Lightspeed Champion covers ABBA

thepiratebayKind of an arbitrary selection to close out the year – and the regular cover of the week thing as a whole – but hey, it’s timely.

Dev Hynes doesn’t operate as Lightspeed Champion anymore, and even his new Blood Orange persona is presently taking a backseat to his role as Solange’s producer/co-conspirator, he was/is an amazingly prolific musician no matter what you call him, releasing music through whatever avenue happens to be convenient.

In 2007, that was MySpace and even before his debut full-length as Lightspeed Champion Falling Off The Lavender Bridge came out, he was giving away music to his early-adopter fans, like the Garageband Xmas EP. As the name implies, it was an EP of holiday songs recorded with GarageBand and one of the selections was the 1980 ABBA single from Souper Trouper. It’s an odd cover of an odd single, but it’s how we’re going out. And while the EP’s not available via MySpace anymore – though apparently they’re trying to be a thing again in 2013 so good luck with that – you can hope this torrent still works.

And with this the likely final post of year, I’d like to make note that the “worst retirement ever” will be getting a little less worst from here on out. I had said that I would ride 2012 out at pretty much the same pace I always had, but 2012 is over; expect things to get somewhat quieter hereabouts as, over these holidays, I’ve rediscovered how nice it is to not be writing a blog post every night/weekend. There’s actually a lot of hours in the day!

In any case, have a safe New Year’s Eve, and I’ll see you in 2013 eventually.

MP3: Lightspeed Champion – “Happy New Year”
Video: ABBA – “Happy New Year”

Frank YangCalgary’s Woodpigeon will be rectifying a grievous wrong next week when they re-release their originally limited-edition (and completely sold out) Treasury Canada Library album, this time accessorized with a bonus album in the form of Houndstooth Europa. The album was one of my favourites of last year and I’m pleased that more will be getting to hear it.

But by giving older works their proper due, the band is having to postpone – at least for a little while – their newer works which are already starting to pile up. Not only is there a plan to release another album of new works entitled Die Stadt Muzikanten for this Fall, but demos are already complete for the album after that one. It’s from sessions for that record, currently called Thumbtacks + Glue and which almost certainly not to see the light of day until sometime in ’10, that this simple and haunting ABBA cover comes.

Following a couple of Vancouver dates next week, the band is set to head out on a European tour for most of February. Eastern Canada types take heart, though – they’ll be here in June for NxNE. Yet another reason to look forward to Summer. In case no longer dealing with -30 wind chills wasn’t quite sufficient.

MP3: Woodpigeon – “Lay All Your Love On Me”
Video: ABBA – “Lay All Your Love On Me” (fan video)