MP3: Lightouts – "Stray Boy"

 Critical Praise for Lightouts:

“Gowanus duo Lightouts resurrect the melancholy chug and darkly sexy swagger of bands like The Cure, Girls Against Boys, JAMC and Afghan Whigs and impolitely jam it into the drum machine crunch of contemporary locals like Sleigh Bells, Year Of The Tiger and the Death Set.”
– Chris Weingarten, The Village Voice

“I require precisely no convincing that Lightouts are brilliant, but if you’re in any doubt then by all means check out their new single, ‘The Cure For Shyness.'”
– Listen Before You Buy

“Best New Release”
– Indie Rock Cafe

The Song:

What happens when you mix an Is This It? -era Strokes verse with an anthemic Arcade Fire chorus and channel it all through The Shins? You get “Stray Boy,” the latest tune from Brooklyn’s Lightouts. The boys from Gowanus are back with the b-side to The Big Picture maxi-sinlge, out on 6/26.

The track was premiered yesterday by Filter, who had this to say: “Displaying their influences of The Cure and Guided By Voices proudly in their track, ‘Stray Boy,’ Greg Nelson and Gavin Rhodes deliver an upbeat song that’s fit for a windows down, slow driving summer day. ” While the deceptively slow intro may make you want to drive slowly at first, when the fast, punky, verse kicks in we think you’ll be punching it into overdrive.

Download “Stray Boy” here: http://media.audibletreats.com/Lightouts-Stray_Boy.mp3

Check out the premiere at Filter: http://bit.ly/L3wX93

via Audible Treats

MP3: Lightouts – "Push" (The Cure cover)

via: Audible Treats

 
Critical Praise for Lightouts:

“Gowanus duo Lightouts resurrect the melancholy chug and darkly sexy swagger of bands like The Cure, Girls Against Boys, JAMC and Afghan Whigs and impolitely jam it into the drum machine crunch of contemporary locals like Sleigh Bells, Year Of The Tiger and the Death Set.”
– Chris Weingarten, The Village Voice

“I require precisely no convincing that Lightouts are brilliant, but if you’re in any doubt then by all means check out their new single, ‘The Cure For Shyness.'”
– Listen Before You Buy 

“Best New Release”
– Indie Rock Cafe

The Song:

Lightouts’ forthcoming fifth single (and last before their debut LP), “The Big Picture,” will be out in a few weeks, and as with their first four singles, the Gowanus boys have included a cover tune along with their originals. This time they tackled a deep cut by The Cure — “Push” from 1985’s The Head On the Door. It’s a faster, more muscular version of the song that still retains the melancholic grandeur of the original.

Why The Cure this time? Rumor has it that chief Lightouts songwriter Gavin Rhodes used to tease his hair and wear eyeliner in the 8th grade, so this is a bit of a musical homecoming for the band. Rhodes had this to say about the cover: “This is one of those Cure songs that show why the stereotypical perceptions of the band as all keyboards, gloom, and doom are so wrong. I think this is one of the best guitar driven pop-songs of all time. Soaring, anthemic, wistful, it’s just amazing to me. This guitar riff alone was hugely influential in my development on the guitar. And the lyric, ‘A smile to hide the fear away / I’ll smear this man across the walls / Like strawberries and cream,’ is simply brilliant.”

Download Lightouts version of “Push” here:
http://media.audibletreats.com/Lightouts-Push_(The_Cure_Cover).mp3

Check out the premiere at Impose: http://www.imposemagazine.com/bytes/lightouts-cover-the-cures-push