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.
Harriet: Lately, I seem to have become more aware of the presence of Jeanette Winterson. I’d known vaguely about her as a teenager, having read and enjoyed Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit as part of a degree module. These days, however, she holds for me a comforting presence in the regular diet of online media that I consume. She has a website crammed with writing for all kinds of format, from journalism to fiction to poetry to online posts. Winterson can always be relied on to have something interesting, moving and relevant to say about most things, and it is great to have somebody to rely on for that. Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YEeVY4MJhM
