Los Campesinos: Sticking Fingers Into Sockets

The much-blogged-about Welsh indie-pop band Los Campesinos gets a proper introduction to North America with the EP Sticking Fingers Into Sockets, which compiles both sides of the band's first two singles and adds a kicky, statement-of-purpose cover of Pavement's "Frontwards." Given Los Campesinos' skewed sense of humor—evident in the titles and twisty structures of songs like "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives" and "You! Me! Dancing!"—as well as their preference for glockenspiels and fiddles, the band appears to have more in common with Brakes and I'm From Barcelona than with Steven Malkmus. But they clearly know a grand melody when they hear it, and for all the twee trappings, Los Campesinos is surprisingly aggressive. Somewhere, in some college dorm, someone just discovered a new favorite band.