Cardiff-born and Wales-formed Los Campesinos! (colloquially and locally) are just as kinetic and wordy as the frantic age they were born into-no one embodies the hustle and bustle of the 21st century quite like them. Fronting their pop-assault is wordsmith Gareth Campesinos!, a tongue-in-cheek troubadour who hopes for a smoother performance on this weekend's visit to Madison.
Gareth earnestly recounted their 2009 exploits at the Rathskeller as "being a very energetic show.
"But it was also notable for me having an asthma attack on stage and Ellen [Campesinos!] hitting me on the head with her bass guitar," he added. "Fond memories of that show, yeah."
Los Campesinos! music almost seems tailor-made for the college ensemble-Gareth expressed enthusiasm, but remained characteristically skeptical about playing this weekend's free show.
"The Rathskeller was an example of a college show that was really great... But it depends," he said. "I think the risk with a free show is there's no investment from the audience. You get people who just show up because it's a free show. And that's great in that you get to play to new people, but sometimes you need to, you know, impress a little more. Or alternatively, because it's a college show, everyone just shows up really drunk."
Though no one can exactly promise him a sober audience, Madisonians can surely bring enough spirit to quell his fears.
The seven-piece indie rock outfit, ever restless, has recently embarked on a US tour behind their stellar Hello Sadness, a tangled mess of jubilant guitar-rock and piercing and misanthropic lyricism. The album is tight and to the point-a decided goal of the band.
"If it wasn't clear how [a guitar part] was benefitting the song as a whole, we wanted to strip that back and remove it," Gareth explained. "That was just a case of, you know, us feeling like we've honed our craft now, and we want to make the most of that."
Gareth, front man formerly known for his equal-parts bratty and academic delivery, has been honing his personal craft as well.
"There's something, you know, naive and childlike about how the vocals used to be, and that's fine... but it wouldn't really be true to who I am right now and what I like about music right now," he said. "Previously when people said I couldn't sing it wouldn't really matter, because I wasn't really trying. But now I guess I am, so I have to sort of be attestable for that."
And what about the band's frequent brushes with stardom? They recently appeared on David Letterman; "one of our proudest moments as a band," as Gareth described it. He even seriously contemplated using their limelight to the band's continued benefit.
"I was very tempted to wear my Drake sweater on Letterman because I sort of had this thought that we could come to Drake's attention that way," he said. "You know, rap stars have had this trend as of late where they take interest in these little, middle-of-the-road indie bands [here's looking at you, Kanye], so I was hoping that could've been us."
He was also infinitely excited by the band's Budweiser ad and , in a roundabout way, by the fact people sometimes leave the band's show after playing "You! Me! Dancing!," the song in quesiton.
"I was very flattered by it, to think that anybody heard that song and that one song was enough for them to pay money to come to a concert-it's surreal," he said.
Opening for Los Campesinos! are Parenthetical Girls, a bizarre quartet who, like Los Campesinos! themselves, are particularly skilled at augmenting the obscene with frenetic pop jingle. They are also Gareth's favorite band.
"Being in a position where we get to tour with them and get to hear them every night's been amazing," he fawned. "I don't think anybody in the entire world has seen Parenthetical Girls live more times than I have."
