The Killers, Brighton Centre

Sat, Mar 3

By Lisa Frascarelli

 

They've Tardised from the 1980s to the 1880s and consigned their New Wave look to the back of the great rock 'n' roll wardrobe in the sky.

 

Gone are the trappings that went with The Killers' first album Hot Fuss - the Dior tuxedos and eyeliner - and in are cowboy boots, lace ties, waistcoats and moustaches for their latest, more patriotic release, Sam's Town.

 

"I think we're embracing a bit more of our own culture," says frontman Brandon Flowers. "It's fun - it's all a part of getting ready for a show. Just like it was when it was a more glamorous-looking version of The Killers."

 

While the album sees a group often called "America's Best British Band" return to their roots, it would seem by all accounts she's none too impressed.

 

The tepid Stateside reviews have seen Rolling Stone slate the Las Vegas band for stealing from S**********, while The New York Times wrote: "Like true children of Vegas, The Killers create a simulacrum of an important album, swiping desert rain, Main Streets, devil water and unflattering moustaches from older heroes, but taking no meaning or inspiration from them."

 

But in their adopted homeland of the UK ("you are my family here. I love you," Flowers gushed last month as his band picked up two Brit awards) the bigger, bolder album was well received.

 

advertisementThe Killers got together when guitarist David Keuning put out an ad stating simply that he was looking to start a band and liked Oasis. Flowers, Keuning says, "was the only person to reply to my ad who wasn't a complete freak."

 

The four-piece were picked up by UK label Lizard King and the synth-pop smash Hot Fuss was released in 2004.

 

Luckily the recent Stateside sniping doesn't seem to have knocked Flowers, who with characteristic hyperbole has declared Sam's Town, "one of the best albums of the past 20 years."

 

On Sam's Town, The Killers concern themselves with home and heartache, life and death, right and wrong. Uncle Jonny is about Flowers' uncle who had a cocaine habit and shot himself in the groin because he thought aliens wanted to steal his semen, while Bling (Confession of a King) is the story of his dad forswearing alcoholism and Catholicism to become a Mormon.

 

A practising Mormon himself, 25-year-old Flowers isn't your typical rock 'n' roll frontman. He's happily married to a primary school teacher, he says he doesn't take drugs and tries not to drink too much.

 

Before a concert he likes to knock back not a couple of cans and a few lines of coke but a Red Bull - because it makes him feel nervous, and he likes nervous energy.

 

"Bob Dylan said it best - you can't be Jewish and be cool," he says, "and you can't be a Mormon and be cool. But I'm trying my best!"

 

SOURCE

thanks for posting this luciano ,it a good read

The tepid Stateside reviews have seen Rolling Stone slate the Las Vegas band for stealing from S**********, while The New York Times wrote: "Like true children of Vegas, The Killers create a simulacrum of an important album, swiping desert rain, Main Streets, devil water and unflattering moustaches from older heroes, but taking no meaning or inspiration from them."

 

:rofl: @ censoring springsteen!

 

Uncle Jonny is about Flowers' uncle who had a cocaine habit and shot himself in the groin because he thought aliens wanted to steal his semen

:lol: ............. :unsure:

 

"Bob Dylan said it best - you can't be Jewish and be cool," he says, "and you can't be a Mormon and be cool. But I'm trying my best!"

 

he is very cool :wub: hehe.

 

nice article, thanks for posting Luc :D

 

No problem, I also loved the article... shocking about Uncle Jonny, I knew it was about Brandon's uncle but I didn't know the aliens and semen part :rofl: