Bowery Ballroom

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Lightspeed Champion

Lightspeed Champion

Flowers Forever / The Explorers Club

Presented by last.fm

Sat 6/7
Tickets

18+

Doors 8pm

$15

Lightspeed Champion

  • http://www.last.fm/music/Lightspeed+Champion
  • http://www.lightspeedchampion.com/
  • http://www.myspace.com/lightspeedchampion
  • "I obsess over songwriting to the point where when I listen to music I hear the song rather than the genre," says Dev Hynes, the genial creative force behind Lightspeed Champion. "The first music I was into was musicals: stuff like Hair and the Rocky Horror film. Those songs had a big effect on me. And I'm an unashamedly huge country fan. My aunt in Houston always played the country stations. I'm pretty out of date with the new indie bands, though I still listen to a lot of hip hop."

    This most unassuming of sonic polymaths is best known as the guitarist with the hot pink axe in precocious trio Test Icicles: pick 'n' mix purveyors of garish riff and agitated rhythm, who lit up the UK underground in 2005 before calling it quits a year later with a headline show at London's prestigious Astoria Theatre. "Test Icicles was one of many projects that the three of us did," explains Dev. "We weren't doing it for money or to be famous, so when the music stopped being fun we moved on. We didn't want to cheat people, especially because it was mainly kids who were into Test Icicles. But none of the success was lost on me - I appreciated the fact that we got to play the Astoria, for instance."

    The sound of Lightspeed Champion, however, was shaped thousands of miles away in Omaha, Nebraska by experienced studio hand Mike Mogis, resident producer for Saddle Creek records. Backed by an informal band that included multi-instrumentalists Mogis and Nate Walcott. The Faint's drummer Clark Baechle and guest vocalist Emmy The Great - not to mention moonlighting members of Cursive and Tilly And The Wall - Dev was able to furnish his gently humorous, open-hearted songs with an unaffected warmth. He has fond memories of this communal experience.

Flowers Forever

The Explorers Club

  • http://www.myspace.com/explorersclub
  • http://www.virb.com/explorersclub
  • To say that the Explorers Club is trying to channel the mid-sixties Beach Boys on Freedom Wind isn't meant as complaint or praise or any other subjective judgment. It's objective. They are trying to channel the Beach Boys, utterly, totally, completely, and they're not pretending otherwise. From the reverb and the ever popular Ronettes drum break starting "Forever" and the album off to the close harmonies and the lyrical subject matter and more, even the studio chatter, this is a Beach Boys clone, tribute, borrowing, imitation, call it what you will. And the band aren't hiding it at all or pretending otherwise -- to the point where the CD booklet is produced to seem like a scuffed and well loved vinyl sleeve starting to rub off a bit around the record's circumference. So all this said, what to say about it? Perversely enough, the fact that they are so direct about it almost makes the whole thing more worthwhile than the endless number of bands that have worn their Brian Wilson fetish on their sleeves but can't get anywhere near what makes that band so great. By wishing they were the band themselves -- or wishing they were the Wondermints backing up Brian Wilson, at least -- the Explorers Club have produced a nearly unchallengeable album. If you love the Beach Boys' work in its starting-to-be-dreamily-insular phase, you'll enjoy every last note on here as the familiar combinations they are, different but the same, even while shaking your head with a chuckle at the sheer nuttiness of it all.
    --by Ned Raggett
Box Office Info

Mercury Lounge

217 E. Houston St. (corner Ave A & Houston)

New York, NY map & directions

212–260–4700

Hours: Mon–Sat, Noon–7 pm

Music Hall of Williamsburg

66 N. 6th St. (b/w Wythe & Kent)

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718–486–5400

Hours: Saturday 11am–6pm

Contact Info
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Room Rentals: privateevents@bowerypresents.com
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Bowery Ballroom

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