MY LIFE STORY

I went without food for this. Last week of the first term, I’d already stocked up on the essentials (read: no actual food); I decided to go a little more hungry than a starving student usually would, I spent my last monies on Los Campesinos!’ ‘Heat Rash’. And today, at last, my hunger has been satisfied and I can almost not remember picking up dirtied breadcrumbs off of my carpet in order to garnish a midnight snack one late night in December.

 ‘ZINE

If anyone read Alexei of Johnny Foreigner’s righteous rant aimed towards a deluded NME journalist (read here if you didn’t), then you’ll see that Heat Rash is irrefutable proof that Alexei was right. The small tangible things, utterly meaningless to most, cement the strongest ties between bands and fans. As the editorial opening the smooth-paged ‘zine asks ‘isn’t this collection of paper and staples, that you’re currently muddying, a sight more romantic than .pdfs and blog posts?’. I certainly think so.

               

‘Team Campesinos!’ combine wonderfully to meditate upon the theme of ‘romance’, each member making their own contribution. I did feel slightly disappointed at the lack of ‘chalkboard feature’; the harrowing feelings succinctly portrayed by Kim Campesinos! in ‘This Isn’t Love. Nor Romance.’ magnificently capture the same sense of loss and desperation inspired by a defeat on penalties in a play-off semi-final. Perhaps though, as the majority of the band support Manchester United, the feelings inspired by football aren’t as forlorn as those inspired by romance.

Continuing with football as a linking manoeuvre, Rob Campesinos! (crucially a Newcastle United fan) could quite easily be portraying the inevitable building of expectations on Tyneside; the false hope inspired by countless ‘messiahs’ and the inevitable disappointment when they flounce off in a huff, in his wonderful humour-laden comic strip ‘Spirit of St Louis’. The artwork (including the cover), the cutting wit and general angst-filled proverbial sigh of disappointment exuded by the entire thing, is brilliant. A tip for Micheal; creating a brochure listing your musical tastes and general strengths would’ve been effective. I mean, it worked for your almost namesake Mr Owen and he ended up at Manchester United (where they actually win things), so you should’ve given that a try.

Enough about the ‘zine. If you haven’t already positioned yourself on a bridge, ready to throw yourself off; you can learn how to woo using tried and tested techniques; make French-ish food for the special person you’ve wooed; increase your aesthetic appeal by covering yourself with love hearts to keep hold of them; pick up Nick Drake lyrics to appropriate and steal as your own heartfelt thoughts and be comforted by Ellen’s message that even though none of this really succeeded, deep-seated psychological issues about love and trust are ingrained into the general mentality. Overall, a self-contained guide to romance, it does what it says on the tin.

 MUSIC

First and foremost, Los Campesinos! are a band. Bands make music. Heat Rash came with some music (a 7" vinyl with some wonderful artwork). Brief thoughts below:

              

 Light Leaves, Dark Sees:

Begins and continues with a ripping melody that hooks you in and won’t let you go, only letting you leave on its terms, giving way to a calmer, quieter, more heartfelt close.

 “It’s like my hand in your hair was just meant to be,

You are my angel now come sit atop of me”

The typical light-hearted Campesinos! frankness is retained and finds its way into honest playful lyrics, constantly drawing upon clichés (a hundred puppies as an expression of a burgeoning love, anyone?) but is immensely self-aware, which allows the expressed sentiment to remain sincere. Simple but effective, this one will definitely be a crowd-pleaser.

 Four Seasons:

Different to ‘Light Leaves, Dark Sees’, starting as a soft ballad giving way to manic fury; the song has a more sinister take on what it means ‘to love’.

 "Only dirt is washed away, cos all the bad lays far more deep

Please, I don’t wanna talk about it.“

The paranoia inspired by fear of loss and potential pain, causing the most dreadful of outcomes. There’s a difference between ‘I’d buy you a thousand puppies’ and ‘I’d kill for you’, especially when both of these sentiments are expressed naturally, genuinely, sincerely. Hauntingly identifiable is the other uglier, but nonetheless necessary side of love. Romantic? Perhaps not.

These two tracks are different; honest fun on one hand, with the subconscious psychotic residing on the other, but they both are expressions of the same thing. Plus they’re both rewarding listens. It’s exciting that Los Campesinos! can afford to dispense with tracks like this (even if they were written for this purpose alone) whilst producing a new album. Unlike romance, perhaps, this is a high expectation that won’t leave me feeling let down.

PITIFUL CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

So there we have it, Heat Rash; a physical memento that acknowledges and preserves the sanctity of the band/fan relationship in a sincere honest fashion. Some good tunes, some good reads and something to file in a box somewhere to look back upon, it’ll be far more meaningful than some mp3s and a .pdf lost somewhere on an antiquated digital media storage device.