‘Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You’ is Dev Hynes’s second outing as Lightspeed Champion since the demise of the lauded indie punk outfit Test Icicles. He manages to eschew the Americana leanings of his previous album ‘Falling Off the Lavender Bridge’ in favour of a richer sound drawing inspiration from classical music, 70s rock and French standards. Now residing in New York City, Dev’s interests extend way beyond just music. A fanatical blogger and writer of short stories, he has co-written a comic book with his girlfriend, graphic designer Nicole Michalek. He also is an avid film fan and below he tells Electric Sheep about his 10 favourite movies. You can find out more about the movies he doesn’t like in his blog ‘the world’s worst movies’ (as voted by IMDB). The album ‘Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You’ is out on 15 February 2010. The EP ‘Marlene’ (2×7â€) is out now and features a cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s ’69 Année érotique’. More information on Lightspeed Champion’s website and on Domino Records. LUCY HURST
1. After Hours (1985)
In this film directed by Scorsese, Griffin Dunne plays a bank worker who decides to go for a night out in Soho, NY. It all goes wrong, and all he wants to do is go home, but he can’t! This movie is a beautiful exaggeration of a night we’ve all had!
2. The Crush (1993)
Cary Elwes looks incredible in this film, it’s like ‘MTV does drama’, which of course makes it amazing. Alicia Silverstone is so evil in her seduction of Cary Elwes’s character and the ending is surprisingly dark: ‘he thought it was just a crush… he was dead wrong!’
3. The Room (2003)
I don’t even know what I can say about this movie. Vanity project gone wrong, which in turn, goes right? Tommy Wissau is a mystery man, he supposedly spent $7 million on this forewarning about a woman cheating on her lover (his best friend). I’ve probably seen this film 40 times within the last year and every time it just gets better and a lot more bizarre.
4. Three 0’Clock High (1987)
This is the story of Jerry Mitchell, a young boy who accidentally makes enemies with Buddy Revell, the new bully in town. Buddy promises the demise of the young protagonist as soon as the school bell rings at 3 o’clock. To me, this is one of the best films the 80s had to offer for teenagers!
5. Legal Eagles (1986)
This Ivan Reitman comedy courtroom drama stars Robert Redford, Debra Winger and Daryl Hannah in a complicated love triangle. Interestingly enough, the film has different endings depending on where you viewed it. For example, in the cinema version Daryl Hannah is found innocent, yet on TV she is found guilty – but of a different murder!
6. Planet of the Apes (1968)
Man, I wish I spoke like Charlton Heston does in this film. Every line he delivers is truly ludicrous and magnificent at the same time. You can’t really beat this film.
7. La Planète sauvage (1973)
This French animation by René Laloux is the greatest cartoon ever made. The soundtrack by Alain Goraguer is the greatest soundtrack of all time and quite possibly the reason I play music!!
8. Zabriskie Point (1970)
Supposedly Antonioni’s critique of America, this film is full of amazingly outdated hippy dialogue, but as soon as the action moves to Death Valley, it becomes truly beautiful.
9. Todd Rundgren: The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect (1983)
Fake documentary, music interview and life story written and directed by Todd Rundgren. Before its time and completely bat shit crazy. If you’re a screen grabber such as myself, this is like pure gold!
10. The 5000 Fingers of Dr T (1953)
The scariest kids’ film of all time? Most definitely. A kid drifts off into a fantasy world where his piano tutor is an evil mastermind controlling a huge prison facility forcing kids to learn the piano. Dr Seuss actually designed the set himself, wrote the songs and wrote the script, making it the only movie based on his work that he was involved in. Try to track down ‘The Elevator Song’, it still gives me chills!