Now Listening: Lightspeed Champion

February 16, 2009 by mg33

lightspeedchampion

Lightspeed Champion are the current band of Devonte Hynes, formerly of Test-Icicles, and the contrast in style couldn’t be more noticeable. Test Icicles were a brash, explosive band of grating guitars and shouted lyrics, and they’d have been the perfect tourmates for Death From Above 1979 – another great band that closed up shop too soon.

From Wikipedia:

Lightspeed Champion is the name of the new musical venture by ex-Test Icicle Devonte Hynes. He is currently signed to Domino Records. Containing musical elements from a variety of genres, Lightspeed Champion has a radically different sound to Hynes’ previous band. The name ‘Lightspeed Champion’ comes from a series of comic strips Hynes did as a teenager in his school mathematics books. Hynes was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Essex, England.

In early 2007, Hynes went to Omaha, Nebraska to record Lightspeed Champion’s debut album with Saddle Creekproducer Mike Mogis, also a member of the band Bright Eyes. A number of Omaha-based musicians appear on the record including Mogis himself, trumpet player and pianist Nate Walcott (also of Bright Eyes), The Faint’s drummer Clark Baechle and guest vocalist Emmy The Great - along with moonlighting members of Cursive and Tilly And The Wall.

The result of those recording sessions is the album Falling Off the Lavender Bridge which was released on January 21, 2008. The first single from the album is “Galaxy of the Lost”, which was released on July 30, 2007. (Additional wikipedia entry here)

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I’ve been a huge fan of this album since a friend suggested it and I love seeing the diversity of a songwriter I previously knew only for what Test-Icicles had produced. There’s a great blend of instrumentation here – strings, horns, and acoustic guitars.

Read more about Lightspeed Champion at metacritic.com.