WHY I LIKE THE KILLERS: A NOISE BOARD EXCLUSIVE

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So, I like a lot of old '80s new wave music. I would say that I mostly like the quality of the songwriting, arrangements, the good singers, and the continuation of Roxy Music/Bowie/Kraftwerk aesthetics in this music. When indie rock first started to go new wave (which I really think began with Stereolab, then started to become more of a movement around '97 or so with the first batch of U.S. nu wavers: Satisfact, Gogogoairheart, Computer Cougar/Beautiful Skin), it seemed TO ME like a bold aesthetic move. And I've followed it since then to the extent that it's seemed interesting to me--I'm thinking of bands like the Rapture (whose first EP was on Gravity and is kind of Swell Maps-y), Glass Candy (I don't know--I have the first two singles), Chromatics, Lansing-Dreiden...

Two years ago, I thought that KRMTX "Ice Hatchets" single was really good. I just put it on recently, though, and thought, "What's the point?" I realize that they have a "darker" aesthetic, but there's nothing musically present in KRMTX that sets them apart from, say, Franz Ferdinand. And Franz Ferdinand write better songs, play better, have a better sound, and have a singer that you can actually hear/understand. The thing is, I think, that some of youse think that the new crop of successful and popular nu wavers are dumbing something down. So, what, Franz Ferdinand are dumbing down the Chromatics? The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are dumbing down Glass Candy and the Shattered Theater? The Killers are dumbing down Gogogoairheart? Now, maybe youse guys aren't really into the Chromatics, Glass Candy and the Shattered Theater, and Gogogoairheart, but I'd guess that you don't feel so vehemently opposed to them as you do to the Killers and Frank Ferdinand.

My point is that THERE WAS NOTHING TO DUMB DOWN IN THAT MUSIC IN THE FIRST PLACE. There is no CONTENT in the music of those bands that is missing in bands like the Killers or Franz Ferdinand. In fact, a band like the Killers seem to be GOOFING on the lack of content in this genre with their ridiculous lyrics and the guy's ridiculous singing (which is what I was getting at with that "Believe Me, Natalie" thread).

Also: it's only "fucking Dawson's Creek music" because these bands have better production value.

PEACE-OUT!

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:01 (twenty years ago)

you suck more with every passing day

― American Apparel and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:15 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe that Kirsten has a half-sister, I mean shit!...and to discover that shit on Christmakah Eve! What a blow! Her father really is a scoundrel. But Sandy is an awesome lawyer, and got him off! GO SANDY!

Speaking of romance, looks like Seth is gona start banging the bartender from the bait shop! Way to go Seth, she is a hot biscut. Poor Marissa though, she is drunk and her dad left her and her Mom like totally hates the gardner. Ryan, stop dating Kirsten's half-sister, its just too taboo for us and she is gross, you can do better.

till next week!

― ddb (ddb), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:23 (twenty years ago)

(x-post) I do not. Besides, this thread isn't about me, man, IT'S ABOUT THE KILLERS!!! (YAY.)

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

http://www.lipsync.us/ashlee_stomp2.gif

― ddb (ddb), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:52 (twenty years ago)

oh man oh man oh man oh man oh man oh man.

though franz is better than the killers (who are abysmal paint by numbers), both have such a lingering fog of generic, thoughtless sound, the edges and personality almost completely absent.

as for the "underground' bands you listed, all of them so different from each other that the common thread really isn't present. i mean comparing the killers to gogogoairheart? me thinks not songwriting, performance, production and influences-wise. it's like saying Norma O'Malley is a dumbed down version of Britney Spears.

― jack cole (jackcole), Monday, 10 January 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

can we ban tim already? he's clearly just a troll.

― Ian John50n (orion), Monday, 10 January 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

no, i like him! yellow-card him maybe.

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 10 January 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

yellow cards ain't nothing. gygax gives me one every day.

― American Apparel and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Monday, 10 January 2005 19:29 (twenty years ago)

Well, I was talking about nu wavers in general. I think the thread is there, though: the Killers guy sounds like he's doing a Luke Jenner. Luke Jenner sounded like he was doing a Mike Vermillion (Gogogo guy). Anyway, my point is that these underground nu wavers are not hated as much as the overground nu wavers because the former are thought to possess some lingering aesthetic traces from significant underground musics of the past (post-punk, etc.). These underground bands have been so VACUOUSLY POSTMODERN from the get-go, however, that I just think that the fact that the Killers are less "Gothic" than the Chromatics or less fractured than Gogogoairheart doesn't mean all that much to me. The fact that they write better songs and play them better on their instruments makes up for it.

Plus the humor element in the Killers (again--what I was getting at with the "Believe Me, Natalie" thread).

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 10 January 2005 20:02 (twenty years ago)

And Jack, re. "paint by numbers"--lots of good bands are paint by numbers. Spacemen 3 and Stereolab were total paint by numbers.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 10 January 2005 20:27 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of romance, looks like Seth is gona start banging the bartender from the bait shop!

DDB U R IN 4 A SURPRISE!

― S!monB!rch (Carey), Monday, 10 January 2005 20:41 (twenty years ago)

spaceman 3, no; stereolab, yes.

also, more than no wave to gogogo -- the band's sound has shifted from album to album -- also, though fractured, pretty clean poppish recording by rafter roberts.

also, "paint by numbers" doesn't mean playing in a preexisting style -- it means playing in a preexisting style or genre without adding anything to it whatsoever -- see 99% of garage bands, for example, or the Rapture.

― jack cole (jackcole), Monday, 10 January 2005 22:06 (twenty years ago)

all that said, i love you for starting this thread.

kisses,
jc

― jack cole (jackcole), Monday, 10 January 2005 22:08 (twenty years ago)

i'm giving myself a yellow card for enjoying what tim has to say time and time again.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 January 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

I like it, it is nice and yellow.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 January 2005 22:16 (twenty years ago)

now now

― American Apparel and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Monday, 10 January 2005 22:17 (twenty years ago)

DOPES TIM LIKE YELLOWCARD NOW TOO?

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 11 January 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

why is this on the noise board.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 01:01 (twenty years ago)

why is this still on the noise board

― American Apparel and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 01:11 (twenty years ago)

because the killers hurt my ears so in my word are noise?

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 01:17 (twenty years ago)

zingerzzzzz

actually i've had that stupid 'somebody told me' song in my head all day and it made me want to kill myself and others.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 01:20 (twenty years ago)

noize friends don't let noize friends listen to killers*.

except for the iron maiden album.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 03:42 (twenty years ago)

painting by numbers bands, are the best bands*

*this doesnt apply to the killers, who have no paint

― charltonlido (gareth), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 10:20 (twenty years ago)

where's my snare drum when i need it to play at the end of good jokes like gareth's?

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)

t/s: the killers vs. the honeymoon killers

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

duh!

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

did we ban him yet?

k-line his ass, DEAN!

― LSD ARISTOCAT (ex machina), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

jon, you took away dean's mod privileges, remember?

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 22:30 (twenty years ago)

you k-lined me, jon ;(

― American Apparel and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 22:47 (twenty years ago)

I still have mod privs

― TOMBOT, Tuesday, 11 January 2005 22:50 (twenty years ago)

If anyone bans Tim, I am gone...

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 22:53 (twenty years ago)

I LOVE TIM AND LUCY

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 22:55 (twenty years ago)

It's like when Clinton was impeached and all the Democratic congresspeople went straight to the White House lawn for a show of support and unity! (I need it now cuz I sold BROHEEMS that Circle X LP and it turned out that I didn't have it! Sold it several months ago to someone! Paypalled him the money back, but I feel bad.)

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

ban gygax too!

― American Apparel and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

Tim -- wha?? oh nooooooooo!!!

no, it's cool. I'll live. I don't know why I never see that thing around though. It was on Enigma, right?? What an enigma wrapped inside a riddle. I listened to Celestial again the other day -- that thing rips!

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

haha "BE ONE COCK PT. 2" is that a Stones song?

― American Apparel and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 23:11 (twenty years ago)

x-post: No, this was on some small label (their own label?). Honestly, I don't think it's as good as Celestial or that early EP. I don't know--hstencil likes it.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 23:11 (twenty years ago)

FWIW, I don't want anyone banned. I'm just mad because "controversial elder" is gygax's schtick and Tim should know not to try and steal it.

― American Apparel and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 23:12 (twenty years ago)

NOISE DUDE ALERT! KILLERS ON SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE THIS WEEK!

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 06:26 (twenty years ago)

this board should be like the City Of Domes in Logan's Run with hstencil, Stormy, Tim, Gygax and I the hidden elders making you all go to Carousel when the time is right.

― jack cole (jackcole), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 08:19 (twenty years ago)

NOne of the retro new wave bands i have heard are better than DMX Krew's We Are DMX Krew album. NONE of them. I wish I still had my copy. God, I loved that thing. Came out in 1999 or thereabouts.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 17:11 (twenty years ago)

have you heard FFFREEEESSSSSHHHHHH! by dmx krew, thats a nice album too

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 17:34 (twenty years ago)

gareth is right. i d'led a bunch of dmx krew stuff on his recommendation somewhere else, and it's all great.

― g--ff (gcannon), Thursday, 13 January 2005 05:46 (twenty years ago)

I started listening to this album once. Then the first song started in on this really lame copy of the bass riff from "Barbarism Begins at Home," so I turned it off.

Incidentally Gareth that's Ffressshh!, which has "Bonkers Goes Back to School," which is really all I need.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

That and having a song called "SPACE PIRATE!," caps and exclamation point as-is.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:49 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

nabisco OTM

― terry lennox. (gareth), Saturday, 21 January 2006 13:39 (nineteen years ago)

anyway the answer to the original question seems simple enough

1) jacques le cont remix
2) vegas, though reno would have been better

― terry lennox. (gareth), Saturday, 21 January 2006 13:42 (nineteen years ago)

1) jacques le cont remix

ihttp://www.cclassic.szu.pl/files/ZxSpectrum/Pictures/Screens.gif/Games/Cop-Out.gif

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Saturday, 21 January 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

The new Franz single (that "walk among us" one) is really mediocre. : (

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 21 January 2006 23:22 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

― am0n, Sunday, 1 July 2007 03:44 (seventeen years ago)

waht is tim's opinion now?

chromatics/glass candy have both moved light years away from nu-new-wave.

― haitch, Sunday, 1 July 2007 04:31 (seventeen years ago)

i've only heard the new single once so far. the killers are ok.

― Tim Ellison, Sunday, 1 July 2007 04:36 (seventeen years ago)

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