the killers

Started by Rudie Obias, June 15, 2004, 02:01:40 AM

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MacGuffin

Quote from: godardian on October 02, 2006, 03:13:57 PMHow am I going to reconcile that with the Todd Haynes (whose legend I do care about) Bob Dylan project? We'll see....

You mean you still haven't picked up Christine Vachon's book yet? The genesis and structure of I'm Not There is explained by Haynes himself.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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godardian

Quote from: MacGuffin on October 02, 2006, 03:39:33 PM
Quote from: godardian on October 02, 2006, 03:13:57 PMHow am I going to reconcile that with the Todd Haynes (whose legend I do care about) Bob Dylan project? We'll see....

You mean you still haven't picked up Christine Vachon's book yet? The genesis and structure of I'm Not There is explained by Haynes himself.

:oops:  I do consider that a neglected responsibility. I may even go to the bookstore this afternoon and pick it up.
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

Stay informed on protecting your freedom of speech and civil rights.

polkablues

Actually, after really not liking "Hot Fuss", I find myself enjoying their new album very much.

Of course, after hearing them on SNL the other night, I will NEVER be seeing them live.  That voice of his is fine on record, but hearing him try to sing live is like being slapped with a cat.
My house, my rules, my coffee

pete

I heard they came up with the named of the band when they were swimming and they saw a killer drowning so they invited the guy to their show that night and sang for them.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

cron

it's not that they're not indie enough, but i think the lead singer has a completely dreadful voice.   terrible. makes julian casablancas look like giussepe distefano.
context, context, context.

killafilm

My roommate wants to catch them at kimmel.  I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

Thrindle

After what Godardian and Polka said about their new album... I'll be buying it.

And just so everyone knows... eyeliner on guys... totally hot.  :bravo:  (random, I know)
Classic.

polkablues

My house, my rules, my coffee

godardian

Quote from: Thrindle on October 03, 2006, 10:12:01 PM

And just so everyone knows... eyeliner on guys... totally hot.  :bravo:  (random, I know)

:yabbse-thumbup:   The more unusual thing about Brandon is that he can pull of the eyeliner and the 'stache, IMO. (Though I wouldn't bet on too many guys being able to do both at once.)
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

Stay informed on protecting your freedom of speech and civil rights.

Thrindle


He's got the "I'm too cool to give a fuck" hotness about him.  It's not about being overtly masculine anymore... it's more important to just know that you are the shit.  (I just used the term "the shit", and that really tells me I need to go back to school)

And hi to you too Polka!
Classic.

I Love a Magician

He can grow a beard about as well as I can.

MacGuffin

Killers find roots in 'Sam's Town'
By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY



The Killers titled their new album, Sam's Town, after an old casino on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Before the freeway was built, singer Brandon Flowers remembers the 20-mile stretch of highway connecting his home in Henderson, Nev., to Sam's place on the eastern edge of a city teeming with thrills and temptation.

"When you got to Sam's, you were almost there," he says. "I feel like that's where the band is now. We're really getting somewhere."

To say the least. On the strength of Grammy-nominated hits Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me and All These Things That I've Done, The Killers sold 3.1 million copies of 2004's critically hailed debut, Hot Fuss.

Sam's Town, out this week, could be on a similar course. Mojo dubs it "an action-packed blockbuster." On-the-rise single When You Were Young, which has sold 170,000 downloads so far, is "a cyclone ride of insta-nostalgia that takes in Jesus and the devil, and has a hook as big as both," Blender raves.

That song, plus This River Is Wild and For Reasons Unknown, reflects on values that have faded with passing generations, a theme that emerged as Flowers' globe-trotting instilled both a disquieting worldliness and unexpected homesickness.

A newfound appreciation for the wide open spaces of home is "one reason some songs feel like the desert and the Wild West," Flowers, 25, says. "I was always proud of where I was from, but you always think the grass is greener somewhere else. Because of David Bowie and Robert Smith, I had fantasies of England. Going there was a big eye-opener. It wasn't as mystical as I made them in my mind."

He was dismayed by the unfriendly reception he and his bandmates often received overseas as a result of unpopular U.S. foreign policies.

"In Europe, as soon as people heard my accent, I was treated poorly," he says. "People see us as devils, and we're getting a bad rap because of the war. I wanted to make an album that was human, that reminded people what's great about America."

He turned to his parents for inspiration.

"They're in their 60s. I was raised on the morals and values that seem to be eroding or dying now. We're going downhill, it seems to me. The work ethic has changed. My dad was a hard worker and still is at 64. People today are lazy."

He sees a similar inertia in modern rock and is puzzled when appetite and drive are viewed as unhealthy traits. After wrapping up 400 shows late last year, Flowers, guitarist David Keuning, bassist Mark Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci returned to Vegas and started recording with producers Flood and Alan Moulder.

"People are putting us down for being ambitious, and there are critics who want us to fail," Flowers says. "A lot of bands are getting cynical about hooks and lazier with lyrics and melodies."

Yet mediocrity sells, he grudgingly concedes. Paris Hilton's CD sails into the top 10 "because people feel like they had something to do with it," he says. "It's reality TV now. You get a vote on American Idol. It's upsetting, and it's hurting bands. I hate it.

"But a good song will still find its place. I knew that about Mr. Brightside. As small as we were, I knew one day a lot of people would hear it."

What may surprise fans of Hot Fuss and its British bent is Sam's Town's heartland core, the result in part of Flowers' rediscovered reverence for Bruce Springsteen.

"It was a matter of me getting older and hearing the songs differently," he says. "I heard them through a man's ears, finally. I hadn't felt like that since I fell in love with The Cars and The Smiths. It gave a new breath of life into this album. I do love Bruce, but I was listening to a lot of stuff: Dire Straits, Peter Gabriel, Tom Petty, ELO."

The Killers will tour the USA through October before heading overseas Nov. 1 for European dates, an itinerary that both excites and distresses Flowers, whose fear of flying is documented in the tune Why Do I Keep Counting?

"As soon as we hit turbulence, I instantly start praying," says Flowers, who never flew until The Killers took off. He began seeing a psychiatrist to learn relaxation techniques. "I'm never going to love to fly, but I can't freak out like I used to. I'd cramp so much that I'd be sore for days."

He happily suffers for his art when the payoff is getting on stage in a packed venue.

"We're from Vegas. The glitz, the glamour. You go into a diner or a 7-Eleven, and there are pictures of Sinatra and Elvis on the walls. Performing is in our blood."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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godardian

I hope it's just the USA Today-ness of the article, but Flowers does come off badly there. He boasts about being grown up enough to hear the Boss "with a man's ears," but he still expects the world to see the U.S. as a charmingly misbehaved child. I don't think a "man"--an adult--could ever be surprised by suspicion and/or dislike of America since 2003. That "grass is greener" thing goes for eras, too, which is apparently a lesson he still has to learn. I wish he hadn't been talking about his dad and an earlier generation's supposedly superior values. If he had just been talking about work ethic, ambition, and laziness in music, that would have been just fine with me; but the way it stands, it looks like he forgot to put on his big-boy pants to talk about big-boy topics, and he just comes across as very naive at best (facile at worst).
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

Stay informed on protecting your freedom of speech and civil rights.

MacGuffin

Killers Try To 'Bring Back' Rock, But Not All Critics Are Onboard
Sam's Town has received some harsh reviews in recent weeks, but band is taking it all in stride.  
Source: MTV

The Killers have spent nearly a year of their lives writing, recording, mixing, mastering and promoting Sam's Town. Now comes the hard part: dealing with the critics.

Seems that not everyone has bought into frontman Brandon Flowers' assertion that Sam's is "one of the best albums in the past 20 years", as evidenced by a few fairly harsh reviews the disc has received in recent weeks. And the bandmembers would be lying if they said they weren't a bit miffed.

"There's all kinds of hype, and people are talking about it — for better or worse," guitarist Dave Keuning laughed. "It's mostly good, but there are always some people who have to be negative. It wouldn't have mattered what we put out — they already had their minds made up."

"Like, two stars in Rolling Stone," Flowers added. "But there have been a lot of great things said about it too, most of it from England and Europe. A lot of great press has been written about the record."

It's not like the Killers haven't been setting themselves up for some sort of backlash: They've adopted a new look (kinda spaghetti Western), and packaged Sam's Town with arty black-and-white photography by Anton Corbijn (who shot the cover of U2's The Joshua Tree). Then, of course, there's the whole "sophomore slump" thing.

But nothing has been harped on quite as much as a couple of quotes from Flowers. Chief among them is the aforementioned "20 years" line, which he says has been misinterpreted. Flowers also expresses frustration over people's expectations: He says the Killers aimed for the stars with Sam's Town — and there's nothing wrong with that.

"The sky used to be the limit, and it's not anymore. It's about 200 feet, and beyond that people think you're being comical," he said. "People ask me if we were trying to be funny with this record because it's big and exciting and confident. And my answer is, 'I don't think Beethoven was trying to be funny.' We're taking it seriously — we can laugh at ourselves, of course — but rock and roll used to be about not having limits, not having your box, and that's disappeared somewhere along the way. We're trying to bring it back."

There's also the matter of Bruce Springsteen, who, according to Flowers, was a big influence on his songwriting. The only problem is that many critics have noted that perhaps that influence spilled over into outright aping of the Boss, particularly on Sam's first single, "When You Were Young."

"[The Springsteen comparisons] are getting old and annoying," Keuning said. "It's amazing what one comment can do, like how it can take a life of its own. There's a lot of influences on the band outside of Bruce Springsteen."

While they'd probably prefer to stew for a bit about Sam's patchy reception, the Killers are forced to move on. On Friday, they'll kick off their North American arena tour in support of the disc. And sometime after that, the world will see the Tim Burton-directed video for "Bones," the second single from the record. 

"We wanted to be a band that built gradually. And it's kind of hard to do that when you sell so many copies of your first record," bassist Mark Stoermer sighed. "But we made the best record we could make, and at the end of the day, that's all you can do. We just controlled our side of things, and we set that bar really high."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

JG

haha, so i guess the killers were on kimmel.  head over here to see a skit they did:

http://www.stereogum.com/archives/cat_the_killers.html

it loses a little steam halfway through, but its actually pretty funny.