The Cold Cut

Update 2: The fileden links went down due to popularity! You guys sucked up 5 Gb of bandwith in about 5 hours. I've re-uploaded all the individual tracks on zshare for your listening pleasure. Enjoy.

Update: The Lemur is turning 17 tomorrow- Blogstars have put together another completely original mixtape to celebrate the event. Make sure you take a visit, comment, and most of all say Happy Bday to the furry dude. The Lemur Blog

Yay! I'm 18 today (26th July)! How exciting! The plan for the day was wake up (after a late BBQ last night with some frivolity), take a run, have brunch, open a few pressies/cards and then go to see The Dark Knight. The evening was be topped off with a meal down at the beach. Perfecto. I'm not going to cover the day's celebrations yet, although I will say that The Dark Knight was fucking amazing. A full review will be posted once I have got over the emotionally draining experience that was the best film of 2008.

To tie in with my celebrations, a secret team of uber-bloggers (and a few DJs/musicians) have been working behind the scenes with myself to create a super-blogtastic 18th Birthday mixtape for you. And it rocks.

The Blogstars (remember that name- coming to an internet near you soon) have each chosen a song to be featured on the mixtape, bringing together a host of musical tastes and some of the best music blogs on the internet. Think of this as the Justice League of music. On the right of each song, you will find the blog which selected it- click through to see some more from each contributor. Oh, and enjoy, as I will be doing!

You can download each track individually, but to save time you can obtain the whole tape in singular files as a zip. Mixtape artwork is above/below- click through for mega-sized versions. The tracklisting is as follows:

Blogstars Presents Happy 18th Birthday Mixtape (Full).zip (Link 2)

1. Cut Copy- Lights And Music (Boyz Noize Happy Birthday Remix)... The Lemur Blog
2. Treasure Fingers- Come True Tonight (Dub Mix)... Immuzikation
3. Rihanna- Disturbia... Pretty Much Amazing
4. Grum- Go Back... Check The Availability
5. K-OS- Neutroniks... Party cmyk
6. VETO- Built To Fall... Where Did I Leave My Keys?
7. The Uglysuit- Chicago... Hypeful
8. The Game Ft. Lil' Wayne- My Life... Gordon DJ Stealth McGinnis
9. Cut Copy- Going Nowhere (Whitey Remix)... Ohh! Crapp
10. The Silent Years- The World's Worst Birthday Gift... Hypeful
11. Felix Da Housecat- Silver Screen Shower Scene... Neon Cool Kids, Yo!

Bonus Tracks:

1. Patton Oswalt- You Are Allowed 20 Birthday Parties

Watch this band. If you do anything today, make sure you check out Lightspeed Champion. I can tell you now, without a shadow of a doubt, that Dev Hynes is going to be big. As in, he will be remembered as one of 'the great British songwriters'.

Explain? Well, a few months ago at the Paradiso, they blew me away. I've been a fan since Dev's Test Icicles days, but I still wasn't expecting this quality of performance. At around 8 PM, Dev (complete with fur hat) and his band strolled on stage, with no ostentation. None materialised through the set. He had this aura of 'niceness', and was totally chilled: 'so, what have you guys been up to today?' was the opener. Each song was ended with 'thanks everyone'. Here's a clear example of someone unaffected by fame (reassuring, considering there's much more to come). I hope Dev reads this- not an unreasonable expectation considering he commented on one of my earliest posts about Lightspeed Champion.

Thankfully, his stage presence isn't all I have to rave about. The music itself was brilliant. The band- Dev and his band (drums, bass and violin) swept through a well balanced set, with oodles of character and charm. Oh, and just to clarify something, Dev is really, really, really good at guitar. This doesn't come across in the record, and makes the live performance a lot more exciting. His backing band are much the same. With a trio of drums, violin and bass, and Dev himself switching between guitars and piano, the album is fully fleshed out.

The band previewed 3 new songs: although he's still touring the new album, Dev has already finished the follow-up (an inclination of how much music he writes). The set began with 'Happy Birthday', a song similar in sound to Midnight Suprise, with some nice development: the song starts with frantic picking and then settles into a steady rhythm. These news songs help us to form an idea of how good he will eventually be- over the course of the tour, he has already become much more of a showman, and new musical skills are being picked up every day.

Lightspeed Champion- Happy Birthday (Live At Paradiso) (Link 2)

Dev also reproduced the now famous cover of 'Heart In A Cage', which is all the more impressive live. It arrives half way through the 16 song set. Sat alone on the stage, he cuts a sharp profile, and more than matches Julian Casablancas for pathos.

The second new song was 'Marlene' a 'funky' number that a more upbeat backing and some different lyrical topics: 'stick a spoon into your heart, and eat away all your Deutschmarks. Your money don't mean a damn thing. I'm wearing everything I own... Stop being cool'. The song also features a crazy solo by Dev at the end: no joke, he shreds!

Lightspeed Champion- Marlene (Live At Paradiso) (Link 2)

'Madame Van Damme' is another song likely to find it's way onto his new album. I admit I wasn't as blown away by the lyrics of this song as the other new additions, but it's still likely to be a hit when put through the recording process; that was only the fourth time it had been played live. The guitars are very retro, and the refrain has Dev repeating 'kill me, baby wont you kill me'. I'm not going to post it just yet, and final judgment will have to wait until I get my hands on the album version.

The set is full of character; from their rendition of the Star Wars theme (amazing)- which was joined together with a certain 10 minute opus- to the quips between each song,

Lightspeed Champion- Star Wars Medley (Link 2)

During 'Midnight Surprise', their pre-encore song, the band went a little psycho, and the music suddenly stopped. The band looked around, confused: 'Oops, I think we just blew out the power! That, guys, is the power of rock music'. After a few seconds of repairs, the playing resumed, and the band got right back into their breakdown.

Lightspeed Champion didn't have anything to prove to me at this gig. As I've said and will keep on saying: they're on the cusp of huge things, and are going to make a difference, whether or not the general audience admits it. As a band, Lightspeed Champion have it all: versatility (switching between instruments), depth (in the lyrics), impact (Dev), talent and tunes. Now all they need is an audience big enough to appreciate that fact.

'Falling Off The Lavender Bridge' can be purchased at Amazon. Dev's blog is a great read, and his official Myspace often features free Lightspeed Champion downloads. Photos courtesy of Tonie. Visit Fabchannel to watch the concert!