'Christmas in L.A.' : The Killers ft. Dawes

Last year I complied a list of the most depressing Christmas songs of all time. The Killers' 2013 Christmas single benefiting (RED), could easily make that list. "Christmas in L.A." features Owen Wilson as a struggling actor, wondering how mush longer he can stay in a city that seems just about impossible to call home. Dawes co-wrote the tune and also play on it.  

Video : I Feel it in My Bones : The Killers

Presented without comment because the last shot of the video speaks for the whole thing. Enjoy.

I Feel it in My Bones : The Killers : Christmas

It wouldn't be Christmas without The Killers. Well, that's not at all true, but it is time for yet another Killers Christmas song. This year's offering is "I Feel it in My Bones" featuring Ryan Pardey once again reprising his role as the menacing Santa Claus. Think Santa with some kind of vendetta... against you. Merry Christmas!

 Money line: "Hey Kringle, you mean to say that when you were young it never got wild?"

 The track goes on sale Dec. 4 with proceeds going to Red, the AIDS charity.

The Killers Perform "All These Things That I Have Done" on Colbert

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When the first track of the The Killers' debut album Hot Fuss started playing from my jog-proof portable CD player way back in 2004, it gave me my first real "WTF" moment, long before anyone started using the abbreviation. The alien buzzing and charging guitar that open "Jenny Was A Friend of Mine" sounded totally foreign. I didn't know what it was, I didn't even know if I liked it, but I stuck with that album and it's half the source of my pain when I hear The Killers these days and miss what they were (Sam's Town being the other half). If you're at all wired in a similar manner, you'll appreciate that during the band's recent appearance on The Colbert Report, they performed "All These Things That I Have Done," and that video is housed on the Colbert Nation website (also embedded above).  Needless to say, if you need direction to perfection, check it out.

September Roundup

Music loves September, apparently. Here's a rundown of some of the stuff I probably should have been posting about this month.

+ The Avett Brothers album The Carpenter came out on the 11th. The best part of the album is how immediately familiar it is. I felt like it took two listens to learn all the songs. Was it safe? Ok, maybe a little bit. Would I counter that argument by saying,  "hello, guitar distortion and drums?" You bet.

+ Babel by Mumford and Sons hits shelves tomorrow. The band played Saturday Night Live this week. The sound was subpar as usual, but that's ok because seeing them dressed as a Beatles tribute band almost made up for it. #cheaplaughs

+ The Killers released Battle Born last week. If you're anything like me, you miss the days when The Killers were sleazy. Synth, eyeliner, tight white suits. Hell, at this point I'd settle for that Day and Age-era jacket with the feathery epaulets. (Maybe) Now frontman Brandon Flowers sings about good character. I guess one of us had to grow up.

+ All Songs Considered posted a fall music preview. The potential of new music is always exciting. It's been a while since I've found anything interesting.

+ If you're in Nashville, the Alabama Shakes are going to be at Live on the Green this Thursday, and that's excellent.

The Killers : Runaways

We're inching closer to the September 18 release of The Killers' 5th album, Battle Born. In the meantime, the band put out the music video for the album's first single, "Runaways." I looked really hard for the hook, and I think I found part of it in "Jilted Lovers and Broken Hearts" from frontman Brandon Flowers 2010 solo effort, Flamingo. But maybe that's just me.

Anyhoodle, "Runaways" drips with that straight-faced faux epicness the band does so well– even when they're vaporizing or singing against a cloudy but still blood red sky.

This came to mind.

Compare for yourself. I promise it's somewhere in there.

                        

Return of The Killers

Funny thing that just yesterday I was revisiting The Killers' debut album Hot Fuss, and today I see NME reporting that The Killers are apparently back from their 2009 hiatus (sans feathers, hopefully) and signed on to play Lollapalooza in Chile. Good thing, too, as I did not much dig Brandon Flowers's solo effort Flamingo. It had several good tracks– "Crossfire," "Was it Something I Said" and "Swallow It," but on the whole it was lackluster for me. Anywho, I'm hoping they'll be getting back to the studio to turn out some more post-ironic, sleazy, synth-drenched pop tunes. I refuse to admit the iTunes play count for "Spaceman."

The Killers to Release Covers Album

Who needs to write original material when there's so much out there already? NME reported today that The Killers are working on an entire album of covers that should be finished by the end of the year.

"It's something that we've always talked about doing and we're still talking about," our favorite feathered singer, Brandon Flowers told NME. "It's difficult for each of us to pick songs that represent us as individuals. I mean, I have a lot of personalities myself! I've gone through everything from Neil Diamond to The Cars."

Apparently, the band will work on the album in their new mobile recording studio while touring Europe.

Aside from Diamond and The Cars, Flowers and company have been throwing around some other names like the Fleet Foxes, Cyndi Lauper, Tom Waits, and Iggy Pop for possible covers.

Of course, already The Killers are no strangers to jacking (does that sound negative? My bad...) other people's material, having included Joy Division's "Shadowplay," Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet" and The First Edition's "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" on 2007's Sawdust.

This is Your Teenage Wasteland

I had an interesting little moment yesterday while I was spending some time with The Who on YouTube. After bouncing around from a couple different versions on "Pinball Wizard," inevitably I came back to this one concert performance of "Baba O'Riley" that I've probably watched about 173 times in the past four months. For no apparent reason I got focused in on the opening and I realized that the opening of The Killers song "This is Your Life" is crazy similar, just add in The Killers' vocals instead on The Who's keyboard (I think it's a keyboard. We'll go with that for now). Figured that was worth mentioning. Check it out.

The Killers: Day & Age

A friend of mine once said that if you want to fake your way through the discussion of an album you haven't heard, all you have to say is that the first half of the album was good but after track six, it just went downhill. While I can't vouch for the effectiveness of this strategy, I can say that those words came to mind upon listening to the Killer's third release, Day & Age.

Last year when Sawdust came out, I remember saying that "Tranquilize" sounded like the place somewhere in between Hot Fuss and Sam's Town, all the band's nostalgia and love for the west, dipped in 80's synth. Day & Age occupies that space exactly.

"Losing Touch" gets it going, featuring synth as well as some other unexpected instrumentation, like saxophone, making its first and definitely not last appearance. It's 80's sax. You know exactly what I mean, the kind that makes you think of blazers with the sleeves rolled up.

Next up is "Human," the much-debated single, tinged with brooding synth and questionable lyrics. On it's own, posing the question "are we human, or are we dancer" seems pretty forced, a weak attempt at depth, but within the context of the album, it works. Between the album artwork and that synthed-out desperado vibe, Day & Age is like someone drove out to the desert at sunset, parked the car and started having a minor emotional/mental/spirtiual crisis.

Even though Flowers hasn't donned eyeliner in a while, there's a drama to the Killers that means you just have to roll with it and take the music for what it is and from whom it's coming. The "dancer" line has gotten so much attention, no one has acknowledged the preceding line which says "and I'm on my knees looking for the answer." It's the most earnest and most relatable line of the album. In any case, "Human" begs multiple successive plays.

That said, "Spaceman" tops it. Alien abduction never sounded so cool. You just want to sing along as Flowers does some of his best uncertain warbling and straining. There are definitely shades of "Read My Mind" in there amid the blips. This is undoubtedly the best song on the album.

After that powerful trio comes "Joy Ride," an energetic, galloping south-of-the-border type tune followed up by "A Dustland Fairlytale." That's the line where the album starts losing steam. The latter tells a good story, points for the line "he looked just you'd want him to, some kind of slick chrome American prince," but ultimately "Joy Ride" is the last real kicker.

This is not to say that the listener should just kill the album after the fifth track, but the shift in quality is most striking because the best songs came one right after another instead of spread out.

While "Human" and "Spaceman" live up and even surpassed their hype, "Neon Tiger" falls short. It's fairly bland, forgettable, and unimpressive. Album-closer "Goodnight, Travel Well" is just too dark and foreboding, detracting from the record's overall stylistic cohesiveness. Sounds like someone was having a bad day. Plus, it's nearly 7 minutes long. Day & Age probably could have done without it.

Lately, it's cool to hate on the Killers, so I'll say this: there's good and mediocre on this album, tracks that buzz and bleep in 80's infused glory and tracks that simply underwhelm. Potentially the most important fact though, is that those really great tracks are solid enough to make anyone commit to the group and tell the snobs to go screw themselves. If you like a band, own up to it. They're yours. Deal with it.

Even if feathers have no place on epaulets.

The Killers: "Human" Music Video

As previously mentioned a few posts back, music videos can be pretty uninspired sometimes. The Killers released the music video to "Human" recently and pretty much it's them playing in the desert, complete with Brandon Flowers' feathery jacket making another unwanted appearance. The song sounds limp and even though I'm well aware that the music track is almost never live, this time around it's just distracting and it contributes to a very thin feeling through out the video. "Human" is visually weak, musically weak and possibly worst of all, predictable.

The Killers on SNL

I tuned into SNL tonight to see if Tina Fey would reprise her role as Sarah Palin, which she did, and to to my pleasant surprise the Killers were the musical guests. To this point I haven't heard anything off the new album, though I hear that a couple songs leaked.

I'm writing this as I watch, so they've only done one song so far, "Human," to be exact. While the feathers on Brandon Flowers' jacket are inexplicable, the song is decent. The big line is, "are we human or are we dancers?" I think it's one of those situations where they're trying hard enough to be trying too hard and the lyric runs the risk of feeling contrived.

As far as the sound, it's definitely more Hot Fuss than Sam's Town. After the reception the latter received, I'm not surprised. That's one of the funny things about the Killers, they're the subject of some serious backlash. These days they don't seem to do much for the old credibility.

While that might be the case, I don't really like the idea of abandoning a band just because of a few opinions when I still like listening to them. Life is too short to be a snob.

Ok, here's song #2. I think it might be "Spaceman." There's a faint shadow of "When You Were Young" in there somewhere under the synth and Flowers' straining voice. I really can't make a call. It was a bit unimpressive, but I seem to remember my first exposure to Sam's Town tracks also being their SNL performance. I wasn't crazy about "Bones" but it definitely grew on me.

I guess we'll have to wait for the album before making any big judgments, but so far I'm not holding my breath.

Happy Saturday night, kids.

100th Post and Other Happenings

Yay! This is officially the 100th post of The Musically Inclined. Sounds like a good reason for a party, but really the purpose of this post is a little update about things around here...just some house keeping.

1. My Chris Walla/Ultimate College Bowl article is here if you want to read what that lovable, politically concerned, vegetarian had to say. After several hours of fine crafting, I have to say, I'm pretty happy with it.

2. Totally forgot to say that the Killers album, Day and Age, comes out November 25th-- right in the prime of Christmas shopping season. This should be interesting. Look for a review at least by New Years. Hey, I've got a Christmas list too, you know.

3. Another review to look out for came about when a band called Heavy Jack gave me a  shout out a few weeks ago and sent me a copy of their album Multiply. So far so good, there's definitely skill there. So, keep an eye out for that as well.

4. I've got two more reviews for Twisted Ear on the way, Max Tundra and Juana Molina. Those were fun.

5. Lastly, even though it has nothing to do with music, TMI is quite sad about the passing of Paul Newman. Cool Hand Luke is an excellent movie. Rent it.

Well, that's all I've got for now on this fine Sunday morning. Stay tuned, kids.

Peace

*Note: Those are not my cupcakes. I do not have that kind of time.

Thirteen Minutes with MGMT

Well, hello there. Long time no see, but with all this Olympic business, who has time to do anything but speculate about Bob Costas's hair and marvel at how a hundredth of a second can actually matter?

Actually, it's just been a slow week with just two minor pieces of news. The Killers named their album Day and Age. Sounds terribly exciting. The other scrap is about MGMT. Apparently they've released a thirteen-minute song called "Metanoia." Rolling Stone sounds like they're ready to pee themselves with excitement. We'll see. So far it's only available on iTunes and a mere three minutes can be seen in a live version on a YouTube video. The quality of the video is not great so at this point it's hard to say if the song is anything more than discord. About a minute in my patience left me. The song is described as having a lot of different sections instead of the traditional verse-chorus. Oh, MGMT...

Killer's 3rd Slated for November

TMI has gotten wind that The Killers are liking November for releasing their third album. According to Rolling Stone, the band is working with Stuart Price, the producer largely responsible for Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor. Ew. Anyway, that's about the extent of the information...no album or track titles yet, but you've got to know that as soon as they hit, TMI's going to be all over it like synth on Hot Fuss. Stay Tuned.

The Killers Sift Through the Sawdust

Sawdust is really a mixed bag. I think that's the most appropriate statement. At this point I'm not sure I could slap on stars or a letter grade. There's good and bad, strong and weak. Coming in at seventeen tracks, it's important to remember that this is not supposed to be a cohesive album. There are songs like "Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll" which were put on the Limited Edition of Hot Fuss or bonus CD of Sam's Town (so they're nothing new) and songs which missed the cut all together. The best tracks include "Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf" which begs the question why it didn't find a home on one of their albums, "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town," and "Romeo and Juliet." The two former would have fit pretty well with the sound of Sam's Town, but there can only be so many tracks on an album. The latter is really cool, not quite a retelling but definitely a lyrical joy sans synth. There's also a new version of "Sam's Town" done at Abbey Road in '06. I like the fact that the uncomplicated piano and drums highlight Flowers's vocals. It freshens up the song where as many songs don't survive a strip down.

Here's what didn't go so well. Sawdust suffers from a handful of flat out weak songs. "Show You How" and "Move Away" are unremarkable. There's nothing about them to distinguish them. "Shadowplay," which I believe is a cover, starts off decent but loses something along the way. The last track is a remix of Mr. Brightside which runs about ten minutes. Quite frankly, it's not worth the time. Jaques Lu Cont throws in an echo here and an echo there, a little bit of distortion and a completely unnecessary and cheesy rhythm that if anything, detracts from why the song was cool originally. Just when you're thinking that it's winding down, the ipod says there's 4 minutes left.

Like I said, it's a mixed bag. The weak tracks are disappointing but the really worthy ones do a good job of making up for them. We'll see what comes up next.

Tranquilized Until 2008

The Killers are definitely a favorite here at The Musically Inclined and the eminent release is much anticipated. I've already soap-boxed on the album, but I wanted to go back and take a look at "Tranquilize," the only brand new song on the album. The Vegas band teamed up with Lou Reed from the legendary Velvet Underground and the product is pretty interesting. There's a darker quality to it, the same darker quality that was perhaps a bit underdeveloped on "Bones" off Sam's Town, but nevertheless present. It still definitely sounds like the Killers, which is a relief because it feels like they are taking a natural path when it comes to the stylistic progress of their music. There's even a small strain of "Read My Mind" in the chorus.

My initial reaction was that "Tranquilize" feels like that half step between Sam's Town and where ever they're headed with their 2008 scheduled release. That's a good sign.
Based on this song I'd say that they are going to hang on to a bit of the western influence but polish it with that sleekness that was so prevalent in Hot Fuss. Plus, if they are working with Lou Reed, there's probably going to be some other element thrown in there like a twist of punk, or whatever genre The Velvet Underground could be most accurately placed under. It seems to fit initial Killers tracks along the lines of "Jenny Was A Friend of Mine," at least in my mind.

The other cool feature of "Tranquilize" is the use of a children's choir. On one hand it sounds like these youths don't belong because of that afore mentioned darker side but oddly it makes for an intriguing sound. And I can't help but imagine that those kids are going to be able to claim someday that they sang on a Killer's album. Pretty cool.

Let's hope 2008 doesn't take too long to get here.

The Killers and Their B Sides

I bet it was pretty great back in the day when artists couldn't afford to let too many months go by between albums for fear of losing relevance in popular culture. Sure, not every cut would be a mind-blower, but in today's world where artists will take years to release something new, does that ever happen? Not really, but I bet it was nice to know the wheels were always turning. Sometimes I'm not sure if bands are even together anymore. Matchbox Twenty pretty much disappeared after 2002's More Than You Think You Are. Rob Thomas was hugely successful but the rest of the band was nowhere in sight. The most detail I could ever find was that lovely ambiguous word "hiatus." What the crap does that mean exactly? If a tv show goes on hiatus, there is a good chance it's not coming back. Anyway, just as I had forgotten MB20 even existed, they came out with Exile On Mainstream (which I believe was self imposed) and Adam Gaynor was gone. Guess I missed the memo.

My rambling aside, I was intrigued by the information that The Killers are releasing an album of B sides, remixes, and other tracks previously shafted. Anyone who bought the limited edition of Hot Fuss will find "Under the Gun," "Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll," and "The Ballad of Michael Valentine." Honestly, I've always thought they were three of the best songs on the album yet ironically weren't really on the album. "Daddy's Eyes" and "All the Pretty Faces" are also included from Sam's Town. As far as I can tell there is only one brand new song, "Tranquilize," and the rest we're just going to have to wait and see.

Under any other circumstances I'd be worried that this was going to be a bunch of crap scraped off of the cutting room floor and sloppily thrown together because of the multitude of people who will buy it because it's the Killers. But then again that's what I thought when weighing the Limited Edition of Hot Fuss versus the regular one. I was wondering if I wanted those extra songs, I was thinking maybe it was just a marketing ploy to sell a few more cds to hardcore fans. Happily, I was wrong. Maybe they've got something going here, not many other bands are doing this kind of thing...so I'm willing to buy into the idea that an entire album of B sides is worth $14...so long as it's the Killers.

Sawdust will be released November 13th.

The Glory of the New Album

There are too few surprises in life. Way too few. Things are either predictable or given away easily. The magic 8 ball only has so many answers, too many colors will always make brown, an apple cut horizontally has a star in the middle. I think though, that one of the few experiences that is relatively difficult to spoil, is the experience of listening to an album for the first time. Sure, reviews are available and word spreads quickly, especially if it's a real dog, but it really doesn't matter who thinks you'll like an album. There is only one person who can decide that and I would hope that a person would be true enough not to subject themselves to music they absolutely despise. Nobody is convincing me that Modern Times by Bob Dylan rivals Highway 61 Revisited. Hell no, sugar. New music is great, or at least the prospect of new music. Who knows what's really been burned on those tracks? Musical innovation and enlightenment or warmed-over crap?

Then there's when you actually get to hit 'play' that first time. With me, I've got to listen to something several times before I make a decision. I distinctly remember being less than thrilled the first time I heard Hot Fuss by the Killers and then all of a sudden it all came together, it made sense as one piece of music, as one piece of style. Gaps closed and a definitive story line of sorts surfaced.I love that CD, but it was an interesting ride getting there. I think that ride is priceless. Every listen brings new twists and turns, new interpretations and details. At this very moment there is a brand new CD sitting in my bag that I have never heard before. It is something that has been around for maybe three years and despite talk I never really got around to buying it. Now it's mine and I can't wait to see if I agree or if I think it is grossly crushed by the hype. We'll see. It's a surprise.