Los Campesinos! - Sticking Fingers Into Sockets/The International tweeXcore Underground EPs

The Best of 2007: Part Two

I won't lie. When I first saw the press pictures of Los Campesinos!, I thought they were a bunch of tools. Indie pop is pretty hard to pull off without looking dumb. Little did I know that hiding within this stereotypical looking nouveau-twee band was something worth listening to.

The first EP the band put out this year was the Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP. I figured it had to be worth listening to at least once because Arts & Crafts hasn't really let me down thus far. After signing the Constantines and the Stills earlier this year, they were on a hot streak. The EP is pretty short, but it has these strange moments of diversity. There are only six songs; one is about a minute and a half and another isn't barely 30 seconds. What really stuck out to me was the song "Frontwards." It sounded vaguely familiar and I remembered that Pavement had a b-side by the same name. Upon further listening, it's a very enjoyable version of a song that I've grown to love. The rest of the EP definitely grew on the shoulders of the one song.

What came next was even more surprising. "The International tweeXcore Underground" single came out digitally just after I had really started to enjoy Los Campesinos! Some part of me wanted to fully reject this, just based on the fact that they were a twee band singing about twee specifically. That never seems like a good idea. When the full EP came out, I was fully intrigued. At this point, I knew them as the band that covered Pavement pretty well and had some other proficient songs. The two other songs included on the "tweeXcore" EP were also covers: one by Heavenly and the other by Black Flag; both bands are namechecked in "The International tweeXcore Underground."

I don't know if I'm just a sucker for stuff like this, but bands performing enjoyable covers that they've made their own just kills me. If that band has a few good songs of their own, sign me up.

Sticking Fingers Into Sockets
The International tweeXcore Underground