A nostalgic soundtrack to sun-baked summer afternoons, forgotten journal entries, and faded collections of Polaroids.

After a small South American tour, a line-up change, and a relatively quiet 2009, British band Los Campesinos! return with Romance Is Boring, the follow-up to 2008’s We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. Formed four years ago at Cardiff University, Wales, Los Campesinos! consists of seven members (none of whom are Welsh, strangely enough) who have all adopted the last name Campesinos! (Spanish for “country person”) along with a knack for writing upbeat indie pop.
Los Campesinos! is signed to one of my favorite labels, Arts & Crafts (Canada), alongside such …

In 2008, Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut album swept the so-called “blogosphere” by storm. With their afro-beat inspired guitar riffs and clever collegiate lyrics, Vampire Weekend had crafted an album of hits, with each song seemingly more catchy than the last.
Since then, fans and music critics alike have been questioning whether the New York indie quartet would follow up their first album with one of equal success or fizzle out as just another trumped-up flash-in-the-pan buzz band.
As such, Vampire Weekend has a lot riding on their second album, Contra (a reference …

Is it something in the water at Elliot School that causes great bands to form there? The high school in London was already the alma mater of successful British musical act Hot Chip, mysterious hyperdub artist Burial, and Folktronic DJ Kieran Hebdan, also known as Four Tet. Heck, even Pierce Brosnan went there in the sixties. But the latest addition to the music scene by Elliot School is a young band named with an almost un-Googlable name called The xx. Originally comprised of four twenty year olds, …