia Pelliccia, a 16-year-old student in the third year of Liceo Scientifico. I have a passion for artistic expression, which includes drawing, painting, and writing. I find solace and inspiration in the world of art. Additionally, music is a significant part of my life, with a particular fondness for indie rock.