The Killers give new flavor to pop rock

By: Brandon Weiss

Issue date: 1/12/07

 

It was spring 2004. Alternative rock radio still existed in mainstream form, so the average 17- to 25-year-old could still hop in the car, turn on the radio, and find their favorite band playing. On this spring evening, 92.3 WXRK, New York's alternative rock radio station, decided to air a new band called The Killers. The Killers weren't really an alternative rock band. They had a dance-driven sound and ridiculous lyrics that went "somebody told me you had a boyfriend, who looked like a girlfriend, that I had in February of last year."

 

What does that even mean? Why was KROCK playing this? Well, KROCK stopped playing it. It didn't fit in their playlist. On the contrary, the song "Somebody Told Me," silly lyrics, queer dance beats and all, fit on just about every other playlist in the country. By the summer of 2004, the band's debut, Hot Fuss, was the hottest album of the year.

 

The Killers were different from most bands. They had a quality that almost everybody could appreciate. They were the new, super-cool, pop-rock band that was coming to town.

 

By January 2005, Hot Fuss was certified platinum and the band was gearing up to headline a national pavilion tour. The band was nominated for three Grammies that year. A year later the band had sold three million records, and was the next big thing. The band seemed to be an overnight success. Even Bono and David Bowie were catching on to The Killers at this point. You might say that visits from these musical figureheads sealed the deal for the stardom of singer Brandon Flowers and company, but Flowers still keeps it cool.

 

"It's really nice for those people to come around. I just kind of go with the flow. But yeah, I do still get star-struck," Flowers says.

 

In early 2006, word was leaked to the press that the band was working on a new album that would come out late in the year, entitled, Sam's Town. Amid the hype of the press that goes along with a new release, Flowers had been spotted in back-and-forth verbal quarrels with bands like Green Day and emo-dance newcomers Panic at the Disco. Shortly after, Flowers told MTV News that "there's nothing that touches this album."

 

Then word started coming out that The Killers had been putting themselves in a category with Bruce Springsteen and Radiohead. Confidence is a good thing, but is there such thing as being overconfident? Maybe the truth was that the band, and particularly Flowers, was falsely confident.

 

"I was worried about a sophomore slump when I was twelve years old," Flowers recalls. "I didn't even have any plans of releasing an album. It's just something that you know about. It's just something that's there. So yeah, we were nervous [prior to the release of Sam's Town]."

 

"I've admitted before, I can't help but want to look at the press and see what people are saying," he said. "I realized how many people didn't like us while we were making this album. I guess you can't please everybody. Anyhow, it's getting through all of that and getting past all the people that want it to be a sophomore slump so they can say that. It's getting through all that and saying, 'This is what we like.'"

 

Nevertheless, maybe this was just the perfect way to hype Sam's Town - a cocky, careless approach that would secure the band more media coverage than imaginable, because, hey, negative press is still good press, right?

 

When Sam's Town was released, the album was subject to crushing reviews from publications such as the Chicago Tribune, Alternative Press and Rolling Stone. However, at this point, The Killers discovered the importance of solidifying a fan base through their touring. Despite the reviews, Sam's Town debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, thanks to their loyal fans. Sam's Town sounded nothing at all like their first album, Hot Fuss. In light of their new release, The Killers' U.S. tour, which started in October, sold out venues across the country.

 

"People either say [the album] is really good or really bad," Flowers says. "I'm happy that it's not in the middle. You don't see anybody that just says, 'It's okay.' It's either 'I hate this with all the blood I have in me to hate,' or 'I really love it, and I think it's better than Hot Fuss, and it's going in the right direction.' You kind of weed it out, sift through it, and see what people like."

 

"We're happy in the direction that we're going," Flowers continued. "I've said some things that have kind of backfired. I didn't really mean for that to happen. I expected them to help what we're doing. That's kind of a shame. It's taken away from people listening to the album without sort of a prejudice, so to say. You know, in twenty years nobody's going to know what was said. When they get Sam's Town, they're not going to know about me saying that stuff. That's not going to be attached to it. That's the beauty of it. I think it's going to last. When I hear "When You Were Young" on the radio, I'm so proud. I know that that will eventually get through."

 

The tour, though successful, has been plagued by illness. In our phone conversation, Flowers told me that he's "on steroids now" and he feels "alright" two months after the postponement of their tour date in Philadelphia.

 

"I get sick a lot," he says. "It screws people up a lot. I have what's called Epstein-Barr. It's like a disease, but it's not. I have a real weak immune system. If somebody sneezes, it's over. I get it. It makes me real weak sometimes, too," which is precisely why The Killers' initial sold-out date in Philadelphia had to be postponed until December.

 

Riding the surprising response to their new sound, new image and smash-hit single "When You Were Young," the band decided to work with Tim Burton on a video for their second single, "Bones."

 

"It was wonderful for me because I haven't met many people that aren't fans of his," recalls Flowers. "I've never really met someone that doesn't like what Tim Burton does. It's a pretty amazing thing. It's astonishing really. We were afraid of him at first. He breaks the ice really quickly. You just want to hug him. Not like he's a clown or anything, but there's something really lovable about him. We quickly got over being afraid of him, and we all warmed up to each other. It was kind of surreal. You don't think he's going to say yes to doing your music video. I still remember observing the video from behind the scenes and watching him. You see him directing people and things. I was right in front of the camera at one point and he just walked on [the set], said something to me, and walked off. I just looked over at my friend and mouthed, 'This is unreal.'"

 

"He did what he said he would do, too, which is good to be able to have that kind of faith in somebody. At one point he said, 'When you're saying "don't you want to feel my bones," grab your arm.' I just did it. I didn't know that he already saw that he was going to turn my arm into a skeleton at that point. It's really exciting to be around that kind of creativity."

 

On Dec. 16, The Killers finally came to the Electric Factory in Philadelphia to perform in front of a sold-out crowd. That show was the beginning of the group's home stretch of shows before the band took off for the holiday season.

 

"We're going to be [touring] up until the 21st," Flowers says, in an obviously still-recovering voice. "So we'll make it home just in time for Christmas. I just want to kind of be normal for a week. It's difficult when you first come home and you're living out of your suitcase on buses all year. It's hard to come home sometimes. But it's going to be fun. I'll probably go to the mountains and hang around and ski, and do all that stuff."

 

All the while, their newly released holiday single, "Great Big Sled," circulates the airwaves.

 

It's obvious that Brandon Flowers' feet haven't left the ground, despite what the press might tell you. On the contrary to the band's large-scale commercial success, Flowers and his bandmates haven't forgotten that they're still people.

 

"We don't realize how successful we are yet, I don't think," the singer says hesitantly. "Every now and then, I'll be in the supermarket and somebody will be following me with their phone, or yelling at me or something stupid. But that's really rare."

 

One might think that there might be consequences of fame and stardom, but that has not been Flowers' experience.

 

"It's all been real positive for us," he says. "We get to record music for a living. That's our job. It shouldn't even be called a job. It's so great."

 

So what lies ahead for The Killers? Will Sam's Town be held to the rock-and-roll standards of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run and Radiohead's Ok Computer in the years to come? One thing's for sure: The Killers are no flash-in-the-pan rock-and-roll band. If the band's two Grammy nominations this year are any indication, like the generation before us thinks of Bruce, we might look back on The Killers as the great band from when we were young some day.

 

:wub: Such a great article to read :cheer:

"I was worried about a sophomore slump when I was twelve years old," Flowers recalls.

 

:lol: !!

 

 

great article, thanks for posting :D

 

:lol: !!

great article, thanks for posting :D

 

:rofl: I love that bit too!

i just seen this now great article

It's kind of biographical, it's a very nice sum to their career.

ya and i love reading that kinda stuff

That's a great article. Thanks for posting Luciano

That's a great article. Thanks for posting Luciano

 

You're welcome, glad you liked it ^_^