Los Campesinos! recently finished recording their upcoming album, a follow-up to 2008’s We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, and the seven-piece band is celebrating by hitting the road.

The tour kicks off Aug. 4 at Webster Hall in New York and wraps up on the other side of the country Aug. 29 at Street Scene in San Diego.

Additional dates include Grog Shop in Cleveland (Aug. 6), Lollapalooza in Chicago (Aug. 8), Launchpad in Albuquerque, N.M. (Aug. 19), Beauty Bar in Las Vegas (Aug. 25) and Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco (Aug. 28).

Gareth Campesinos! announced the local record shop prize in a YouTube video on the band’s Web site.

On tour “we will be carrying a 7″ record box. … Our plan is that in each city that we stop off to play a show, we will visit a local record shop and video ourselves buying a 7” or something else to join the contents of the box.”

He explained that the band has many friends in bands across the U.S. and that Los Campesinos! will ask fellow bands to donate signed records or other items to the box. At the end of the tour, the box and its contents will be the grand prize in a competition the band will run on its blog.

Fans should check Los Campesinos! blog regularly for info on how to win the prize.

Gareth got the prize box started with some items from his personal collection: a Xiu Xiu/High Places split 7” along with a David Horvitz polaroid, Lovvers‘ Laughing Man 7”, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone‘s Town Topic EP, Barr‘s The Song is The Single 7” and some band buttons and a couple of ‘zines Gareth personally made.

Oh, and a statement from the band warns fans that “Los Campesinos! make no guarantees that the box is actually tour proof, and would hope that dents, scratches and general tampering with its appearance would be part of its eventual charm.”

No problem. If Los Campesinos! is going to help support local record shops, a dented prize box should be A-OK.

Click here for Los Campesinos! Web site.

Click here for the band’s MySpace page.