The grass is greener
over the ocean

>> Los Campesinos! love us, and have
mixed feelings about themselves

GODSPEED YOU! WELSH INDIE KIDS: Los Campesinos!

By LORRAINE CARPENTER

Rarely does Canada receive news reports from Wales, despite our Commonwealth connections, comparable bilingualism and similar socialist tendencies. So it was surprising to see word of a spectacular assault in North Wales last week: “‘Darth Vader’ spared jail in Jedi church attacks” read the Associated Press headline, in reference to a drunken man in a garbage-bag cape having attacked the founders of Britain’s first Jedi church, mid-lightsabre battle.

“Oh my God, that’s amazing!” says Ellen of Los Campesinos! (translation from Spanish: “the peasants”), a septet based in the southern capital, Cardiff. “North Wales is quite rural, so maybe they ran out of activities. That isn’t something that happens often, I wish it did though. People dressing up as sci-fi characters, attacking each other…”

Los Campesinos! would love Montreal. Between our medieval mountain battles, zombie walks and Fantasia film fest, this is clearly a city of nerds, nerds with social lives. And, lest we forget the music nerds, Montreal bands make up half of Los Campesinos!’s list of influences.

Their debut album, Hold on Now, Youngster, was released by Arts & Crafts, and recorded in Toronto with Broken Social Scene’s David Newfeld. Their punk-inflected big-band pop (which some journalists have referred to as “glock rock,” after the ubiquitous glockenspiel) is certainly more akin to Canada’s middle east than the lad-rock that dominates the U.K.’s airwaves and press.

“There’s much more variety in Canada and the U.S. than there is in England, where the market influences the trends,” she says. “As soon as, say, the Arctic Monkeys or the Libertines become famous, hundreds of copycat bands appear. It’s really boring.”

That’s one reason why the band has resisted the temptation to move to London, to stay away from the careerist bandwagon acts. Though none of the members of the band are from Wales originally (they met at Cardiff University), they prefer the vibrancy and variety of the Cardiff scene (another scenario that may sound familiar to Montrealers).

“We don’t really need to be in London to make it as a band. There’d be no point in that, unless you wanted to continually play the London circuit, and that wouldn’t enamour you to the rest of the country. It’s only two hours to London by train anyway, and we’re quite happy here. We like Welsh people, we like Wales. It’s lovely.”

Ellen has made a habit of positivity since her band’s lead singer Gareth began to earn a reputation for “slagging” other bands. “Four sweaty boys with guitars tell me nothing about my life” is as specific as he gets in his impeccably well-written and probably Morrissey-inspired lyrics—like Morrissey, he also favours annoyingly lengthy song titles, though vocally he’s closer to the Buzzcocks’ Pete Shelley, and his smart-ass socio-political commentary, self-deprecation and insult comedy put him in another class altogether. According to Ellen, he’s not attempting to instigate a beef, despite the publicity that would generate for the band.

“He’s quite precious about the bands he likes and he’s equally passionate about the bands he doesn’t like,” she says, laughing at his so-called “hate list.”

“Generally, we try not to offend people.”

With Jeffrey Lewis & the Jitters at
Petit Campus tonight,
Thursday, May 22, 9 p.m., $15