Los Campesinos!

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They’re remastering and repressing Hold On Now, Youngster… and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed on vinyl. The former is getting the deluxe treatment with a second disc of covers (Frontwards :drool:), b-sides and other extraneous tracks, an alt version of the album and updated artwork. The latter is just getting a standard remaster and rerelease. Then in October they’re playing the fucking O2 with a two-set show, first half HON,Y & WAB,WAD the second half the rest of their career. Will try to cop the HON,Y reissue (I’ve already got WAB,WAD) but I’m so jealous about that gig.
 
Still bummed I missed the last NA tour, in that it was devoted to No Blues and Sick Scenes. I haven't seen them since Hello Sadness.

Will likely go to this show because it's a couple blocks from my house, but I'm hoping it's not just all oldies. Unlike the big show in London they have an opening act, which means they won't be playing two longer sets, I'm guessing.
 
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What an amazing couple of nights with Los Campesinos!, guys. Even though I missed the last two tours, I'm glad to see this anniversary sets full of songs from Hold On, Youngster and We are Beautiful, We are doomed. The setlist on the second night was especially awesome:

This Is How You Spell "HAHAHA, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics"
I Broke Up in Amarante
Romance Is Boring
Death to Los Campesinos!
What Death Leaves Behind
By Your Hand
A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; or, Letters from Me to Charlotte
A Slow, Slow Death
Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown # 1
Here's to the Fourth Time!
Miserabilia
Hello Sadness
My Year in Lists
Heart Swells / Pacific Daylight Time
Baby I Got the Death Rattle
Straight In at 101
I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future
Avocado, Baby
Coda: A Burn Scar in the Shape of the Sooner State

Encore:
Cemetery Gaits
You! Me! Dancing!
Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks

It did not look like they were close to calling it quits, and even though the shows were not sold out, there was a sizeable audience both nights. I think we are bound to see them again once they release a new album.
 
Sounds like a blast! You all are making me a little jealous I didn't see them this time, but it's not like it's been ages since my last time, so I'll live.
 
Inspired by the National discussion. LC! Rushmore:

Letters from me to Charlotte
In Media Res
Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks
This is how you spell HAHAHA
 
Just finished reading The Universe Replied, the commemorative book of interviews with the band for the 10th anniversary of Romance is Boring. It details the band's origins and history and then drills deep into the making of that great third album. Only 85 pages but well worth the $10 or so. Came with a handwritten thank you from Gareth himself.

It really made me reflect on the unique place they hold, not just in my own musical interests but in those of indie rock fans. The head of Wichita Records, who signed them and still puts out their albums in the UK/Europe, is quoted a lot and he admits that while none of the albums actually made money, he feels so strongly about his continuing relationship with them and how special they are in terms of their connection with their fanbase and their commitment to quality.

I think the pocketful of LC! fans on this forum can attest to the serendipity of hearing about them here, and I suppose we have Shouter to thank for that (though I'd like to think one of our other members would have picked up the scent at some point). I hadn't been so captivated by a band since Pavement broke up, in terms of feeling like I was hearing music from witty peers of mine (even if the members of LC! are considerably younger than me). And I doubt I will feel that way again about another act.

Anyway, order the book from their website if you're curious. Our past loves Aleks, Ellen, and Harriet all participated in the interviews and it was great to hear from them again.


LC!4LYF
 
Since no one wants to add anything, I'll just continue.

One of the best bits of trivia I learned from the book was that Aleks contributed a key bit of lyrics to Romance is Boring, among the best on the whole album. On Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #2, she came up with the "I've learned more from toilet walls than I've learned from these words of yours/your feelings are buried in scriptures and fiction/it's all in the words but I'm here for the pictures"

That is some damned good stuff.

I still miss Aleks.:sad:

Did some cyberstalking and she wound up finishing her medical degree and PhD, and is doing some interesting work now:



How bizarre it must be to be working in this field and like 10 years earlier you were rocking out on stage with a bunch of indie kids.

Prior to Nesta, Aleks spent two years working on international knowledge transfer and policy engagement for a European Commission project about citizen science in the fields of biodesign and environmental sustainability. Before that, she was at the Science Policy Centre at the Royal Society, focusing on emerging technologies and the societal and ethical implications of machine learning. She holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Imperial College London.

Aleks is passionate about the intersection between the arts and sciences. She has co-curated community-facing Art & Science events programmes and recently collaborated with the artist Stine Marie Jacobsen on the educational project Pidgin Tongue for the inaugural Riga Biennial. In her spare time you can find her looking at art, yoga-ing or running along the canals of London.

Looks like I need to fly to London and take up jogging... :hyper:

And in case you're wondering, Ellen is the host of a weekly comedy night and accompanying podcast called Dear Harry/Spock which is about people writing genre fanfic. According to FB she got engaged over the summer. Sorry GAF or Impy or whoever it was that was Team Ellen.

Yesterday I watched the bonus DVD that came with Beautiful/Doomed and that amateur video tour diary really took me back. So cool seeing these kids in their early 20s getting to play internationally and you can tell that already they have a devout cult following, I loved seeing the girl in the front row at a show in Tokyo mouthing the lyrics, or the other Japanese girls that geeked out to Harriet afterwards and asked for pictures with her.

Anyway, I'll take their discography over any post-2000 band.
 
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Sadly that video I linked to only has 32 views and 0 likes. Well, 1 like now.

Resisted the urge to be the first commenter with "FUCK YEAH ALEKS CAMPESINOS!" in tribute to that old Tumblr page.

Also, not seeing a wedding ring there. Just saying.
 
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Really enjoyed reading this, Laz. I've been o a major LC! kick lately, and will definitely order the book at some point soon. Sounds like a fun read.
 
Finally sat down with the 10th anniversary edition. I don't think I can muster up the emotional energy right now to post about how much Romance is Boring means to me, and how much Los Campesinos! mean to me, because I've just got so much to write. I will one day. It fucking breaks my heart that they haven't been more successful. Definitely a shout-out to Shouter, hope he's ok, wherever he is. I look forward to reading the zine that came with it. It also came with a Happy Valentines Day card signed not just by Gareth, but all of them.

I will just say for now that this album packs an emotional wallop like very, very few other albums have for me. Achtung Baby tops it, but it probably ranks second behind that record, with Silent Alarm the only other record coming to mind. LCD Soundsystem would be just behind U2 in terms of overall output that packs an emotional punch for me.

A few stray notes...
  • "If you were given the option / of dying painlessly in peace at forty-five / but with a lover at your side, after a full and happy life / is this something that would interest you?" is my favourite lyric of all time.
  • "I flew down south to Mexico, had a minor realisation / I understood why the kids draw the sun with its rays emanating" moved me to tears, for some reason. That latter line is so fucking evocative.
  • I Just Sighed is the greatest unrequited love song ever written, and Heat Rash isn't far behind. Those two songs capture incredibly well what it's like to be lovelorn, not just lyrically but musically as well, in a way that no other music has done as effectively.
  • Just the act of listening to this album is so powerful for me; I hear it and I'm instantly transported to so many places. I'm driving my beaten-up car into university. I'm on the train after school flirting with a girl I really liked. I'm beating my chest with excitement after hanging out with a girl I met on a camp. I can envisage the sights, the smells, the rooms, the conversations, the laughs, the thoughts, the weather.
  • I'm a lot happier now than I was then. It can also make me reflect on the past decade and look back with a huge amount of pride at how far I've come, I've made ridiculous amounts of progress, the person I was at 20 would be astonished to see the same dude at 30. But sometimes it feels like the person I was then, and the things that happened, that all were so formative and powerful, and soundtracked by music like this album, happened to a different person. And I wish I could still feel connected to that person sometimes. "Walk out onto your front lawn and face into the rain / shout into the wind, 'this will never be the same'."

:heart::heart::heart:
 
Thanks for sharing your lovely thoughts. Look forward to hearing further reaction to the book and all that.

If you're already an admirer of I Just Sighed, just wait 'til you read the story behind it.
 
There's an argument to be made that Whole Damn Body is better than Hello Sadness, in my opinion.

"Writing sleeper hits for all these weeping dipshits" is one of Gareth's best lines.

And Allez Les Blues is fantastic.

Also, once Whole Damn Body finished, the next song in my iTunes was No Sé Como Te Atreves by Los Planetas, which I'm sure came from a DI, and I genuinely didn't even realise it was not Los Campesinos! until the singing started.
 
I have almost all of these songs since they had been released with the Heat Rash series. So it's even more a non-entity than I had already thought.

There are still like 5 very good-great tracks on Hello Sadness so I think it's a bit much to say that this collection surpasses it. Either way, just not the peak period of the band.


And that was my Desert Island list that had Los Planetas.:wave:
 
I thought it might have been. I was either like you or Gump. Going to listen to the album it's on.

I hadn't heard any of these songs because I just wasn't a big fan of Hello Sadness. I listened to it for the first time in a long time today and it's decent, but it just feels like it really lacks a pulse, urgency. Really feels like it lacks the vivaciousness that I think is on every one of their other records. There's good songs as you say - the first three tracks are great, Life is a Long Time is great aside from the chorus, To Tundra and Death Rattle both build to a good place, but it's my least favourite, and Whole Damn Body feels like it's got the pulse that it lacks.

Might try and make an album out of the two.
 
I did not realise You'll Need Those Fingers For Crossing (becoming more of an LC! favourite) was about bulimia, I thought it was about fingering haha
 
Hell yes. I didn’t think we would get another album from them.
 
Really? I always knew we would and I think there’ll be several more… although it has always felt like they could just call it quits at any moment because they’ve never been able to secure significant success.
 
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