Incoming: Lightspeed Champion – Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You

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Lightspeed Champion returns with Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You

Due out of 1st February 2010, Dev Hynes, former Test-Icicle, now fully-fledged folk-cuddling star, is set to release his second record.

The tracklisting is as follows:
1 – Dead Head Blues
2 – Marlene
3 – There’s Nothing Underwater
4 – Intermission
5 – Faculty Of Fears
6 – The Big Guns Of Highsmith
7 – Romart
8 – I Don’t Want To Wake Up Alone
9 – Madame Van Damme
10 – Smooth Day (At The Library)
11 – Intermission 2
12 – Sweetheart
13 – Etude Op.3 ‘Goodnight Michalek’
14 – Middle Of The Dark
15 – A Bridge And A Goodbye

And Domino have just given us a sneak preview of new single ‘Marlene’ which looks absolutely obscene.

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LIVE - Lightspeed Champion – Brighton Concorde – 23rd July
words: Jamie Milton
photo from Veronika Moore/Gigwise

Brighton’s concorde venue holds a lot of history for me. I witnessed my first ever non-arena/stadium gig there in 2006 when I went to see the Paddingtons. As a little pubescent cub(?), it was a joy to behold – getting kissed by the guitarist whilst buying a t-shirt was, at the time, one of the best things to ever happen to me. My most recent adventure down Madeira Drive however, involved having to show id for the appearance of a friend’s can of cheap cider in my backpack (something I was entirely not aware of) and as I wasn’t of the age of 18, I was therefore rejected access, with my cider-drinking friend, into the venue.
Thankfully, my next visit to the venue saw the greatest gig (out of the 20 odd) that I’d witnessed there thus far.

Two factors played no part in this whatsoever – #1 being the crowd of three jokers (there’s always some!!!) who treated the Lightspeed Champion gig like it was a homecoming goodbye-show from Oasis. Chanting along to the violin part of ‘Devil Tricks For A Bitch’ in a ‘Chelsea Dagger’-esque fashion was completely unnecessary and entirely wanker-ish and even it it were the short-arses’ stag-do, it was a surreal moment when you saw them jumping up and down, singing their hearts out to the opening line of ‘Everyone I Know Is Listening to Crunk’ – the delicate words “Kiss me and comfort me, my sweet” with fists in the air, Carling in hard. It was the least masculine thing in the history of live music, yet I’m sure they felt all the more man for it.

The second of these factors was unfortunately, the support band. The Mojo Fins teased us all with hints of variety throughout their set. An instrumental, 65daysofstatic-esque thrill of a song was played halfway through their set of non-notable drones of un-originality. Fair enough they had the talent and they had the songs, they just never had the spark apart from that midway point which was most likely a b-side to their latest single, or an interlude to a forthcoming record. The crowd simply didn’t have the time of day for what was essentially, background music. Add a weird pedal into proceedings and we have a completely different story but if their intention was to sell records and make a living from their music, they were going the wrong way about it. Bad first impressions to say the least but never write a hint of talent off.

It was a breath of fresh air then, when Den Hynes took to the stage with his newly-acquired multi-gendered cronies. There was a bassist who managed to take swigs of his beer bottle whilst playing a song, there was a guitarist/violinist/multi-instrumentalist whose enthusiasm progressed as the set moved onwards and there was a drummer whose consistent smile raised a few laddishly-ironic cheers of “you’re fit!” from the guys standing next to me. Funny how when you hire musicians to play with you, what people witness on stage can sometimes look like a much more compact and enjoyable quartet to some of today’s other bands.

The catalyst in this joyous performance was the element of spontaneity. Improvising when delving on what to play next, Hynes encouraged the dominantly-static crowd into a cheerful sing-along about how lovely Brighton beach was. After leaving the song alone when it’d had its time, we were told that the song might progress into something special. On the subject of new material, there was nothing to not be impressed about. Introducing the likes of ‘Happy Birthday’ (one that Hynes wasn’t “too sure about”) and a racey foot-stomper ‘Marlene’, was much welcomed. It’s rare that new material played live can sound so complete on first impressions but Dev and his companions seemed to have completely nailed it first time.

As for the fan favourites, they were spaced out evenly throughout. Closing with the full, ten-minute rendition of ‘Midnight Surprise’, prior to an instrumental encore of ‘All To Shit’, was ideal. People begun to join in with the drunkards down the front, smiles were raised all round. ‘Devil Tricks For A Bitch’, played a little earlier, was equally stunning, as well as early-favourite ‘Salty Water’.

Waving goodbye to a still-expectant crowd, Hynes awkwardly announced a party on the beach in half an hour. If only I had that cheap can of cider in my bag this time! Instead I return home in surprised satisfaction after a set that boasted a great amount of variety and other such thrills. This guy has earned the right to play at every festival on Earth this summer.

PLAY: Lightspeed Champion – Devil Tricks For A Bitch [Buy 'Falling Off The Lavender Bridge']

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12 questions with…. #2/ Emmy The Great
words: Charlie Ralph

Emmy the Great is a folk singer who is soon to release her debut album and has already gained a cult following that has been spanning for the last couple of years – new songs are constantly being unveiled on her regularly-viewed myspace and the forthcoming debut record is sure to be a treat to satisfy the lengthy wait.

Hi there! First, just to clear this up, would you consider ‘Emmy The Great’ to be a solo act with a backing band, or more of a group?

Hello! i think of it kind of as a group project based around my songs. It’s not always everyone on stage, but the thing that people see on stage has had contribution from all of us. The only thing i do on my own is interviews and stuff but if the others are around for those we all join in. The songs would be nothing without the rest of the band, it would just be guitar and vocals and me flailing around garageband and crying.

Q magazine recentely did a piece about ‘new women in music’ with people like you, Florence and The Machine and Ida Maria, do you think you’re part of a scene of upcoming female artists or is it simply a co-incidence?

I’ve never played a show with either Florence or Ida Maria. Wasn’t that an entire issue just of female musicians? I think I might have been involved in a small scene of folk musicians a couple of years ago but that was before I became super misanthropic and stopped hanging out with musicians I’m not in a band with. These days I am very suspicious of the term ‘up and coming’.

What do you do to get yourself into a ‘musical mindset’ before writing songs or performing?

I don’t do anything in particular. When I’m writing songs I drink a lot of tea and take little breaks to watch Lost. Gigs are easy to prepare for cause we have to tune our guitars and set up and stuff. One time I tried to make everybody get in a circle and jump up and down but they all pulled out at the last minute and made me look stupid.

How seriously do you take making your music? Do you purposefully sit and ‘make songs’ or do they just come to you at random points?

Bits come to me and I sort of store them in the back of my head and then later on I sit down and make myself write. I take writing songs and performing too seriously, it puts me under a lot of stress, especially if I think I’ve fucked up or let myself down. I blame Chinese school for this. Screw it. I blame China.

You’ve said before that you like The Killers alot, do they influence your music in any way?

Not really. How could i even hope to be that good?

and have you ever been tempted to write a song about Calvin and Hobbes?

Again, Calvin & Hobbes is sacrosanct. I wouldn’t dare. I do have the same hair as Susie Derkins though and she is my style icon.

You’ve supported alot of bands in your musical career, do you find it easier supporting bands than headlining gigs?

I prefer headlining cause we get more food. But we haven’t headlined in ages cause of the record. I’m so hungry.

Are you excited about playing the John Peel stage at Glastonbury?

I’m pleased that we’re playing it because if it wasn’t for Glastonbury I wouldn’t be making music, but last year we had loads of sound problems and had a bad show, so i’m braced. John Peel is definitely the best stage though. High five!

You also seem to be doing alot of smaller festivals this year (Truck, Bestival, Green Man). Are these more fun to play than the big corporate love-ins?

I like playing most festivals but the little ones are more fun to be at cause it’s easier to get out, and find your friends / people who have to hang out with you cause you’re in a band together. End of the Road is my favourite cause they never ask me to play and i get to sit in the woods all day drinking like a tramp.
For someone who has not yet released a debut album, you have posted alot of songs on myspace, what would be your favourite song you’ve done so far?

It depends on if you mean on the record or to sing or in general. To sing I prefer ‘We Almost HAd a Baby’, cause I’m still angry from when I wrote it. It’s the only time I’ve ever written exactly what i wanted to say. Once in SxSW I had to play it in front of the people who are in the song, and I felt like a horrible bitch. That was a rubbish night. It was like going to school naked.
You also have a very bizarre range of merchandise available (including a lolcats style tote bag), do you design these yourself?

No my lovely flatmate/ housesloth Bob designs them. We both have very loose terms of employment so we spend a lot of time looking up locats on the internet, then we email the good ones to each other from across the room.

Finally, I simply must ask about the debut album, as there are lots of people looking forward to it. Do you have a release date scribbled in a diary yet?

Hopefully it’s first week of September but we’re already over the deadline for mixing it so it might be a touch later. If it doesn’t go out soon I am going to go mad. I’m bored of this one and I want a new one.

Myspace Emmy The Great

PLAY: Emmy the Great – The Catch

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