Every single time I go to Fenway Park they play "All These Things That I have Done" by the Killers. Every time. I'm not exaggerating. I've been to six games this season and they've played it at all six along with other Killers songs on occasion. For the record, I think that Brandon (or is it Brendan?) Flowers is a moron and I would never want to converse with him or run into him at Starbuck's or share a taxi with him. That said, I think the Killers are surprisingly maybe the best band that is consistently on the (American mainstream) radio at this point. I liked their first record for the most part and like their second one even more (save the horrible mistake "Uncle Jonny" but if I uncheck it on my iTunes is it really on the album?). Anyway, I like the Killers and I'm not ashamed. I would actually love to see them live even (not that I'd pay the $85 or however much it probably costs to see them at this point). I think it was Filter that a few years back compared them to Duran Duran in the sense that they are a mainstream band that may only be the most accessible of their genre and accordingly outselling other bands that are perhaps more talented but within the same soundsphere.
Anyway, I'm supposed to not like any mainstream bands in the same way one of my friends mocked me the other day for reading a book of Joyce Carol Oates short stories (she can fucking write even if she has sold 68 trillion books). And now I'm gonna say something that probably no one wants to hear:
Brand New's record The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me from last December is probably my favorite new record of the last 12 months. Yes, that list includes Neon Bible which is better than good if not great, Lynn Teeter Flower which I talked up hard for a few weeks but just doesn't have the same holding power of the first Maria Taylor record, Stars on the Wall by The Go Find, which is definitely great...the list could go on, but it won't. So here's why anyone who is actually reading this is cringing or embarrassed; you aren't supposed to like Brand New! Brand New is for little kids, right? Little girls. Let's all make fun of teenage girls. You're an adult, you're supposed to listen to adult music that is boring or listen to any of a slew of bands that are reforming for the money and robbing people blind (and destroying otherwise rich legacies). You're an adult! Go buy a Fiery Furnaces record!
Well, I got a little carried away but basically Brand New has a terrible stigma attached to them. Fine. I understand why. Jesse Lacey is the poster boy for a generation of people too young to even listen to Bright Eyes. Fine. I get it. Great. But the guy can write fucking brilliant songs. Let's just pretend their first record Your Favorite Weapon never happened. Fine. They started out as a pop punk band with funnier than average lyrics. Fine. Good. Their second record Deja Entendu was actually pretty impressive and contained a nice combination of radio pop-rock and quality songwriting. Yes, I'm being serious.
The new record The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me is more or less fucking brilliant. It is songwriting in the way that anything The Long Winters do is songwriting. It is songwriting in the way that Okkervil River does songwriting. I would compare them to Coldplay but I don't think Coldplay has ever written any songs that were really about something specific or had any narrative qualities. In any event, a lot of the record centers around death, loss and a specific story about a car accident that happened in 2005 in Long Island. The layering on the songs is unbelievable (and not usually in an overproduced sort of way), the emotion in the songs is captured brilliantly, I mean, honestly, songs like "You Won't Know" and "Limousine" and "Degausser" and "Milestone" and "Jesus" and "Handcuffs" - all songs that make it an honest god-damn-fucking shame that so many people who love music have written this band off as appropriate only for "teenage girls" (as I've so often heard).
And you know what, I'll admit something right here, last summer before the record came out I bought two tickets to see them play at Avalon, but on the train on the way to the show, the train was full of young kids who were basically just annoying the piss out of me. So much so that I knew I wouldn't wan tto stand in a sold-out crowd full of them for 4 hours. So what did I do? I sold the tickets to some kids outside the show and didn't go. Lesson? Maybe I'm just as arrogant and ignorant and I forgot what it was like to be 14 and be able to go to all ages shows and see bands that you think the world of...or maybe Brand New just needs more old people to give them a shot.
Also, quit reading and fucking buy something.
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I can't really comment, because I've never heard a full Killers record, and I'm pretty sure I've never heard a song by Brand New. That being said, "Where You Were Young" was one of the better radio singles in a long time (that and every single Beyonce has ever put out.)
It's a poor man's "Born to Run." Which is like a rich man's everything else.
Oh uncle Jerry, you're a rich man's everything else.
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 22:30:37 -0800 (PST)
From: "Joseph Sloan" Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
Subject: ...we only bring it upon ourselves
To: jerrysloan@gmail.com
"degausser"
(terrible title given the complete lack of metaphysical conceit involving magnets)
take me, take me
back to your bed
i love you so much
it hurts my head
say i dont mind you
under my skin
i let the bad parts in
the bad parts in
well your my favorite bird
and the way you sing
i really do wish that
you'd wear my ring
no matter what they say
i am still the king
now the storm is comin'
the storm is...comin'
--...brand new!
and to think, i gave them the benefit of the doubt. this sampler couldn't kill more listeners than if it was laced with strychnine. maybe it already is. i would rest easier.
now before nick gets worked up into a lather, i will restate that i only listened to the sampler. maybe the awful lyrics changed over the course of the finished album. i don't know. i just stay far, far away from it.
You're just proving my point by responding in that manner. people see the name Brand New and they turn into the cool police.
And please...those lyrics may not be great, but they're certainly not the worst I've ever seen (the new Arcade Fire record for example has some horrifyingly bad couplets).
i don't think you have to be a member of the cool police to suggest that those lyrics are bad. i think they speak for themselves.
A few things.
1) I enjoy the Killers immensely, and I'm not afraid to admit it. Why should I be? If music means something to me, why do I have to dislike it just because it's mainstream? In the end, it's all about your taste, not everyone elses. What you do or do not have in your music collection should not grant or deny entry into the cool club.
2) This one's gonna set a lot of people off, but I don't care. I think John Mayer is the best guitarist of our generation. There. I said it. You won't find proof of this in the typical "Your Body is a Wonderland" crap singles, but if you've ever heard the song "Covered in Rain" live or his Hendrix cover "Bold as Love", you'll realize this guy isn't your average pop ass-clown. This guy has chops. This is a guy who has performed with Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton, and both of them sing his praises.
3) I enjoy Brand New too. Some really memorable lyrics in their songs, particularly this one:
Have another drink and drive yourself home/
I hope there's ice on all the roads/
So you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt and again when your head goes through the windshield.
Keep it real, Sloan. Respek.
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