the killers - are they killer?

Only in the hipster blogosphere.

Then they sounded like Shed 7. Not killer.

Although it is quite amusing to imagine a group of lads in Las Vegas being all "God, it sucks round here. It's just so, like, plastic. It's just for the tourists. I bet in YORK there are REAL people who have the coolest time. God, man, I wish we lived in York."

The Killers / Longwave / Stellastarr* = all US bands that plunder 80s epic Brit/ Irish big rock sound.

Cactus World News in the 80s were the masters of the big epic rock sound - these new bands fall way short of the blueprint.

U2
The Psychedelic Furs

They're American?!

i'm surprised they've managed to draw such polarising opinions from people. judging by their inoffensive style of music, i thought they would've been met largely with indifference or faint praise at best.

stephin meritt wrote an article for the new york times featuring them called "music that's oh so stupid yet oh so smart" and i think that description is in the ballpark.

The 1984 Midge Ure era (i.e. "One Small Day," etc.), even more sadly.

Oh, the album is well fine. Both my kids now go round singing "I've got a soul but I'm not a soldier" now. Which can only be a good thing.

The inclusion of the gospel choir in that song has to be the single most annoying thing I've heard all year.

No, wait, "Indie Rock & Roll" is.

The Killers bigger than Marion?
BRMC 'bigger' than JMC? (for a while)

Both bands are not undeserving, but are still 'lite' versions of the originals (although I don't know 'marion' enough to say they weren't 'lite')

They even beat early Marion stuff in my book, though I'm glad I'm not the only one who spotted the connection.

Global nuwave poprock, local media habits, my mom, me, & u

Hovering around 20 in the UK album charts is a drab pop-punky nu-wave band from Las Vegas named the Killers. . Apparently I need to crawl out from beneath the rock I live under, bcz I know this only bcz my mom sent me (as in: an envelope with a stamp on it, how quaint) (also, I was hoping it was a check) a clipping from the Des Moines Register’s style section from early July about them.

I grew up with the guitar player, Dave, in a small Iowa town. I wasn’t friends with him, but I knew him. He was quiet, and big into Smashing Pumpkins. You’d never know it from his current band but he could TOTALLY SHRED, too, such a shame. I went off to college and the last I heard he was jobbing in a Christian grunge band out of Newton. And now there he is with Strokes hair, a sportcoat, and tennis bracelets. They grow up so fast!

The online article has of course been ecto-trapped in the Register’s pay vaults, which is too bad, cos besides the obligatory local-boy-make-good angle I’d like for you all to see the hint of the contempt that the Des Moines media holds for Pella, the town I’m from. It’s not wholly accurate to describe Pella as an insular, conservative, religious community of Dutch Protestants, cos Dave and I are from there and are not that, but it’s fair enough. Pella is tacky and touristy as well (Register "critic" Kyle Munson sagely noted “omg, so is Vegas, weird!”), known state-wide for riding a theme-park version of its 19th cent. Dutch immigrant history to the bank every year. So poor nascent rockstar Dave had to answer eye-rollers like whether he’s ever worn wooden shoes and what his favorite pastries are. Well DUH of course he did; in grade school marching in the Tulip Time parades is MANDATORY. And Dave diplomatically mentions something from both the town’s bakeries, same as everyone else would. Don’t you media people know anything? More to the point, do you think that by broadcasting your dislike for this odd, churchy, nasty little burg you’ll somehow make living in fucking Des Moines any better? Get over it! (cue you: “yes geoff get over it”)

Now, if any other publication on earth had thought to ask a musician on his/her preferences in wooden footwear or pastry it would be a sorta-funny dadaist jab (and megawierd coincidence in Dave’s case, since he’d actually have an answer). But for the Register it’s just pro-forma and sad. See, I could win a Pulitzer or go to jail for planting an unsolicited kiss on Barack Obama (both are in the works, mind), and the Register would be on the phone asking a “Pella boy” about the klompen and the pofertjes.

Anyway I listened to a few clips on the Killers’ website and they suck. Good luck Dave!

Marion being an influence on anybody hurts my brain. And I don't even mind Marion much.

now that's funny.

having always found morrissey and merritt highly overrated i am pleased to hear of their being implicated in this horrible, horrible alterna-fiasco. it's hard for me to believe some of the praise isn't people joking around. this is probably the worst shit i have ever heard in my life and i'm not kidding.
the way he says "potential" or whatever in that video is full-on fucking hilarious.

Oftentimes, I'm willing to forgive otherwise dreadful ticks in songs that make me tap my foot without thinking about it. Let go of your anger!

as another Dutch Protestant from the Southwest i'm afraid it simply will not be possible in this case. this is a transparent masquerade of a band, and though seeded in probably legitimate desperation, i will not personally be able get past the basic (and super-unsuccessful) ludicrousness of the approach.
i bet i like tons of stuff it will otherwise get lumped in with, but that always happens.
hey i also did happen to mention it's very, very funny... and meant it.

Yes, isn't that peculiar? I've got several examples of this sort of thing happening to myself, but can't explain why.

i have to write about these guys this weekend. they're okay. they get played a lot at work. they stike me as the manifestation of a cardinal music industry rule.

the first the Killers NME front cover

I am loving this album. They are best when they embrace anthemic ridiculousness <3

OTM. Though for me it falls in a strange void, great while I'm listening to it but not great enough that I'm actually going to listen to it. I should tell people in my house just to put it on occasionally.

i put some more jameson into my carcass and then posted this to the youtube electic blue cover comments. i think i'm pretty otm:

why is this awesome? it's awesome because it's true. brandon earned that smile at the end. there are more obscure songs to choose which could have shown his taste and erudition concerning forgotten culture and more obvious songs that SCREAMED i'm so 80s in a way that is still in the water today but this is the sweet spot - this is what the airwaves were like at the time. what, brandon was six when this came out?

icehouse fans, don't get me wrong, i'm not saying this is lesser 80s bobka. by way of example, on my computer, inxs' don't change shows up per algorithm on my screen. that's a great 80s song, also one of the best songs of all time. actually the greatest song of all time. brandon should cover that. it should be a constitutional amendment that brandon should cover that. however, anyone knows the greatness of don't change. electric blue, and go with me on this, some people weren't there at the time. or else they forgot. brandon has the genius to know, he knows.

what i'm saying, is some things are great because they are timeless, but timelessness loses out in the end because it belongs to everyone and to all times. this is so of its time, and we are edified when someone brings that time back into the light. thank you brandon for being that light.

a bit effusive, but i stand by my sentiment. duchamp says something something something abt an artist pointing at something and whatever. this was a great thing. it's a great thing.

brandon flowers is a cool dork. thrre are nerds, and geeks, but those are defined by their mastery. dorks are enthusiasts, they love love love things. the strokes were music nerds, they killers were music dorks. all hail the dorks.

it's like a duchamp readymade, the purest distillation of a readymade in the history of art. there it is, the thing. lookit. lookit the thing, it's awesome. did you lookit before? no, but lookit.

are you hiding, somewhere behind those eyes

goddam, that's so sweet and innocent. the best and most overlooked lyric in pop. bam! there it is. brandon delivers it like it was nothing.

also, heart emoticon to alfred, indisputably the greatest 80s stan in the known universe.

long story short: this caught my attention and i reacted favorably.

also it just occurred to me to look up don't change and the killers so there it is. did the best person in the world, brandon flowers, cover the best song in the world, don't change? it's as obvious as, randomly for example, i wondered if the best person in the world, kermit the frog, also covered the best song in the world, once in a lifetime. yes, they did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAqcpc4e6hU

The Youth have reclaimed and repurposed them:

I can’t believe I’m old enough to see younger ppl romanticize my teen years pic.twitter.com/SGCOSkFS1t

— 𝓇𝑜𝓈𝒶♡𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓁 (@artetriste) March 8, 2021

"mr. brightside" is a deathless song

kind of incredible

It kinda hit me last night that's almost a "Louie Louie" of the 21st century.

that bruce version is very very declarative. list of current objectives: 1) don't change! now dammit!

i drunkendly went overboard with the effusiveness but brandon flowers is so my kind of people, it seems. i'm looking at the yuotubes, he also covers the whole of the moon and this charming man! what a fudging dork! right now i'm watching the glastonbury 2019 clip of the killers with pet shop boys always on my mind and brandon totally disappears. it's all psb, and as picasso says, good artists borrow, great artists steal, the greatestest artists just lay the eff back and let your referring to things happen as it happens and there it is as it always was.

mr brightside is like the torah: it's the essence of g dash d made visceral. what else is there from and of the aughts other than maps or hey ya! or maybe mgmt's kids that blows away all vestiges of temporal continuity and is of that time and that time alone? it's always mr brightside time, when mr brightside is playing.

brandon flowers inducted the cars into the r and r hall hall of fame and why not? what do any of rick's lyrics mean other than themselves? nothing. what do any of brandon's lyrics mean other than themselves? nothing. therein lies the essence of zen. banal relationship nothings, so beautiful, so forever.

also accepted: kelly clarkson since u been gone as the purest quintessence of aughtness, but that's it.

also, brandon flowers is equaled only by john bongiovi as the smilingest rock star in history, and that's high praise. smile on, you glorious bastard!

So this newest/latest Killers track (at least I think it's newish?) ... just what is it it's reminding me of? Johnny Nash? Roxy Music?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y020G_d8QHU

Robbie Nevil?

That's just the way it goes.

I can see this being Mr. Flowers's final form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlucGdeT37E

Every time I hear the song I think of Robbie Nevile, even if I don't hear it.

or Aaron Neville

idk what "c'est la vie" is reminiscent of but i love it

I guess it sounds a little bit like TH's "Don't Worry About the Government", something like that? Kind of like I referenced in the Beatles thread re: ELO, there's so much there that eventually you can hear almost anything you want to hear. I mean, when your latest album features explicit references to both Springsteen and Can, the sky's the limit, you know?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CP9NS6EB3r2/

lol they've managed to get springsteen for their new single

very excited, imploding the mirage only got better and better for me so i hope this album will be just as good

oh it's just a reworked version of day & age track "a dustland fairytale" with springsteen? why that of all things now i wanna hear the new album lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3BZ8hnLyRc

here's "dustland" with springsteen

album is planned for august, no idea if that'll be on it

album pressure machine out august 13, same producers as imploding the mirage so i'm very excited

!!!!

this is good news.

wow

it feels like exploding the mirage just came out
but time moves v slowly for me lol

nice. i'm digging how some artists have been dropping albums more quickly as of late.

this one is a quarantine album they made because they had ideas leftover after finishing imploding the mirage & they couldn't tour. they've apparently started work on another one already too

praise be

Gonna be wild when all these acts tour for the first time in years behind three albums.

So I idly saw they had a presale going for next summer's stop here, I checked and literal back of the house final row tickets were perfectly acceptably cheap so I guess I'm going to see these characters, much to my surprise. I just want to see what an actual 21st century rock band that made an arena-level career out of it that actually lasted said whole century so far is all about live, I guess.

lol ned i thought you couldnt stand them
softening over the years i guess

Perhaps! It was never a deep loathing, more like a ‘wait what?’ Brandon’s messianism is actually enjoyably ridiculous now.

I feel the same

i don't think anyone would have expected that they'd have the most longevity out of their whole wave of bands, or that they'd end up putting out their best album 16 years after their debut

It feels like it took several years for people (ok, me) to recognize the band's (Brandon's?) ridiculousness as a feature and not a bug. He seems to have figured it out a lot better than Bono ever did, balancing camp and pretentious grandiosity in a more convincing manner.

Helping Flowers' case immensely is that he doesn't read, or at least doesn't drop book titles in interviews

Ignorance is bliss.

i have inadvertently read some of the lyrics for the new album, and hoo boy

think it's gonna work tho

all their lyrics are hoo boy

lol seriously, if the lyrics were a barrier to entry i would have given up at the debut

My wife and I are rewatching The OC and just saw the episode where they played The Bait Shop (their very own Peach Pit!), Flowers looked so young!

from said episode:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMC1KbvWkAAKnhl.jpg

lol he looks 12 years old!

flowers has an unparalleled ability to completely sell utter nonsense so i'm not worried

yes this is 100% otm