Video Thursday, film 7: A Thousand Light Years

Murray Lightburn is the frontman for the Dears -- whose catalogue is well represented in our home.  A few months back, he announced a solo project that he had been working on, which may, or may not have instigated the purchase of new woofers for our old school, three foot floor speakers -- the old ones, there, on the floor, in tatters.  The reason was unspoken, at the time; unquestionably justified.

 

The woofers arrived, accompanied by two new rekkird needles -- these are things we used in the old days, to scratch through groovy, spinny things, which resulted in sound.

 

Murray's project was more solo than most:  He locked himself in a recording studio with 300 gallons of whiskey, where he labored through the music, arrangements and mixing on his own, singing each track, from beginning to end with no lay-ins. He did get some help with the final product, at the end, and a bit of additional instrumentation, but otherwise, did everything on his own, right down to silk screening each record jacket.

 

If briefly, his idea was for a rock-opera movie, about an alien terrorist, whose own family dies as the result of his actions.  There is no need to say, the soundtrack for the mythical movie, was greatly anticipated.

 

 

Number 138 of 300 arrived, along with the shirt off his back!  That was worn during the whole process -- this one even has a little baby burp, or, maybe a late night snack... I'm not going to investigate.

 

The first spin...

 

was boomy!  The album starts off with fairly upbeat rythms, though not sentiments, before driving into complete darkness and leaving us in pieces -- anhilating us all on the final track!  What a great album!

 

The third track on the album is called, "A Thousand Light Years," and from the first play, every time it starts, William races downstairs and starts to dance, sometimes grabbing his guitar.

 

Murray said he did the same thing in the studio -- except alone, other than, of course, the whiskey.

 

 

Untitled from Daniel Endicott on Vimeo.