LIFESTYLES

LA’s Nick Ray refuses to disappoint with his newest tape titled Lifestyles which will be dropping in the next month or so on Leaving Records. Nick Ray is Speculator, who uses retro samples and plays epic guitar riffs over them. This tape has easily traveled to the top of my tape rotation list, I play it so much I purchased a portable tape player just to listen to it. It features a slowed-down version of Oasis’ Wonderwall, a re-recording of Fuck This World, and plenty of new stunning tracks. Below is a short clip of Speculator preforming a song off of this cassette at a BBQ a few months ago.

speculator bbq from Leaving Records on Vimeo.

F**K THIS WORLD

Speculator is easily in my top 5 artists. I still remember when I read about him at Friendship Bracelet. In those days I was such an innocent blogger, trying to figure out my place in the blogging world. If you still haven’t listened to Speculator yet, you can download this summary of free Speculator tracks that I put up not too long ago. Below is a video of Speculator playing ‘Fuck This World’ in San Francisco. This is the first live Speculator video I’ve seen, and it’s everything I’d hoped it would be.

Speculator will also be contributing a track to my Mixtapes For Haiti project, and this track is in fact up for consideration on the mix. Also, I’ve just been informed that Speculator will be getting more Luke Perry Splits in soon, keep your eyes peeled on Wet Merchants.

Speculator- f**k this world from Andrew Crighton on Vimeo.

Speculator

I’ve been listening to Speculator ever since I heard about him through Friendship Bracelet’s Friendship Club Volume 2 Mix, and I never got around to blogging about him, which I think was because at the time I was using him to make fun of my friends ‘as one of those bands they’ve never heard of but should have’, so you see, there was no way I could blog about him. That time has long since past. When I was pursuing Rose Quartz today, I noticed a post about Speculators’ new upcoming cassette and two teaser tracks. They’re pretty sweet, especially the track ‘Easy’. Since these are some super cool laid back jams that deserve to be heard, I’ve compiled all 7 free tracks that I’ve found around the internet for you here. Peep yourself some Speculator and keep your eyes peeled for his full length tape from Wet Merchants