Mercury Lounge

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Lightspeed Champion 8:00

Hey Hey My My 7:00

Wed 3/5

$10 adv / $12 dos

Lightspeed Champion

http://www.myspace.com/lightspeedchampion
http://www.lightspeedchampion.com/
"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 I'm pretty out of date with the new indie bands, though I still listen to a lot of hip hop."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.

Hey Hey My My

http://www.myspace.com/
Animated alt-country influenced pop delivered by Bordeaux natives Julien Garnier and Julien Gaulier, from the land which brought us "mÃ©nage Ã trois" and "PepÃ© le Pew".

"The group is named, of course, after one of Neil Young's fiercer pop nuggets, and while they share a knack for hook-filled melancholy with the great Shakey, in fact their music is quite a bit more pristine than most of Mr. Young's output. At times the self-titled debut reminds us of a band like Doves, with acoustic guitars bolstered by simple, powerful rhythm tracks that are so subtly assembled it's tough to tell what is live and what is looped, resulting in laidback, groove-oriented folk-rock that also draws on American indie influences like Magnolia Electric Co., or even Beck's more sincere stuff, to great effect. Available only in their native land on the cool Sober & Gentle imprint, the band is starting to make some ripples in the U.S., and we imagine that this is not the last you will hear from Hey Hey My My." OTHER MUSIC