“You’re looking at me like you only half believe my story”
Otherwise known as a Los Campesinos! gig review.
I genuinely didn’t know what to expect from this gig, as for only the second time in about 3 years, I paid £8 (or over) to get in. It was full inside, and the Custard Factory didn’t seem crippled by poor sound which sometimes haunts performances there. It was still very chilly though. Some things remain comfortingly similar.
Weirdly, in my head, Los Campesinos can be described as indiepop (on first hearing I thought they were a bit like Lardpony) although I know that some would say otherwise. Also excitingly, some members of the crowd (who like me were stood in a I-like-this-band-but-right-down-at-the-front-smells-like-teen-spirit-so-lets-stand-in-the-10th-row-back way) thought the same, and we overheard the group next to us say words such as “twee” and “Field Mice”. I made a mental note to flyer them at the end.
The lyric “Sarah Records never meant anything to me” still sends nasty shivers down my spine, especially when I first read it taken out of the context of the song. I’m 99% certain they don’t mean it as they cover C is the Heavenly Option on the B Side of their new single, and if the cover gets people into Heavenly, and then tracing that branch of the musical tree through to modern day indiepop then I’m entirely happy.
Whether you think they’re indiepop or not, I wish that some indiepop supports familiar with some of the same reference points as Los Campesinos! had the chance of wider exposure by supporting them, rather than other similarly hotly tipped international bright young things such as You Say Party! We Say Die! who supported tonight.
As it was You Say Party! We Say Die! put in a surprisingly good support performance. I say surprising as I’d lumped them in with much of the modern electro thing that’s going on, which is a scene that has yet to reach out and inspire me in a big way since the last Miss Kittin album - if that is even electro - I’m not sure when electro’s year zero was, I just remember being in the main room at Snobs about a year ago and having an unexpected electro half hour happen around me.
Los Campensinos! were bouncy down the front. There was dancing between rows 1 and 9, and obviously everything danced just that little bit harder for You! Me! Dancing! and if I hadn’t of been wearing my massive duffel coat then I may have got stuck in myself at some point. I really enjoyed this gig!
They played It Started with a Mixx last night too - this was the first Los Campesinos! song that I ever heard and of course, I love compilation tapes – making/swapping/planning/receiving – and the more songs about swapping compilation tapes the better. This song takes me one step closer to the dream of making a themed compilation tape about compilation tapes (if you know of any more then please let me know).
Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks was the final song of the night and it’s probably my favourite Los Campesinos! song too. The opening line is an absolutely stonking declaration of small scale indie intent and how buggered we all would be if it started acting just like it’s mainstream self. If you’re reading this then you probably already know that, but it’s a fair point to make if you have the pedestal - much how in a similar way I will always declare Edwyn Collins an absolute genius for taking the words “Too many protest singers, not enough protest songs” into the European Top 5. Amongst the other things that he’s done that has meant a lot to so many.
Sadly, when I flyered outside afterwards, I ran out of flyers for the next Autumn Store before the people who were talking about the Field Mice came out. Curses.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:11 am
[...] Dunc went to see Los Campesinos! at the Custard [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:57 am
Hello!
I’d heard things about the Campesinos but only got round to seeing them at Glastonbury earlier this year and they were fantastic to get your swerve onto in the rain/sun/rain/cloudy windyness so I thought I just had to see them when they next popped into Birmingham.
They were super and brilliant and yeah can’t really say more than you did already. I am sure they are Heavenly fans what with the original version of C is the… featuring Calvin Johnson and him running The International Pop Underground festival thingy and blah blah, anyways the lead Campesinos guy seemed genuinely thrilled when he spotted someone in the crowd wearing a Black Flag t-shirt. That’s a bit of a ramble, I was just trying to say that they must like all the Sarah Records stuffs to know so much about everything. Blah end of paragraph, onto a more coherent one hopefully.
Last Autumn Store at the Sunflower Lounge was my first time out and I had a brilliant time despite having to leave due to friends being moody about the music. I can’t wait for next time out and I can’t believe it took me so long to find somewhere in Birmingham which plays the kind of wussy girly music I love.
Keep up the good work.
October 24th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Purely out of curiosity: What do people describe Los Campesinos as if not indie-pop?
Taxonomy, ain’t it great.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Good question, we could get in a right kerfuffle trying to establish the limits of a genre and what is and what isn’t in it - but it’s an exercise in futility. A fun exercise in futility, but futility nevertheless.
I suppose indiepop is a small subgenre of much wider terms such as indie, or guitar based music (I know) which you could equally use to describe LC!
What you have to remember though is that to many, myself included, the word indiepop is more meaningful than simply “an indie band with a sense of melody”. It can be used to describe a very specific style of music and also generally implies certain ethical standards about the way the music is produced and distributed etc, along with the sense of melody.
Some of the references on the Wikipedia entry about indiepop are very good if you want to get a feel for the genre (I’m assuming here that you’re not already and I’m sorry if this is a bad assumption) - I’d especially recommend David Cavannagh’s book on Creation Records called My Magpie Eyes are Hungry for the Prize which sets the scene for modern day indie very well then follows Creation Records through the 80’s and to the point where - I would argue - the history of indie (as the term is generally used) and indiepop diverge around the time of Baggy.
Of course that’s just my overly idealistic opinion on what ‘indiepop’ means to me. Different people will have a completely different view on what indiepop is. It will probably include Heavenly though…
October 25th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Sorry, I can’t be bothered to log in. I’ve found a discussion about what is Indiepop on Anorak too - http://anorak.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=399.
October 26th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
…All of which was a very thorough answer to a completely different question to that which I asked.
October 27th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
no, los campesinos! are not indiepop
October 27th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
oh, i just re-read yr question: student pop.
October 27th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Is that a bit like college rock.
October 28th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
yea, but slightly more camp. so like the uk version of college rock maybe.
saying that, i am currenty reading a book about norwegian black-metal neo-nazi satanist murderers. so maybe my twee-dar is a little skewed right now.