History Music / LosCampesinos

The band is a seven-piece, all all of whom have adopted the [[ThemeNaming shared last name "Campesinos"]]: Gareth (vocals, lyrics), Tom (guitar), Neil (guitar), Kim (vocals, keyboards), Rob (various instruments), Matt (bass) and Jason (drums). The band initially included singer/keyboardist Aleksandra, but she left the band amicably in 2009 and was replaced by Gareth's sister Kim. Original drummer Ollie left in early 2010 and was replaced by Jason, the band's tour manager and - to an extent, [[TheSixthRanger Rob]] (who had been touring with the band as an additional musician for about a year). A third original band member, violinist and keyboardist Harriet, left the band in September 2011 to continue her studies. A fourth, bassist Ellen, left the band in December 2012 to focus on her writing career, among other projects; The band waited until 2014 to introduce Matt, her replacement.

The band is a seven-piece, all all of whom have adopted the [[ThemeNaming shared last name "Campesinos"]]: Gareth (vocals, lyrics), Tom (guitar), Neil (guitar), Kim (vocals, keyboards, flute), Rob (various instruments), Matt (bass) and Jason (drums). The band initially included singer/keyboardist Aleksandra, but she left the band amicably in 2009 and was replaced by Gareth's sister Kim. Original drummer Ollie left in early 2010 and was replaced by Jason, the band's tour manager and - to an extent, [[TheSixthRanger Rob]] (who had been touring with the band as an additional musician for about a year). A third original band member, violinist and keyboardist Harriet, left the band in September 2011 to continue her studies. A fourth, bassist Ellen, left the band in December 2012 to focus on her writing career, among other projects; The band waited until 2014 to introduce Matt, her replacement.

Although the band received considerable buzz and attention for their 2007 single "You! Me! Dancing!", they never quite found another mainstream breakthrough moment. They have, however, retained an intensely devoted cult following and their critical acclaim, with all six of their albums receiving solid reviews. Over the course of their career, they have moved from their early twee-pop sound to a noisier, indie pop sound that puts emphasis on their tight musicianship and lead singer Gareth's wry, darkly humorous and self-effacing lyrics.

Although the band received considerable buzz and attention for their 2007 single "You! Me! Dancing!", they never quite found another breakthrough moment, but have retained an intensely devoted cult following and their critical acclaim, with all six of their albums receiving solid reviews. Over the course of their career, they have moved from their early twee-pop sound to a noisier, indie pop sound that puts emphasis on their tight musicianship and lead singer Gareth's wry, darkly humorous and self-effacing lyrics.

Although the band received considerable buzz and attention for their 2007 single "You! Me! Dancing!", they never quite found another breakthrough moment, but have retained an intensely devoted audience and their critical acclaim, with all six of their albums receiving solid reviews. Over the course of their career, they have moved from their early twee-pop sound to a noisier, indie pop sound that puts emphasis on their tight musicianship and lead singer Gareth's wry, darkly humorous and self-effacing lyrics.

Although the band received considerable buzz and attention for their 2007 single "You! Me! Dancing!", they never quite found another breakthrough moment and are largely considered to be a cult band that performs to an intensely devoted audience, but otherwise aren't as famous as the other indie rock bands that came up around the same time, like Music/ArcticMonkeys and Music/VampireWeekend. They have, however, retained their critical acclaim, with all six of their albums receiving great reviews. Over the course of their career, they have moved from their early twee-pop sound to a noisier, indie pop sound that puts emphasis on their tight musicianship and lead singer Gareth's wry, darkly humorous and self-effacing lyrics.

Although the band received considerable buzz and attention for their 2007 single "You! Me! Dancing!", they never quite found another breakthrough moment and are largely considered to be a cult band that performs to an intensely devoted audience. They have, however, retained their critical acclaim, with all six of their albums receiving great reviews. Over the course of their career, they have moved from their early twee-pop sound to a noisier, indie pop sound that puts emphasis on their tight musicianship and lead singer Gareth's wry, darkly humorous and self-effacing lyrics.

The band consists of six members who play an array of instruments, all of whom have adopted the [[ThemeNaming shared last name "Campesinos"]]: Gareth (vocals, glockenspiel, songwriting), Tom (guitar), Neil (guitar), Kim (vocals, keyboards, flute), Rob (various instruments) and Jason (drums). The band initially included singer/keyboardist Aleksandra, but she left the band amicably in 2009 and was replaced by Gareth's sister Kim. Original drummer Ollie left in early 2010 and was replaced by Jason, the band's tour manager and - to an extent, [[TheSixthRanger Rob]] (who had been touring with the band as an additional musician for about a year). A third original band member, violinist and keyboardist Harriet, left the band in September 2011 to continue her studies. A fourth, bassist Ellen, left the band in December 2012 to focus on her writing career, among other projects.

Discography
* ''Sticking Fingers into Sockets'' EP (2007)

* ''All's Well That Ends'' EP (2010)

* ''A Good Night for a Fist Fight'' live album (2013)

* ''A Los Campesinos! Christmas'' EP (2014)

* NonAppearingTitle: Quite a few. Among them are "Death to Los Campesinos!", "Plan A", "Who Fell Asleep In", "It's Never That Easy Though, Is It? (Song for [[KurtVonnegut the Other Kurt]])" and "Knee Deep At ATP"

* GenreShift: They had a poppier sound on ''Sticking Fingers into Sockets'' and ''Hold On Now, Youngster...'', but then band's music got darker and noisier on their next few albums. Early WordOfGod had it that ''Hello Sadness'' was to be a slight return to their early poppy sound, but instead it would up being the darkest album they ever released.

* LyricalDissonance: The band's discography has always had somewhat macabre or depressingly contemplative lyrics that seem jarring when put next to their usually upbeat instrumentation. It's become slightly less prominent [[DarkerAndEdgier and more fitting with their recent tracks]], but pops up again every once in awhile. "Avocado, Baby" is a more recent example, revolving around emotional pain and deep existentialism, but it's just so gosh-darn happy-sounding!
* MoodWhiplash: Near the end of ''Romance is Boring,'' the subdued, melancholy, and somewhat bleakly-ended "The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future" is immediately followed by the much more upbeat "This is a Flag, There is No Wind," with all the bandmates happily shouting ''"Can we all please just calm the fuck down!?"''

-->''"My prose is purple, but not as pretty as Lucer-er-er-erne!"''\\
''"For sweet nothings from the lips of a gargoyle, nobody ever yearned."''

* ReligionRantSong: Type 2 on "We've Got Your Back (Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #2)"

* UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball: Pops up ''a lot'' in song lyrics, since everyone in the band (but ''especially'' Gareth) is a fan. In more recent songs especially, he makes many European football references that tend to be really obscure if you're not a fan, such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK2aU9m4nW8 "We connected like a Yeboah volley"]] from "Glue Me". He also likes comparing disappointing tournaments to disappointing relationships, such as in "I Broke Up In Amarante" (which mirrors his feelings towards [[UsefulNotes/EuropeanChampionship Euro 2016]], which he considered "largely terrible"), and "Every Defeat is a Divorce (Three Lions)" (in which he compares a divorce to [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the lions on the English National Football logo coming to life and clawing him to death.)]]

* EpicInstrumentalOpener: The first 1:42 of "You! Me! Dancing!", a gradually building wall of noise before the main riff hits. The sense of anticipation it gives off was used nicely (in abridged form) in a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0kC0YvFwgo recent advertisment for Budweiser beer]]

* UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball: Pops up ''a lot'' in song lyrics, since everyone in the band (but ''especially'' Gareth) is a fan. In more recent songs especially, he makes many European football references that tend to be really obscure if you're not a fan, such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK2aU9m4nW8 "We connected like a Yeboah volley"]] from "Glue Me". He also likes comparing disappointing tournaments to disappointing relationships, such as in "I Broke Up In Amarante" (which mirrors his feelings towards [[EuropeanChampionship Euro 2016]], which he considered "largely terrible"), and "Every Defeat is a Divorce (Three Lions)" (in which he compares a divorce to [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the lions on the English National Football logo coming to life and clawing him to death.)]]

* GenreShift: They had a poppier sound on ''Sticking Fingers into Sockets'' and ''Hold On Now, Youngster...'', but then band's music got darker and noisier on their next few albums. Early WordOfGod had it that ''Hello Sadness'' was to be a slight return to their early poppy sound, but instead it shifted the band into a less noisy and more mature sound.

* InsistentTerminology: The band and their label originally claimed ''We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed'' wasn't their second album. They initially called it an "EEP", an "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Extended Extended Play]]". Wikipedia calls it a "mini-album" instead. By the time ''No Blues'', was released, Gareth had relented to calling ''WABWAD'' their second album; His reasons were that everyone else was doing it anyway and it was more impressive to say that the band had released five albums.

-->-- '''Kohl, ''ComicBook/{{Phonogram}}'''''

* InsistentTerminology: The band and their label originally claimed ''We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed'' wasn't their second album. They initially called it an "EEP", an "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Extended Extended Play]]". Wikipedia calls it a "mini-album" instead. By the time ''No Blues'', was released, Gareth had relented to calling ''WABWAD'' their second albums; His reasons were that everyone else was doing it anyway and it was more impressive to say that the band had released five albums.

* InsistentTerminology: The band and their label initally claimed ''We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" isn't their second album. The band calls it an "EEP", an "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Extended Extended Play]]". Wikipedia calls it a "mini-album" instead. By the time ''No Blues'', was released, Gareth had relented to calling ''WABWAD'' their second albums; His reasons were that everyone else was doing it anyway and it was more impressive to say that the band had released five albums.

* {{Crossover}}: A rather inexplicable one in the music video for "5 Flucloxacillin," which is framed as an episode of the British TV program [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bargain_Hunt Bargain Hunt.]]

* ShoutOut:

*** Another Beautiful South reference comes from the title of "Straight In At 101," referencing the song "Straight in at 37."

** The title of the unreleased song "Tiptoe Through the True Bits" appears to be a reference to [[Music/TinyTim "Tiptoe Through The Tulips."]]

* {{Instrumentals}}: "Between an Erupting Earth and an Exploding Sky" from ''We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed.'' "2007: The Year Punk Broke (My Heart)," ''Hold On Now, Youngster...'s'' HiddenTrack is almost one, only having vocals for the first 30 seconds out of 4 and a half minutes.

* ShoutOut: The "bake phallic cake" line from the song "Romance Is Boring" is a reference to "I Love You (But You're Boring)" by Gareth Campesinos!'s all-time favourite band, Music/TheBeautifulSouth.

** Rob's ''"Graceful, gracious companion"'' part from "By Your Hand" could also count.
** The title of the unreleased song "Tiptoe Through the True Bits" appears to be a reference to [[Music/TinyTim "Tiptoe Through The Tulips."]]

* AlbumTitleDrop: ''We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed'', ''Romance Is Boring'' and ''Hello Sadness'' all feature one within each album's [[TitleTrack title track]]. ''A Good Night For A Fist Fight's'' album title comes from the song "By Your Hand," ''No Blues''' comes from the song "As Lucerne/The Low," and ''Sick Scenes'' comes from the song "Here's to the Fourth Time!"

* ExcitedShowTitle: Aside from the band's name, the song titles "You! Me! Dancing!" and "Death to Los Campesinos!"

* ''Sick Scenes'' (Coming 2017)

* OtherCommonMusicVideoConcepts: "Death to Los Campesinos!" is one of the "In The Studio" ones...until the band starts being attacked (and killed) [[TastesLikeDiabetes by flowers, rainbows, kittens and ribbons]]. Its apparently the band's reaction to being pigeonholed and dismissed as a "twee band".

* SelfDeprecation: lots of it in various lyrics (see the page quote for one example), but it also comes to the fore during Gareth's between-song stage banter on ''AGNFAFF''
** ''"We're all uglier and - a couple of us - substantially fatter than we were back then"''
** ''"This was a single, which means either it was a really popular song, or we released the wrong song as a single. I think we all know which we're more likely to do."''

-->''"I don't want to sound trite, but you are perfect"''

** In 2013, the band started selling t-shirts with the slogan "You! Me! [[TedDanson Danson!]]"

* ArcWords: "Doe eyes" is frequently mentioned in their songs.
** Eyes are a recurring theme in "Hello Sadness," and the phrase "sad eyes" appears in the last three song songs on the album: To Tundra ("We take on the burden of all these sad-eyed children, with lilies bunched in our hands"), Baby, I Got the Death Rattle ("One look in my sad eyes, she had to concede"), and Light Leaves, Dark Sees Pt. II ("But they request that I leave 'cause my sad eyes are too much to bear").