Archive for the 'lightspeed champion' Category

BOTM vol 03

Published by
billy
at December 26, 2007 in best of the month, botm, clark brothers, cover, indie, jens lekman, killers, lightspeed champion, live, lupe fiasco, macon grayson, magnetic fields, mp3, music, mylo and sufjan stevens. 7 Comments

Another month has come and gone, almost, and it is once again time for a little Best of the Month roundup. As I’ve said, and explained, before I have a lot more free time than you do. I don’t do much with my life other than listen to music and mess around with friends so, consequently, I have a lot of time to scour the interwebs to find the best music you probably missed on the first go round. These tracks were found using a variety of sources including Hype, Elbows, random blogs, and other music sites. Enjoy the tracks, I hope you all had a magnificent Christmas.

All the tracks in one zip file : here {zshare = left click}

mp3 : Jens Lekman - I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You
mp3 : Lightspeed Champion - Heart in a Cage (Live The Strokes Cover)
mp3 : Lupe Fiasco - Streets on Fire
mp3 : Macon Grayson - Minnesota Weatherman
mp3 : Mylo - Sweet Child of Mine (Live Guns N Roses Cover)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Far Physician’s Son
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - How Can The Stone Remain
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - In the Words of the Governor
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Transfigurartion (Live Orchestral Version)
mp3 : The Clark Brothers - Gimme Shelter (Live Rolling Stones Cover)
mp3 : The Killers - Great Big Sled (Live)
mp3 : The Magnetic Fields - California Girls

Definitely check out the tracks by Lightspeed Champion, the newcomers The Clark Brothers, Mylo, and the new song from the upcoming Magnetic Fields album. The rest of the tracks are pretty awesome as well, especially the very rare Sufjan songs that were graciously given to my by many a concerned reader during my Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens. {if you look closely you’ll notice none of these songs are a remixed track. stay tuned for my inaugural post in the new BOTR series later this week}. Also, does anyone else think that Lupe Fiasco is very similar to Moby mixed with Will Smith? Whatever your opinion this track by Lupe Fiasco is phenomenal. Also, if Macon Greyson isn’t winning the award for ‘band who sounds the most like Lynryd Skynryd’ I don’t know who is.

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Lightspeed Champion

Published by
billy
at November 13, 2007 in indie, lightspeed champion, mp3 and music. 1 Comment

Lightspeed Champion is Dev Hynes.  A man who used to be the thrash, punk, screamo set in a band called Test Icicles.  I never really liked the old sound Dev was associated with so I was skeptical about this new project.  And I’m sure I would have remained a skeptic had it not been for the blog that he maintains.  His posts are often barely lucid and the stream of consciousness style that he’s adopted seems to mesh well with the inner monologue that narrates my life.  Not to mention that he talks of having a Libertines guitar competition with friends, writing and recording an entire album in five hours, or drops that The Strokes music cannon contains the best songs to play with other guitar wielding friends.

From reading his blog for a good twenty minutes it was easy to postulate his musical style would mesh easily with my musical taste.  The only problem I found is that his music is a very slippery beast to get a hold on.  I looked high and low and came across some tracks he’s preformed live, the aforementioned album he wrote and recorded in less than five hours, and a lot of references to other bands.  Finally I found the penultimate prize in the Lightspeed Champion catalog and it is this song that I’m putting up first.

mp3 : Lightspeed Champion - Waiting Game

If you’re a fan of M Ward, the Strokes, Bright Eyes, Modest Mouse or just solid guitar work and clever lyrics in general then this song is a must download.  I encourage everyone to hear this song from start to end as it builds continually from start to end with layer upon layer of plucky sonic goodness.

The following songs come from a variety of places, most notably Lightspeed Champion’s own website which doubles as his personal soap box of a blog.  The first three tracks listed below come from his album that he wrote and recorded in under five hours.  They don’t have proper titles as the project was picked up and finished, never to be worked on again, in one day.  The entire album has more tracks than just these three, but these are the best of the disc.  Included are tracks 6, 7, and 8, and I believe they showcase the depth of Dev and the talent he has yet to unleash on this world.  Notice too the strong influence The Strokes seem to have on his sound.  And don’t mind too much the fact that he obviously recorded this quickly and somewhat sloppily.  Listen to the ideas behind the maxed out and fuzzed out sounds.

mp3 : Lightspeed Champion - One Day Record 6
mp3 : Lightspeed Champion - One Day Record 7
mp3 : Lightspeed Champion - One Day Record 8

The next two tracks are taken directly from Dev’s blog.  The first is a song he played live and is a cover of an Elton John classic.  The second is a song that he was writing to sing/give to someone in particular, but he soon realized he hated the song, scrapped even the thought of salvaging it, and put it in his blog as “this song is shit.”

mp3 : Lightspeed Champion - Better Off Dead (Elton John Cover)
mp3 : Lightspeed Champion - This Song is Shit

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