Rare is the band that needs to post a message on its Web site asking, "Does anybody know where I could get some decent glock beaters?" Because when you've got two glockenspiel players in your seven-piece indie-punk orchestra, decent glock beaters are really key to the whole operation. Also rare is the band that can put out not just one but two records in the space of a year and have both be among that year's best. Los Campesinos pulled that off in '08. Full of boy-girl tradeoff vocals and shouting amid horns, violins and more, last year's Hold on Now, Youngster, was one big ball of noisy, messy fun. Yet, apparently, a lot can happen in 10 months; the follow-up, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, traded in some of those good times to go heavy on the angst — those glockenspiels absolutely get punished on the title track. Might want to start buying glock beaters in bulk.
