WTF: Lightspeed Champion: "Galaxy of the Lost"
After dropping his Test Icicles, guitarist Dev Hynes started acting out certain... urges. Just look at the video for "Galaxy of the Lost", by his new project Lightspeed Champion. Somebody apparently told the once Splipknot-scary UK rocker how to get to "Sesame Street", so this Ferry Gouw-directed clip has Hynes looking as gentle as Gruff Rhys in Candylion mode, except with worse hair. Stuffed animals and an adorable kitten are on hand to enjoy a boy/girl duet that's closer to acoustic rock than the video's twee trappings admit.
And yet. For whatever irony the video milks out of the notion of an indiecore shocker going cutie-pie, the song's winding melody has a way of sticking around. And Hynes' lyrics are often as bitter as the video is sweet: "What would happen if I started to drink like you?" he wonders. Before maybe visiting Big Bird, Hynes stopped in Omaha for production by Saddle Creek's Mike Mogis, plus vivid string arrangements, pedal steel, bass, and drums by other local figures. Never mind the Test Icicles, here's Lightspeed Champion.
[from the "Galaxy of the Lost" single; due 6/19/07 on Domino]