los campesinos! (translating as "the farmers" or "the peasants") formed at cardiff university in cardiff, wales back in 2006.  members include: tom campesinos! (guitar), neil campesinos! (guitar), ellen campesinos! (bass), ollie campesinos! (drums), aleksandra campesinos! (keyboard, horn), harriet campesinos! (violin, keyboard) and gareth campesinos! (glockenspiel).  obviously they are not exclamated siblings, rather they took the last name of the band, à la the ramones.

they had their big break in august 2006 when they were tapped to open for the great canadian band, broken social scene.

if you love songs about "coffee breath, the dewey decimal system and converting goose bumps into braile" as much as i do, you will love los campesinos!.  in fact paste magazine quoted the band as saying, "we're less the next big thing and more like the last old thing.  in fact, we're sooooo 2006 it's ridiculous.  we are much like a pair of well-worn pink cycling shorts; pretty cool to like of you are 11 but just a passing fancy before you move on to more fashionable tastes."

their debut album, hold on now, youngster... released in the us on april 1, 2008.

click here to watch an in studio set/interview recorded by kcrw's morning becomes eclectic from june 10, 2001.  click here to listen to an in-studio interview/set recorded by kexp on august 12, 2008.  click here to watch a set recorded by fabchannel.com at paradiso-small hall.  finally, click here to watch a death to los campesinos! video recorded in austin live for the take away show.  don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website.

los campesinos! have a bunch dates scheduled.  click here to see an rss feed of every gig of their young the career.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.