PREVIEW Let’s get vibrating — and who better to send us a-twitter than the seven-headed, clattering, splattering whirlwind known as Los Campesinos! The Welsh rapscallions — faces streaked with cheeky grins, arms and legs blurred in ecstatic zigs and zags — sparked their own revolution against indie-rock sterility last year with a flurry of exuberant, xylophone-battering singles and live performances that deftly juggled sweetness and chaos. Storming the music blogosphere in blazes of breathless sloganeering and frantic instrumental rushes, the Cardiff, UK, charmers hurled great big swirls of Day-Glo paint into the tired bleach of pop songcraft. Little surprise, then, that they caught the ears of Canadian kindred spirits and future tour mates Broken Social Scene in the process. Whipping up delirious jumbles of guitars, violins, and shouted wordplay — along with their beloved xylophones — Los Campesinos! might evoke the mad-dashery of the Pastels, Comet Gain, or their aforementioned northerly cousins; but truthfully, they showed up fully-formed and sounding like very little else.
So what next, after setting the world on fire with a few introductory singles? Up the ante, of course: Los Campesinos! recently unleashed their fittingly titled debut, Hold on Now, Youngster (Arts and Crafts), and it’s every bit as fidgety as any of their first yips and hollers. Produced by Broken Social Scene’s David Newfeld, the disc captures the septet in fine catchphrase-crazed, alliteration-adoring form, mashing hyperliterate lyrics and considerable wit with punk-rock potency and a yen for experimenting beyond the confines of the three-minute format. "Death to Los Campesinos!" spotlights the frenzied give-and-take between lead vocalists Gareth and Aleksandra Campesinos! — band members share the same surname — while the off-the-cuff references to shape-shifting in "Drop It Doe Eyes" make perfect sense amid the song’s wild-eyed dynamics. Best of all, Los Campesinos! reprise their reputation-sealing early single "You! Me! Dancing!" — a playground-shout call to the mirror ball best summed up as pure candy-covered glockenspiel overdrive.
LOS CAMPESINOS! With Parenthetical Girls. Fri/6, 9 p.m., $16. Bimbo’s 365 Club, 1025 Columbus, SF. (415) 474-0365, www.bimbos365club.com