"You! Me! Dancing!" by Los Campesinos

"You! Me! Dancing!" by Los Campesinos

Got to be my favorite record at the minute from the Cardiff seven piece. When the indie charts seem to be getting good again, we've got brooding bluesy rock and roll from Cold War Kids, "that one with the wiked riff" - Charlotte Hatherly song (Behave) , Jamie T creating evocative masterpieces of every drunken night out ever (roll on Monday, though I can't afford the fucking album).

So it's a good time, the musical veins are pumping again, but even in this warm and sunny indie climate "You! Me! Dancing!" stands out. It's a beautiful mix, it's light refreshing, a fab lollie on a sunny day. Icing, hundreds and thousands and lolly all on one little stick. For point of comparison (yes, I know all band comparisons are lazy journalism, but it saves description..) it makes me happy for the same reason listening to Belle and Sebastian makes me happy.

It's a long one too, it's rare that a "first I've heard from a band.." can clock in at 6:28 and not seem like a long track, I'm a devil for skipping tracks and so-far this has been played through to the end everytime.

The first minute of the track is simply mellow guitar work, casual calm like a Yo La Tengo track or something by Doves - this would make a great song by itself. Ahhh, and it builds up into simple drumming, simple guitar riff (reminiscent of hearing the demo of Arctic Monkeys "A Certain Romance" for the first time.. gawd, what a feeling, and so fucking long ago!) and subtle cutesy xylaphone and SNES sounding keyboard plinking plonking along. Unpretensious cheerful feel good indie sounds.

The lyrics run along in what could almost be a contrast to the dancefloors of Jamie T, whilst Mr Traeys gives us sharp gritty pissed-off-your-face visions of those nights out, here we get the tongue in cheek tipsy description of shameless pretension free enjoyment:
"..you think that we're all just scenesters, and even if you were its not the scene your thinking of /just taking props from all these boyband fashions - all crop tops and testosterone passions "
with the chorus of "it's you! it's me! it's dancing!" = instant singalong, with a contrasting refrain from female vocalist "one thing I can never express, is that I can't dance a single step" taking it away from the the realm of an overly simplified poppypoppop indie.

Ending the track with an overlapping monologue with that (oh so lovely) riff works a treat (I'm a sucker for this in any track anyways; I Could Be Dreaming by Belle and Sebastian! Anthrax by Gang Of Four!) the words difficult to pick out but for the ending, and perfect optimistic summary of any night out; "we're stupid, but were happy".

Thats what I like the song for, it's cheery, lighthearted and optimistic without being poppypoppop-ily simplistic. It's smart and going places :) - signed to Wichita Recordings it's not long before they uh, "hit the big time". Or something, lets hope they stay beautifully obscure loved and treasured by blog geeks.

Right, lets bring the itunes playcount into double figures..


Hear it here at their MySpace


What did you think?