6A — Monday, March 20, 2017
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

“I’m taking far too many 

chances / On these less than 
idealistic romances.”

Nobody would have picked the 

scrappy Welsh band with cutesy 
matching last names and gleefully 
overwrought song titles to secretly 
become one of the best bands of its 
generation, but I don’t think even 
Los Campesinos! themselves ever 
expected to survive their own 
brief moment. Their first full-
length, Hold On Now, Youngster, is 
where you can find this line, from 
a track titled “Broken Heartbeats 
Sound Like Breakbeats.”

(If you don’t like that song 

title, I probably shouldn’t tell you 
about “This Is How You Spell 
‘HAHAHA, We Destroyed the 
Hopes and Dreams of a Generation 
of Faux-Romantics.’ ”)

Already on 2008’s Youngster, 

the Campesinos! — yes, all 11 
members, past and present, have 
taken that last name — were 
already recording like they’d never 
get another shot at an album. On 
“Breakbeats” alone, the opening 
count-off is shrieked by every 
band member, Aleks Campesinos! 
gets a line in about Spider-Man in 
the chorus, and bandleader Gareth 
sings at least some of his lyrics like 
he’s trying to imitate the tortured 
wailing of the old Internet dial-up 
sound.

The 
songcraft 
of 
Los 

Campesinos! has always been 
less than idealistic, less than 
commercially 
viable. 
These 

songs are filled with obscure 
lyrical 
references, 
too 
many 

instruments, multiple lead singers 
and catchy hooks buried under 
breakneck tempos played by 
overactive musicians. This is not a 
band criminally deprived of fame. 
This is an underdog band that has 
taken aim at a very specific kind 
of listener — one that’s awkward 
and anxious, but loves to dance 
and shout their feelings — and hit 
them square in the heart.

“We’re undeveloped, we’re 

ignorant, we’re stupid, but 
we’re happy.”

This is probably the one you 

know. Well, you probably don’t 
know the lyric, because Gareth 
stuffs it into a mile-a-minute rant 
at the end of the song, quietly 
slipping it underneath the final 
chorus amid lines comparing 
supermarkets to discotheques. 
But you might know the slow, 
opening guitar build-up to this 
seven-minute opus from the 
debut album. I think it was in 
a beer commercial once, which 
makes it LC’s most-heard song by 
a longshot.

“You! 
Me! 
Dancing!” 

crystallized Los Campesinos! as 
part of something called “blog 
rock,” which basically came about 
when MySpace was still a thing 
and everyone was excited rather 
than horrified at the unlimited 
possibilities of the World Wide 
Web. It was the first time bands 
didn’t need a label to distribute 
music, and it gave a lot of left-field 
bands 15 minutes of fame.

Most blog rock outfits were 

overhyped and faded away after 
an album or two, but LC! have 
held on for dear life. Listen to the 
debut, and they’re just as jittery 
and smart-alecky as all their peers, 
but this line from “Dancing!” 
completely undersells the band. 
Lurking 
underneath 
all 
the 

distracting frills, soon to emerge, 
are beautiful anthems.

“I identify my star sign / By 

asking which is least compatible 
with yours”

By the next album, Gareth and 

the band seemed smarter, more 
developed, but unhappy. This 
comes off the opening track to 
Youngster’s follow-up, “We are 
Beautiful, We Are Doomed,” and 
it’s the best way to say “fuck you” 
I’ve ever heard.

Albums two and three in the 

Campesinos! catalog are pricklier 
than the youthful, instrument-
inclusive debut. They’re made for 
catharsis rather than dancing, 
dense with guitar noise and 
emotion while trying once again 
to obscure catchy hooks and 

choruses. “Shout at the world, 
because the world doesn’t love 
you,” goes one indicative line.

They’re also the albums where 

Gareth solidifies his persona as a 
songwriter. He’s unlucky in love, 
either because he’s too obstinate 
or too clingy in relationships. 
He’s constantly worried about 
the future. He suffers no fools. He 
believes his break-ups should be 
front-page worthy tragedies. Aleks 
is always there to counterpoint, 
though: “You think you’re the 
needle that drains the blood 
donation / You’re just a repetition 
on an old, worn out pin cushion,” 
is so bizarre and brilliant it could 
only come from the Campesinos!.

“Here it comes / This is the 

crux / She vomits down my 
rental tux.”

But 
if 
Gareth 
swaggered 

around 
every 
song 
like 
a 

misanthropic wanker, LC! would 
be borderline unlistenable. Thank 
Morrissey he’s got a sense of 
humor too, one that continually 
allows him to narrate himself into 
memorably hilarious situations.

“I’ve spent too much time on 

my knees / Next to urinals in 
garish Mexican restaurants / 
Sobbing into my warm, pale palms 
/ For a better understanding 
of my dietary requirements,” 
he 
shamelessly 
admits 
on 

“Miserabilia.”

Even better, on “By Your 

Hand,” he imagines an entire 
hook-up with Fate, personified 
as the prettiest girl in the world. 
They kiss for hours, and her hand 
is down Gareth’s trousers when 
she invites him back to her place.

“But here it comes, this is the 

crux,” he sings. “She vomits down 
my rental tux.”

In a review of the new 

Campesinos!, 
Sick 
Scenes, 

Pitchfork editor Ryan Dombal 
called Gareth Campesinos! “our 
bard of throwing up.” He writes, 
“Nearly every word that has 
come out of the Los Campesinos! 
singer’s mouth has presented 
itself 
with 
rash 
inelegance, 

candidness and the need to be 
ejected from his body this very 
second.”

That is entirely the appeal 

of this quixotic band. Gareth 
cannot contain himself, and these 
odd, ultra-specific feelings that 
get spewed out over the course 
of every Campesinos! album 
somehow look the same as a 
lot of other people’s inner guts. 
He’s failed to digest all of his 
own experiences and throws 
them back out through his art, 
and what do you know — his 
misfortune makes a lot of fans feel 
less alone in their own awkward 
everyday screw-ups and missed 
opportunities.

The best icebreaker I’ve ever 

been a part of is, “When was the 
last time you threw up?” That’s 
how you learn about a person; 
that’s how you hear the best 
stories.

What I’m trying to say is, 

everybody pukes. Gareth is just 
the one who writes all about it.

“They promised they’d be 

best of friends from now until 
forever / But both were far too 
needy not to fall for the other.”

No Campesinos! song has 

fascinated 
me 
more 
than 

*inhales* “A Heat Rash in the 
Shape of the Show Me State; or, 
Letters from Me to Charlotte.” 
For the record, I don’t think it has 
anything to do with a relationship 
between Gareth and Aleks, but 
no song better illustrates their 
chemistry.

“Heat Rash” is a quieter, 

meditative 
song 
about 
a 

tempestuous couple. It’s still a 
Campesinos! song, so you’ll hear 
the word “erection” when you 
listen, but unlike the overflowing 
drama of most of their songs, 
this one is more restrained and 
thought-through, open to many 
interpretations. The voices of 
dual-singers Gareth and Aleks 
mix perfectly here, with Gareth 
taking the narrative verses with 
his usual directness and Aleks 
hitting notes of longing on the 
more ambiguous chorus.

Unfortunately, Aleks left after 

three 
albums, 
which 
makes 

releases four and five a little less 
dynamic. She was the best foil 

Gareth could have asked for, and 
the loss of her presence is naturally 
a little tough to adjust to.

“Renato Dall’Ara, living off 

2008 / Renato Dall’Ara, once up 
then back down again.”

I don’t think I can understate 

how miraculous it is that this band 
is still making albums. Indie rock 
is not a viable business anymore, 
unless you’re doing arenas like 
Arcade Fire or banging out 
afternoon sets at every festival 
that calls. Los Campesinos! is not 
a stable endeavor, and they rely 
on their hardcore fans more than 
a major-label pop star ever could.

This line, off the opening track 

of Sick Scenes, is one of many 
obscure (for Americans) soccer 
references you’ll find throughout 
the Campesinos’ work, but there’s 
some pretty clear double meaning 
here, with 2008 also being the 
release of Hold On Now, Youngster. 
Gareth has said, too, the “once up 
then back down again” line refers 
to how, in the music industry, “you 
play a venue once on the way up 
and once on the way back down.”

But if Sick Scenes is Los 

Campesinos! on the way back 
down, it’s a return to form and a 
fantastic way to bottom out. After 
two solid albums, this sixth effort 
is their most exciting in years, filled 
once more with weirdly danceable 
arrangements and easily quotable 
lines. In the very first verse of this 
track, Gareth snidely cuts at a self-
professed Marxist reading by his 
parents’ pool. (“It’s only outdoor 
and it isn’t heated.”)

Sick Scenes is mature yet fun 

and everything else you could 
ask for from a veteran band, and 
it’s hard not to wish that Los 
Campesinos! had received more 
public attention when you listen. 
It’s hard to tell if this new release is 
an artistic resurgence or a proper 
finale for a group that by all odds 
should have been dead eight years 
ago, but more than anything it just 
makes me hope that these albums 
survive long enough to influence 
another young, up-and-coming 
band — one who can shine a light 
on all these should-be classics.

“We are beautiful / We are 

doomed.”

This is the one. This line, the 

titular culmination of my absolute 
favorite song, is why I needed to 
write so many words about these 
Welsh would-be deities. It starts 
with four staccato synth notes that 
roll into a repeating melody. There 
are strings and a glockenspiel 
along with the guitars. It’s epic.

Gareth isn’t rapping, but he’s 

sort of speak-singing as fast as 
he can, ranting at you about the 
slow dissolving of his relationship 
and that time he ate too many 
crisps and threw up while playing 
soccer. He slows down for this 
gutwrenchingly 
honest 
line: 

“You feel terrified at the thought 
of being left behind / Of losing 
everybody, the necessity of dying.” 
Then he turns up the shouting 
for this classic quote: “Oh, we kid 
ourselves there’s future in the 
fucking / But there is no fucking 
future.”

Gareth is angry and jealous and 

lost. He’s working out strategies 
to keep from being heartbroken 
but finds himself outmaneuvered 
every time. The last quote from 
him I’ll write out is the climax, in 
its entirety:

“I cannot emphasis enough 

that my body / Is a badly designed, 
poorly 
put-together 
vessel 
/ 

Harboring 
these 
diminishing, 

so-called vital organs / I hope 
my heart goes first. I HOPE MY 
HEART GOES FIRST!”

Los Campesinos! is a band that’s 

always ready to die, but thrilled to 
have lived and loved. They couldn’t 
control the volume of their voices, 
the number of instruments they 
let into the mix or the intensity of 
detail in all their embarrassing 
anecdotes. They’ve spent a decade 
reaching out from Wales to the rest 
of the world, looking for pissed-off 
romantics who’d always be up and 
then back down again. They’ve 
touched a very specific subset that 
likes erudite soccer references and 
awkward, inclusive dancing in 
equal measure. They’ve inspired at 
least one case of extreme devotion. 
They’ve always been doomed to 
fail. They’ve always been beautiful.

A lyrical guide to indie 
rock’s best-kept secret 

‘We’re undeveloped, we’re ignorant, we’re stupid, but we’re happy.’

NBC

NBC’s new comedy “Trial & Error”
Silly crime spoof ‘Trial & 
Error’ surprising delight

Theoretically, 
a 
show 
like 

NBC’s “Trial & Error” shouldn’t 
work. Given its single-camera, 
mockumentary-style storytelling 
and silly humor, “Trial & Error” 
sounds like one of those typical, 
offbeat cookie-cutter sitcoms that 
attempts to mirror previously 
successful comedies like “The 
Office” and “Parks & Recreation.” 
However, “Trial & Error” subverts 
the “formulaic comedy” trope 
with a talented cast, hysterical 
one-liners and a premise that is as 
wacky as it is clever. 

Though it’s not necessarily 

thought-provoking or complex, 
“Trial & Error” is nevertheless 
a genuinely funny, sometimes 
touching show that pokes fun at the 
criminal justice system and masks 
the grittiness of crime TV with 
gleeful absurdity.

While the majority of characters 

are portrayed as dumb, each of the 
actors imbue their roles with wit, 
delivering the whip-smart dialogue 
with ease and adept comedic 
timing. Nick D’Agosto (“Gotham”) 
leads the band of cast members as 
the tirelessly optimistic attorney 
Josh Segal, who travels from 
New York to East Peck, South 
Carolina to defend eccentric poetry 
professor Larry Henderson (John 
Lithgow, “The Crown”). Having 
played mostly supporting roles, 
D’Agosto does an admirable job as 
the lead character, but it’s Lithgow, 
at his kookiest and funniest, who 
fuels most of the show’s humor, 

channeling a nervous energy in his 
character’s desperation without 
coming off as pitiful or plain stupid. 

With the help of the lead 

investigator Dwayne Reed (Steven 
Boyer, “The Wolf of Wall Street”), 
the 
maladie-ridden 
secretary 

Anne Flatch (Sherri Shepherd, “30 
Rock”) and Larry’s 
daughter Summer 
(Krysta Rodriguez, 
“Smash”), 
Josh 

is 
tasked 
with 

developing 
a 

compelling 
case 

for 
Larry, 
who 

was 
accused 
of 

murdering his wife 
Margaret. Despite the menace of 
the case’s cut-throat prosecutor 
Carol Anne Keane (Jayma Mays, 
“Glee”), the steadfast Segal and his 
slightly incompetent team do their 
best to fight for Larry’s innocence, 
even when the odds are stacked 
against them, such as when two 
breaking 
news 
stories 
reveal 

Larry’s affair with another man 
and the murder of his first wife.

These events prompt outrage 

from the community, but also 
spark 
some 
darkly 
amusing 

antics from Josh’s team. Guest 
star Andy Daly (“Review”) plays 
forensic investigator Thom Hinkle, 
who helps Josh find evidence in 
Larry’s defense, despite having 
an 
obsessive 
compulsion 
to 

masturbate in highly stressful 
situations. 
Shepherd, 
whose 

performance is more outlandish 
and much tamer than her previous 
comedic outings, gives Anne an off-
kilter, if somewhat deranged edge. 
Her character suffers from facial 

amnesia, dyslexia and Stendahl’s 
syndrome, which causes her to 
faint every time she observes 
something beautiful. It’s possible 
that these kind of odd quirks can 
become annoying the more they are 
referenced, but they are also what 
make “Trial & Error” surprisingly 

entertaining, 
strange 
and 

humorous.

Along with the 

brilliant 
casting 

and writing, “Trial 
& Error” utilizes 
its 
Southern 

setting 
effectively 

as well. Being a 

Northeasterner, Josh is a fish out of 
water who has trouble acclimating 
to the South’s culture. In one 
particularly funny sequence, the 
courthouse 
security 
mistakes 

Josh’s “lip balm” for an actual bomb, 
but lets Carol Anne through with 
a gun. Later on, he has difficulty 
in pronouncing Carol Anne’s and 
the Judge Horsedich’s names, 
despite the fact that the correct 
pronunciation of both characters’ 
names are impossible even for 
viewers to understand. It’s easy 
to play into the many stereotypes 
of the South, but “Trial & Error” 
highlights these little cultural 
tidbits as something casually funny 
rather than egregiously overt.

This show could’ve started out 

like the first few seasons of “Parks 
& Rec” and “The Office,” where 
the characters weren’t quite yet 
developed and the humor was too 
awkward and clumsy. Luckily, 
“Trial & Error” already seems to 
have found its footing.

SAM ROSENBERG

Daily Arts Writer

LAUREN THEISEN
Daily Music Columnist

MUSIC COLUMN

‘Trial & Error’

2-Part Series 

Premiere

NBC

Tuesdays at 9 p.m.

Tracey Snelling opens up 
the life behind windows

When stepping into Tracey 

Snelling’s 
exhibit 
“Multiple 

Realities,” gallery-goers will 
find themselves immersed in 
countless “different sounds and 
languages” 
while 
absorbing 

the vibrant colors and various 
characteristics of, what Snelling 
refers to as the “shacks.”

One 
piece 
of 
her 
work 

which will be on display, “One 
Thousand Shacks,” is usually 
16-feet-tall 
by 
10-feet-wide, 

but will need to be split apart 
as the ceiling in the gallery 
space is too low. Composed of 
many substances and various 
mediums, Snelling built her 
work out of recycled materials.

Snelling created her work by 

“saving old boxes, food boxes, 
tin foil and a lot of plastic,” 
which plays on a critical theme 
of the work: Making do with 
what you have.

“I just had the image in my 

head: Wow. I had to do it,” 
Snelling said, referring to her 
inspiration for “One Thousand 
Shacks.”

During her travels through 

Mexico, 
Cuba 
and 
China, 

Snelling began to get an honest 
look at the “extreme global 
poverty,” both around the globe 
and in the US. With her new 
awareness 
and 
perspective 

came the image of “One 
Thousand Shacks.”

“I mean people are starving 

and very thin, and have no 

place to live,” Snelling said 
when recalling her experiences 
abroad. In her own work, 
Snelling illustrates the global 
devastation of poverty.

Despite the heavy subject 

matter, Snelling will display 
her work as she saw it: as an 
outsider.

“I realize that I am an 

outsider, I try to be neutral and 
just take things 
in 
and 
put 
it 

out; 
to 
not 
be 

judgmental,” she 
said.

As a result, the 

work 
does 
not 

focus 
solely 
on 

the struggles of 
poverty. Snelling 
recognized 
that 

while 
global 

poverty is one of 
our most plaguing 
and 
devastating 

issues, the people living in 
poverty are still living.

“These 
people 
are 
very 

resilient, a lot of people start 
businesses in the favelas or 
wherever 
they 
are 
living,” 

Snelling 
said. 
“There 
are 

kickboxing schools that they 
start, all sorts of different 
things.”

Snelling’s 
work 
is 

transparent, 
and 
every 

component 
matters. 
She 

encourages the audience to take 
a look behind the shacks to see 
how they are put together.

The shacks’ frames are made 

of wood while countless simple 
wires race along the walls to 

power miniature TVs and lights. 
Snelling explained that “the 
back is almost as important as 
the front because it shows that 
in a lot of these areas you just 
have to take what you have.”

Her exhibit will also contain 

a set of miniature store fronts 
and rooms. Some of these 
play off of stereotypes, social 
issues and other rooms that, 

to her, were just 
“intuitive,” such 
as 
the 
“disco-

party” room.

While 
some 

make statements 
on topics such as 
prostitution and 
feminism, others 
“subtly look at 
the social issues, 
not 
necessarily 

making 
a 

statement, 
but 

pointing out that 

there is an issue.” Snelling’s 
ability to jump into and out 
of 
troubling 
realities 
will 

lead to a socially intriguing, 
yet 
artistically 
beautiful 

experience for gallery-goers.

While Snelling’s passion for 

creating art is unmistakable, 
she also has a clear hunger to 
change the way people see the 
world.

“I 
would 
love 
if 
this 

influences anyone to donate 
money or do something to help 
with poverty, but on a bigger 
scale, I hope that my work 
opens people’s minds a little bit 
more to be more inclusive and 
accepting.”

ISABEL FRYE
Daily Arts Writer

TV REVIEW

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

Stamps Lecture: 
Tracey Snelling’s 

“Multiple 
Realities” 

March 20th @ 5:10 

P.M. 

Helmet Stern 

Auditorium UMMA 
 

Free