thoughts? opinions?
what are yours?
what are pitchfork's?
what are you guys talking about?
i enjoy both snails and oysters
the killers are a band from las vegas, neveda but they sound like they're from london, england. which explains why they're so popular in england. they just came out with their first american release called "hot fuss". it's good, i like to call them "interpol junior". check them out if you like interpol, the strokes, franz ferdinand, new order or the smiths....
I've been listening to the Killers and I'm totally impressed with their sound. It's like a mixture of alternative and 80's New Wave. Sometimes their melodies sound like 60's inspired pop songs... but with heavy guitars. It works. Really cool mix.
Note to Interpol fans: These bands sound almost NOTHING like eachother (in case you were about to run out and blind buy this cd based on that comparison).
It's like new wave remixed for the ninties... it's... eh
i cant stand the singers voice. and the music is just TOO retro (if there is such a thing) for me. this is, of course, only judging from the one song.
The singer's "retro voice" is a selling point for me. I'm tired of those whiney, sniveling, pseudo punk, teenagers that have been stuck in my radio.
is this the band that sing the 'heard you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend' (or visa versa)? cause that song pisses me off when it comes on the radio.
you got it
Quote from: ThrindleThe singer's "retro voice" is a selling point for me. I'm tired of those that have been stuck in my radio.
his voice isnt retro, its just covering up for his inability to sing. the music is just too-neworder retro. like, if you're going to be retro, atleast try to mix a few older bands to come up with a slightly 'new' old sound. the chorus is also really really stupid.
i'm tired of those whiney, sniveling, pseudo punk, teenagers also, but thats why i stopped (for the most part) listening to the radio years ago. remember your options are not limited by what clear channel decides you should hear. just because its better than most of the shit on the radio doesnt make it any good, its just good by comparison.
yeah, this isn't really doing it for me.
Quote from: themodernage02the music is just too-neworder retro.
Wait, did you just compare them to New Order?
they wish they were new order.
You are all cynical bastards.
i heard the band name came from some new order music video. maybe that's where they get the comparision from.
anyway, they really need to stop
So that's where they came up with the name "The Killers"
Quote from: SleuthSo that's where they came up with the name "The Killers"
well, i guess there is a new order video from a few years back, and in the video they are making fun of these trendy hipster bands, and there is this joke band in the video, and they are called the killers. i think i actually hard one of the band members say this
Well, it's not surprising that there's so much Killers hate here (at least a couple years back). They're SO not indie. They have huge ambitions, which discounts them in many people's eyes. Their attitude reminds me of what made the Smiths so special so long ago: "Well, you can call us indie if you wish, but we're simply a great pop band. If you have to call anything with intelligence or wit or beauty 'indie,' so be it, but we want as many people as possible to hear our music, and anyone with a brain or heart can understand it." That's so out of step with the usual cloistered, incestuous indie disingenuousness/tentativeness, and much more like the outrageously confident stylish, hyper-modern and very intelligent glam/punk attitude of yore. The Killers belong in the Roxy Music/Pulp lineage of louche Warholian "rock" bands, not anywhere near the little-garage likes of White Stripes or The Strokes. And The Killers' "Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll" stands with Kathleen Hanna's version of "I Wish I Was Him" as an affectionate indie piss-take.
The reviews for the new album are terrible. But... I LOVE IT!!!! To me, it sounds absolutely nothing like Bon Jovi (take that, Entertainment Weekly!!) or "arena" rock. All the spin is appallingly off-base. The Bruce Springsteen thing is pretty much thematic only. I was just saying to someone that I don't really like Bruce Springsteen and I don't really like Duran Duran, but there are salvageable interesting parts of both of their MOs, and the Killers have done an expert job on that salvaging. I think Sam's Town is a very good record. I didn't fall in love with the first record right away, although it REALLY grew on me. This one is riveting from the word go.
Is it just me and Thrindle who appreciate The Killers? Has anyone heard the new album?
Quote from: Sleuth on August 29, 2004, 10:09:00 AM
So that's where they came up with the name "The Killers"
goddamn, one day i'm gonna collect all of sleuth's unappreciated jokes. this one was pretty good.
Quote from: godardian on October 02, 2006, 12:10:50 PM
Is it just me and Thrindle who appreciate The Killers? Has anyone heard the new album?
I initially liked the first album the first time I head it but then I quickly lost interest. With Sam's Town, I didn't like it at first listen, but last night I gave it another shot and it really sunk in. Like this one a lot more than Hot Fuss. I like the new direction they went with this.
the kills are better
Quote from: godardian on October 02, 2006, 12:10:50 PM
Well, it's not surprising that there's so much Killers hate here (at least a couple years back). They're SO not indie. They have huge ambitions, which discounts them in many people's eyes. Their attitude reminds me of what made the Smiths so special so long ago: "Well, you can call us indie if you wish, but we're simply a great pop band. If you have to call anything with intelligence or wit or beauty 'indie,' so be it, but we want as many people as possible to hear our music, and anyone with a brain or heart can understand it." That's so out of step with the usual cloistered, incestuous indie disingenuousness/tentativeness, and much more like the outrageously confident stylish, hyper-modern and very intelligent glam/punk attitude of yore. The Killers belong in the Roxy Music/Pulp lineage of louche Warholian "rock" bands, not anywhere near the little-garage likes of White Stripes or The Strokes. And The Killers' "Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll" stands with Kathleen Hanna's version of "I Wish I Was Him" as an affectionate indie piss-take.
The reviews for the new album are terrible. But... I LOVE IT!!!! To me, it sounds absolutely nothing like Bon Jovi (take that, Entertainment Weekly!!) or "arena" rock. All the spin is appallingly off-base. The Bruce Springsteen thing is pretty much thematic only. I was just saying to someone that I don't really like Bruce Springsteen and I don't really like Duran Duran, but there are salvageable interesting parts of both of their MOs, and the Killers have done an expert job on that salvaging. I think Sam's Town is a very good record. I didn't fall in love with the first record right away, although it REALLY grew on me. This one is riveting from the word go.
Is it just me and Thrindle who appreciate The Killers? Has anyone heard the new album?
godardian, i don't think they're hated by the "indie" (whatever that means) crowd because of their ambitions; i just don't see the correlation. sufjan stevens, arcade fire: both undendiably ambitious, yet still praised by indie-hipsters everywhere.
the main problem is that their pretensions are so misguided. If they wanted to stick to writing semi-catchy but ultimately annoying hits, then so be it; but the minute flowers claimed that this record would be the best of the past 20 years, you have to actually start writing, you know,
good songs. even if his lyrics were passable(and trust me, they're far from it), he doesn't have the vocal ability to perform them in a tolerable manner.
all this about their place in modern pop aside, what is it about their actual music that is good enough to justify any accolades?
Quote from: JG on October 02, 2006, 01:13:00 PM
Quote from: godardian on October 02, 2006, 12:10:50 PM
Well, it's not surprising that there's so much Killers hate here (at least a couple years back). They're SO not indie. They have huge ambitions, which discounts them in many people's eyes. Their attitude reminds me of what made the Smiths so special so long ago: "Well, you can call us indie if you wish, but we're simply a great pop band. If you have to call anything with intelligence or wit or beauty 'indie,' so be it, but we want as many people as possible to hear our music, and anyone with a brain or heart can understand it." That's so out of step with the usual cloistered, incestuous indie disingenuousness/tentativeness, and much more like the outrageously confident stylish, hyper-modern and very intelligent glam/punk attitude of yore. The Killers belong in the Roxy Music/Pulp lineage of louche Warholian "rock" bands, not anywhere near the little-garage likes of White Stripes or The Strokes. And The Killers' "Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll" stands with Kathleen Hanna's version of "I Wish I Was Him" as an affectionate indie piss-take.
The reviews for the new album are terrible. But... I LOVE IT!!!! To me, it sounds absolutely nothing like Bon Jovi (take that, Entertainment Weekly!!) or "arena" rock. All the spin is appallingly off-base. The Bruce Springsteen thing is pretty much thematic only. I was just saying to someone that I don't really like Bruce Springsteen and I don't really like Duran Duran, but there are salvageable interesting parts of both of their MOs, and the Killers have done an expert job on that salvaging. I think Sam's Town is a very good record. I didn't fall in love with the first record right away, although it REALLY grew on me. This one is riveting from the word go.
Is it just me and Thrindle who appreciate The Killers? Has anyone heard the new album?
godardian, i don't think they're hated by the "indie" (whatever that means) crowd because of their ambitions; i just don't see the correlation. sufjan stevens, arcade fire: both undendiably ambitious, yet still praised by indie-hipsters everywhere.
the main problem is that their pretensions are so misguided. If they wanted to stick to writing semi-catchy but ultimately annoying hits, then so be it; but the minute flowers claimed that this record would be the best of the past 20 years, you have to actually start writing, you know, good songs. even if his lyrics were passable(and trust me, they're far from it), he doesn't have the vocal ability to perform them in a tolerable manner.
all this about their place in modern pop aside, what is it about their actual music that is good enough to justify any accolades?
Well, I find their music wholly catchy, with the right mixture of shameless emotion/accessibility and wit/intelligence--a difficult but essential balance in pop. The melodies and lyrics complement each other in a way that insinuates them into the listener's consciousness. I don't really value standards of "vocal ability" in pop; it's not choral music or opera. For example, just so you know where I'm coming from, I think Johnny Rotten is an infinitely more effectual singer than Whitney Houston, even though he inarguably "can't sing." Brandon Flowers is no more tuneless than Stuart Murdoch (and
certainly no worse than Thom Yorke), and I love Murdoch's singing. I think the "best in 20 years" outrageousness is merely a part of the performative/self-mythologizing aspect that The Killers probably "get" better than any current band. There's a failure to acknowledge/embrace the endemic artifice of pop that limits the likes of Sufjan Stevens and the Arcade Fire. Grandiosity is being leveled against The Killers as a kind of criticism, but without disproportionate grandiosity, we would not have had Sinatra, Elvis, Bowie, or Morrissey. Modesty was hardly a value for any of them, and when I say "ambition," I'm talking about The Killers aiming for that echelon--something beautiful and compelling for the masses, a permeating romanticism that becomes part of the common cultural currency and pop history. They're not quite there yet, but they're going for it despite the very good possibility that it's not possible in the world of iTunes, cloistered indie-ism, and endless one-hit wonders. It's foolish in a completely romantic, self-mythologizing way, and that strikes much closer to the heart of pop than anything (almost) anyone else is doing.
However, they are not receiving any accolades that I can see. Instead, it seems to me, they're getting bashed for exactly the qualities and ambitions I mention above.
by "vocal ability" i don't mean range, rather the ability to interpret the material in question and add another layer to it. flowers wants to write anthemic-pop that speaks to the masses, yet his voice lacks the passion and sincerity neccesary to do so.
i have my reservations about their ambitions, but i think thats futile. essentially, i think it boils down to this: the music is too predictable and derivative, and the lyrics are too 'throwaway' ("bonfires of trust"? come on godardian) to every achieve this said grandiosity. i can admire their aspirations, but the music is still terrible.
Quote from: JG on October 02, 2006, 01:57:14 PM
by "vocal ability" i don't mean range, rather the ability to interpret the material in question and add another layer to it. flowers wants to write anthemic-pop that speaks to the masses, yet his voice lacks the passion and sincerity neccesary to do so.
i have my reservations about their ambitions, but i think thats futile. essentially, i think it boils down to this: the music is too predictable and derivative, and the lyrics are too 'throwaway' ("bonfires of trust"? come on godardian) to every achieve this said grandiosity. i can admire their aspirations, but the music is still terrible.
I think the voice is quite passionate, myself. The passion overflows the limited range, which is why it's so perfect for the material.
Is there anything so rank about "bonfires of trust/flash floods of pain" juxtaposition? Florid and a bit excessive, yes--that's why it's just fine and quite in keeping with their decadent intent, I think--but certainly not ludicrous or without precise meaning relevant to the closing, summarizing "good-bye" (to the listener) song in which they appear. In that case, I think the right words were found and sung in the right way to be resonant. Is trust not warm and comforting? Are flash floods not drenching and cold? Dylan writes much worse/incoherent/self-indulgent lyrics and sings them with just as much absence of ability to hold a note, and yet he's a legend for some reason.
that's pretty controversial!
Quote from: I Love a Magician on October 02, 2006, 03:05:55 PM
that's pretty controversial!
I know it's a little quirk of mine that I really don't care about Bob Dylan('s legend).
My sixties revolve around Phil Spector, The Kinks, and The Velvet Underground. I think PJ Harvey's version "Highway 61 Revisited" is pretty cool, though. How am I going to reconcile that with the Todd Haynes (whose legend I
do care about) Bob Dylan project? We'll see....
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My roommate wants to catch them at kimmel. I'm not sure it's worth the effort.
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)
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.)
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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!
He can grow a beard about as well as I can.
Killers find roots in 'Sam's Town'
By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY
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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."
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).
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."
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.
Natural born Killers
The synth-rock of `Hot Fuss' was a huge hit, so why change? The Nevada band turns to its roots in pursuit of grander ambitions.
Source: Los Angeles Times
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ALONE in the darkness behind the outdoor stage, Brandon Flowers jumped up and down and waved his arms like a boxer preparing for a fight, and wailed "hey-yay-hey!" over and over at the top of his voice like a street-corner crazy.
In a few minutes the singer would join the other three members of the Killers for the parking-lot performance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," part of an intensive campaign launching the band's second album, "Sam's Town." But first Flowers was enjoying his moment in the shadows, a spindly harlequin with a sheepish smile for anyone he caught watching his ritual.
Just his standard pre-show warmup?
"I don't know what I'm doing," he said with a laugh as he jogged toward the stairs of the stage.
Flowers might have been joking, but that's exactly what a lot of people are thinking about the Killers as the Las Vegas-based band returns with the follow-up to its rags-to-riches debut, "Hot Fuss." Second-album time is a crucial career juncture for any pop act, and the Killers have used the occasion to unveil a radical redefinition.
Instead of the obvious — another helping of steamy, noirish scenarios set to thumping, catchy, faux-British synth-rock, such as "Somebody Told Me" and "Mr. Brightside" — "Sam's Town" is filled with guitar-based anthems that aspire to something more substantial, rooted and American.
It still has the Killers' flair for hooks, but its grand, sweeping scale proclaims that the Killers want to be a band that matters, one with a fist-in-the-air connection with its audience.
"There's that feeling you get when you're in a stadium and U2 plays 'One,' what that means to everyone there," Flowers, 25, said during an interview the following evening.
"And it doesn't have to be to that many people. You go from U2 size where they sell 35,000 every night to where Morrissey always sells 2,000 a night, but when you're there, there are moments that are just — people say it's a substitute for religion for some people. We're believers."
An American band
FLOWERS, a passionate music fan and a competitive, ambitious player, knows that nothing is guaranteed in rock these days. Take Franz Ferdinand, which arrived just before the Killers. The Scottish band seemed to have the world at its feet, but its second album faded quickly despite its excellence. So why not follow your instincts and hope for the best?
If nothing else, "Sam's Town" fulfills two of Flowers' primary aims.
"For me, the things that were deliberate were to sing like an American, because I'm an American, and to sing about what I know about instead of fantasies," he said, sitting with bassist Mark Stoermer in a dressing room at the Hollywood studio where Kimmel's ABC show is shot.
"Fantasies are OK too, but I just felt like I wanted to make an album that people could relate to right now," he said. "I guess the American thing came from people who were talking about how English we sounded, and me actually singing with a fake accent.... Americans are getting a bad rap right now, and we felt that everywhere that we went, whether it was Germany or France or wherever, there's a look that you get when they hear you open your mouth....
"It's because of the war and everything that's going on. It's understandable, but to an extent it's not fair because we're just people that were born here, and we're not ashamed of it, and I wanted to sing about growing up here and things that I know about and humanize us in a way," he said. "People don't see that, they see us like monsters."
The Killers' new sound (and the hirsute look that goes with it) might open new horizons for the band, but it's also brought it its first critical pounding. Even though the balance of the reviews has been positive, three high-profile outlets — Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and the New York Times — lit into the Killers, calling the band calculated and clichéd, more Bon Jovi than U2.
"The funny thing about the negative press is that it's never about the record, it's always about the way the band looks or something that Brandon said," said Rob Stevenson, the A&R executive at Island Def Jam Music Group who signed the band. "I think it's really transparent.... I think it hurt them a lot, because those negative reviews were really personal."
"Everybody doesn't have to like it," said the tall, laconic Stoermer. "But it seems like we're on the verge of being one of those bigger bands, and some writers maybe want to be the gatekeeper and want to maybe help hold you back."
"Some indie kid on a blog, we expect that," added Flowers. "But those are ones that we expected to be smarter. Like Mark was saying, they're so used to people not being good that they don't want to believe it. They just want to believe it's a rip-off.
"And it's not.... You can't find a moment on this record that's stolen from anything. I mean, this is real music that we're writing; I think it's been so long that they're not used to it. Everybody just waits for U2 to make another album to go see a stadium show or to have something be exciting and big and smart."
Now that's sounding more like the Brandon Flowers who's stirred things up over the last couple of years, sparking verbal feuds with other bands and freely expressing his profound confidence in his own.
"I always joke with them that they have no filter," said Stevenson, in town from New York to ease the band through the busy week of the album's release. "It's very honest. I think a lot of artists have an onstage persona and an offstage persona. These guys, it's the same thing.... It reminds me of [Oasis'] Gallagher brothers, who were always heroes of mine. Some people hate them, but I love them for their honesty and their cockiness."
Still, Flowers was relatively low-key as he sat with Stoermer and talked about the new album, perhaps pacing himself for what the band hopes will be a marathon campaign.
It's already getting busy. They were doing three straight nights on their friend Kimmel's show, and after their five-song performance the night before, they'd gone across the street to sign autographs at the new Virgin Megastore. Then they rehearsed until 3 in the morning, fine-tuning their production for the world tour that opened last weekend with two concerts at the Wiltern LG.
Aiming big
IT hasn't taken the Killers very long to reach this point. The group started in 2002 when Flowers, a fan of David Bowie, Depeche Mode, the Cure, Oasis and Morrissey, among others, teamed with guitarist David Keuning. Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci completed the lineup after some other players came and went, and they got their record deal shortly after Stevenson heard their demo recording.
The Killers learned something about the demands and rewards of success when "Hot Fuss" arrived with no fanfare in June 2004 and quickly seemed to take over rock and then pop radio, fueled by Flowers' brashness and rock-star stance. Its U.S. sales are up to 3 million.
How long they'll be on the road now depends on the success of "Sam's Town." The album sold an encouraging 315,000 copies in its first week, but it's the long haul that will tell the story.
"There's lots of things that sell 10 million records two years ago and then they're gone and no one cares about," said Stoermer, 29. "We want as many people to like us as possible, but there's something about a longevity to the songs, that they could be played 10 years from now, that's what were trying to achieve."
That is something Flowers aimed for by writing more concrete, grounded lyrics that focus on a recurring theme.
"A lot of the album is about things that are dying — values," said the singer, who grew up the youngest of two boys and four girls in a Mormon family in Henderson, Nev., outside of Las Vegas. "The way that I was raised, it seems like kids aren't getting raised like that anymore.
"Sometimes it feels like we are trying to hold on to those values on the album, and then there are other times when it sounds like we're kind of sending them off in style, kissing them goodbye."
Flowers, who's been married for a year, isn't just a nominal Mormon.
"I'm not rigorous, but I'm not moderate either. I'm medium well," he said, laughing. "I think it gives it a push and a pull.... It keeps my life interesting I guess.... You're almost expected to be a certain way if you're in a rock 'n' roll band. And it's tempting sometimes. You know, you read stories, mythical almost stories of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Depeche Mode and everybody, and it sounds like so much fun.
"So that's there, you know, just the things around us that we can't control — I guess we could control it a little more, but we want to have a little fun too."
What Doesn't Brandon Flowers Hate? Bono, Beards And Cuddling
Killers frontman famous for starting spats has also professed admiration for Morrissey and eyeliner.
Source: MTV
You've got to hand it to Killers frontman Brandon Flowers: Every time you think he's finished talking smack about other rock bands, he raises — or is it lowers? — the bar once again.
Over the past 18 months, he's cobbled together an impressive highlight reel of high-profile spats, taking on the Bravery, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco and emo music in general — to name just a few.
It was enough to make even the most ardent Killers fans roll their eyes. And given the recent backlash the band has experienced thanks in no small part to their lead singer's free-flowing mouth, coupled with the newly humble tone he's been taking in interviews, it looked like Flowers was finally looking to get out of the beef business.
But lo and behold, late last week he chose yet another target for his ire: revered East Bay punks Green Day. And while that in and of itself wasn't enough to garner headlines, what Flowers was accusing them of — exploiting anti-American sentiments for commercial gain — was.
And it got us thinking: Is there anyone out there that Flowers actually likes?
Sure, there are those he couldn't possibly talk smack about — Sam Boyd, whoever invented the skeevy moustache, San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson (especially if he's on Flowers' fantasy team) — but we had to cull our vast archives of interviews to find him expressing his admiration for, well, pretty much anything else.
It wasn't easy — seriously, we spent all weekend looking — but finally, we were able to assemble this list of people and things that Flowers doesn't totally hate:
October 10, 2004: In the Killers' first chat with MTV News, a doe-eyed and mop-topped Flowers spoke freely about a host of subjects, and was quick to dole out praise for Oasis ("I always loved their songs. And I remember seeing them play 'Don't Look Back in Anger,' and it was almost religious, the whole crowd screaming along; it was amazing"), Morrissey ("He's someone I've always looked up to. He came to watch us soundcheck during one of our showcase performances, and it was incredibly nerve-racking") and his own band's debut album, Hot Fuss ("I listen to it as much as I listen to anything else, which is sort of pathetic").
He also gave the following endorsement to his old employer, the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas: "It was this kind of Western place. The owners were big on rodeos and things like that, so we'd have, like, the Super Bowl of Rodeo there. It was all right."
January 18, 2005: During an appearance on "TRL," Flowers called the Killers' three Grammy nominations "an honor," and copped to being giddy about "being up against U2 and Elvis Costello — all these legendary acts — that's really what it's all about."
March 25, 2005: In the very interview in which he would launch the now-infamous Killers/Bravery feud, Flowers also found time to inexplicably big up San Diego glam-rockers Louis XIV and some of his favorite movie stars, including James Spader and Eric Roberts — who would go on to appear in their video for "Mr. Brightside" — because "he's a quintessential bad guy. He gives you the dirt and grime you need. He's sweaty and manly and completely cool."
June 20, 2005: Perhaps a little gun-shy after the Bravery incident, Flowers sighed his way through an interview at New York's Irving Plaza — though he still behaved better than guitarist Dave Keuning, who treated the whole thing like a root canal — giving half-hearted shouts to U2 (again) and Depeche Mode and touting the magical healing powers of laughter: "I hope our video makes people laugh. That's a good thing for people." Plus, he gives his thumbs-up to the Killers' pre-show ritual, something they've dubbed "the Cuddle."
"We all join together in a circle before we go onstage," he said. "Even our feet touch, which is something I just kind of noticed. It's kind of like a soccer coach talking to the kids."
April 27, 2006: In the midst of recording the Killers' Sam's Town, Flowers took a brief minute to describe his newfound adulation for Bruce Springsteen ("He's a gift," Flowers enthused), his mighty studio beard ("It's only added to my Samson complex!") and the many amenities that Las Vegas' Palms Casino, where Sam's was recorded, has to offer, including "an 'erotic suite' down the hall" and "a basketball-themed room with multiple beds that come out of the walls."
September 23, 2006: Backstage at the Virgin Festival in Baltimore, Flowers — now sporting a sufficiently creepy moustache — talks up bands that "influenced" the making of Sam's Town, including Queen, ELO, Peter Gabriel and Dire Straits. And despite his new Western duds and praise for "all things Americana," he still gives props to, well, one of his favorite props from the Killers' last album: eyeliner.
"I have four sisters, so there was always eyeliner around," he laughed. "I'll still wear it on occasion too, if I feel like it. It gives me a bit of a gypsy feel."
These guys really know what the hell they are doing...I mean that's as simple as I can put...From the chord changes to every vocal hook...I mean damn what a great record...I'm a believer of the killers.
Quote from: Neil on January 16, 2007, 03:53:09 AM
These guys really know what the hell they are doing...
Yes, attrociously ripping off Bruce Springsteen and making me actually HATE keyboards
Killers Talk About Two New LPs, Duet With Lou Reed
Group isn't saying much about third studio LP, but bassist says quite a bit about forthcoming B-sides collection.
Source: MTV
If the Killers have learned anything from their experiences with Sam's Town, it's that they're probably better off not talking to the press.
"I think we're all learning to be more careful with what we say. Like [frontman] Brandon [Flowers'] Bruce Springsteen comments about the last record," bassist Mark Stoermer sighed. "People took that as if [Sam's] was some sort of Bruce tribute album. I mean, you can hear influences there, but to single out that one thing, that early on, it put a picture in a lot of people's minds. So we're playing it close to the vest now."
You can't really blame Stoermer for being tight, er, vested. After all, it's pretty fair to say that Flowers' media sessions in the lead-up to Sam's Town — including one spectacular interview with MTV News last May, in which he launched the whole Springsteen thing, talked about his artistic rebirth and asserted that Sam's was "one of the best albums in the past 20 years" — did more harm than good, and most certainly led to some of the album's less-than-stellar reviews.
So this time around, the entire band is trying very hard to keep things secret.
"We've got some new songs, but there's a long way to go before they're ready for an album," Stoermer said. "So far, they're different than Sam's Town, but nothing that we write surprises me. Some are a bit stripped down for us — whatever that means. Some have the vibe of [Jacques Lu Cont's] 'Thin White Duke remix' of 'Mr. Brightside.' We talk about what we want for the album, but inevitably, it always gets away from us."
Another reason they're being so elusive? Well, they've got another album to knock out before they even think about the follow-up to Sam's Town: a still-untitled B-sides album (tentatively due in November), which Stoermer said would tie up a lot of loose ends. "It's for the completists," he said, noting that the album would also feature two or three never-before-recorded songs written during the Sam's Town sessions.
"That's the idea, at least," he said. "[Those kinds of albums aren't] the same in these days of file sharing, but for our fans to have it all together, remixed and retracked — well, we think that's cool. When we were growing up In the '90s, we were fans of [B-sides collections like] Oasis' The Masterplan, the [Smashing] Pumpkins' Pisces Iscariot, Nirvana's Incesticide. So we're trying to do something like that."
And though he's not talking much about those two or three new songs — remember the vow of silence — Stoermer did let it be know that one of them is a duet, which they're currently recording with none other than Lou Reed.
"Yeah, Lou's here, recording it right now," he said. "It's a huge deal and an honor. We've never done a duet before, and Brandon had the idea to ask Lou if he would sing on it, since we felt his voice would go really well on it. And so we did, and he said 'yes.' It's pretty amazing, and the song is great too."
So can we expect to hear more duets on album number three?
"Heh, we're just talking about stuff like that now ... maybe deciding where we're going to record it," he laughed. "Other than that, we don't really have any plans. Maybe take a little break!"