On Repeat: Los Campesinos!: "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives" b/w "Don't Tell Me to Do the Math(s)"
Cheeky indie-popsters Los Campesinos! may know us better than we know ourselves. MySpace hit "You! Me! Dancing!", from the Cardiff, Wales seven(!)-some's demo, made beer-soaked indie night club floors safe for kids who mostly listen to dance music alone on their headphones. Now signed to Wichita, the punctuation-bedecked Camps answer all the first big question marks with this double A-sided debut single. Their reply: Yes!
"We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives" returns to the scene of the group's earlier social anxiety with zippy guitars, more glockenspiel, and lead singer Gareth Campesino! still over-thinking his fun in the funnest ways. For the video, director Monkmus makes animated hay with the song's martial imagery, but Gareth could just as well be a cross-armed indie snob throwing verbal daggers. "It's your party, but I'll die if I want to," he sniffs, then talks shit about the house band's lousy lead singer. It's all in good spirits, though. After the smoke clears from an explosive instrumental breakdown, team Campesino! go trick-or-treating-- in August. Those red stains on the floor? "They're not blood, they're cherryade." Whew.
MP3 (removed)
[from the Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP; out July 3 on Arts & Crafts]
On the flip, "Don't Tell Me to Do the Math(s)" reverses the band's usual M.O., bringing the dance floor to the bookstore rather than vice versa. Dewey decimals and Jane Eyre disses get a lift from a potent guitar hook, violins, and still more glockenspiel. "Tonight we're gonna smash this place up," Los Camps exclaim, "And then we're gonna deck it out in fairy lights/ Till we are content." Before long, Gareth is putting some moves on his bookish belle. See, kids? Reading is sexy. And so are you, neurotic indie-pop people.
MP3 (removed)
[from the Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP; out July 3 on Arts & Crafts]