Music: Los Campesinos! and Titus Andronicus Get Loud At The Parish Room Tonight

The Welsh band Los Campesinos! are young. Not Hanson young or anything, but they were playing between classes in 2006 at Cardiff University, so precocious, to be sure. This pasty and feisty collective of seven men and women wowed crowds at the Filter party and the Arts + Crafts showcase at last year's South By Southwest, and now return just under a year later to promote their recently released LP We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed.

There are two elements that really made Los Campesinos! stand out from run of the mill indie pop. The first is the playful male/female vocal interplay between Gareth and Aleksandra (everyone in the band uses the last name Campesino), which accents the day-to-day nature of their lyrics in spastic fashion. It's like wandering into a noisy pub conversation or argument, but with pretty guitars and cymbal crashes as a soundtrack. It's also hard not to be taken in by the pure joy and enthusiasm this band has for playing a show; at SXSW, their shirts were off at 1pm, they were chugging beers, and we're fairly sure a couple of them jumped David Lee Roth-style off a stack of amplifiers. The raw but honest showmanship really sells the material, and we highly suggest stopping in to The Parish Room tonight for a listen.

Opening tonight's show are Titus Andronicus, a New Jersey-based band who have obviously listened to a lot of The Clash and The Exploding Hearts in their lives. The group have been lauded by Pitchfork and Spin of late, and will return in March for several SXSW appearances. They'll be noisy, upbeat, and worth your time as an opener.