The Daily Spin: Lightspeed Champion - Falling Off The Lavender Bridge

I own an iPod, but for the most part I don't use it and stubbornly cling to my nearly 10-year-old Discman. I listen to a different album every day on the old clunker, and here's today's:

This no longer applies because I actually used my iPod today.

I'm a huge sucker for pedal steel, classical arrangements and weird lyrics, and Lightspeed Champion's debut has all three. It's a brilliant combination of alt.country, classical and indie pop, and what's awesome about it is it was recorded in Omaha and doesn't sound like it was (ie: Bright Eyes isn't all over it).

"Midnight Surprise" is a fucking crazy song because musically it shouldn't make any sense, but it does — somehow the transition from pedal steel to acoustic guitar to bombastic solo works. It should be 10 minutes of mess, but it isn't. Plus, you have to love the humour in a song called "Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk" that's this quiet, lush track that sounds absolutely fuck all like Ludacris. And "Dry Lips"? It's been a long time since somebody's written about romantic failure so well. Take that, emo kids.

Released: Jan. 21, 2008
Label: Domino
Producer: Mike Mogis