As evidenced by both their music and exclamatory band name, the seven members of Cardiff, Wales’ Los Campesinos! are excitable boys and girls. The group’s third album, Romance Is Boring (Arts & Crafts), is an energetic, all-hands-on-deck dash through the pantheon of sharp indie pop and sloppy post-punk, gathering steam from Bright Eyes’ sense of emotional catharsis and Art Brut’s wry take on modern love. Try to gather all the influences brought to bear on Romance Is Boring by LC!’s seven-member army, however, and we’d be here all day. MAGNET spoke to songwriter Tom Campesinos! and guitarist Neil Campesinos!—all members (Tom, Neil, Ellen, Gareth, Harriet, Ollie and Kim) have taken the band’s surname—about the new album. Los Campesinos! will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with them.
Kim: For Christmas, my younger sister bought me the book Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism. Girldrive was an idea thought up by two young women who road-tripped across America trying to find out what issues women today care about. As well as creating this beautiful book crammed full of amazing photographs with their findings, there is also a blog that is regularly updated that I have been following for a couple of months. Updated with issues that piss co-author Nona Willis Aronowitz off, this blog and book are hugely insightful and focus on feminism and activism that’s current and relevant. How refreshing. The Girldrive blog has become a crucial pit stop during my daily trawl of the Internet, and Girldrive is a really lovely book to own. I really, really recommend it. Video after the jump.
