A frolic in Cambodia

[bold_n_brazen]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
You are so beautiful.

TM

Thank you.

And you know what else? I believe you.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by bold_n_brazen
Thank you.

And you know what else? I believe you.

Now that "You aaarrre sooooo beautiful, to meeeeeeeee, can't you seeeeeeee" song is going through my head.

[robustpuppy]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
Now that "You aaarrre sooooo beautiful, to meeeeeeeee, can't you seeeeeeee" song is going through my head.

You're everything I hoped for

[spookyfish]

Originally posted by robustpuppy
You're everything I hoped for

You're everything I neeeed.

Everybody!

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by robustpuppy
You're everything I hoped for

You're everything I need (well, except you lack a penis, but whatever)

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
Ray. I tell you this though I have seen neither.

Anyone else like The Killers album?* It is high on my commute rotation right now.




*yes, Flower, this is an invitation for a rant about how pedestrian everyone else's musical taste is. have at it. you're welcome.

O.K., I'm done with the Thurgreed/Bold 'n' Brazen posting-history death march. Candidly, I'm not sure it was worth it, although Thurgreed had a totally excellent post about blow jobs a couple of years back.

Anyhoo, if I cared enough to be more familiar with The Killers' latest record, this is what I would think of it:

The Killers
Hot Fuss
[Island; 2004]
Rating: 5.2
The Killers' press release is surprisingly straightforward, explicitly detailing the punchcard proving ground that this Las Vegas quartet sprang from before phrases like "bidding war" and "headlining tour" entered their daily vocabulary. But it can afford this bit of honesty, since the British music press has shouldered the load of attendant Killers hyperbole, and because the band's Hot Fuss checks most of its truths at the door to their 800-foot limo.

By autumn 2003, their single "Mr. Brightside" had secured the usual Best! Band! Ever! overstatements from UK scribes, and the song's happily vacant grafting of New Order decadence to Housemartins bop bounced it hard into CMJ and SXSW. Subsequently, the band's dance card attracted Warbucksian suitors of the largest variety. And now, the resulting Hot Fuss drops on both sides of the Atlantic wrapped in this tabloid backstory, unable to separate its hype from its unabashedly referential sound.

Hot Fuss floats boatloads of blasé lyrics about the pressures of being fabulous and the politics of fucking over an easily sippable blend of 80s and 90s British pop influences, rarely pausing to test the end product. Top-shelf mixing and attention to melody helps out the record's appeal as lifestyle music for sheltered bloggers and female professionals who still wear cool hairstyles. But damnit if that demographic leaves little room for a life of The Killers' own. Where are they, besides their wily references to past pop pros and a vague sense of Sin City cynicism? Not anywhere, really: The Killers are just the latest band to be born too quick inside the popular music vacuum, where expectations for broad accessibility kill dudes' potential for deeper creativity quite fabulously dead.

This is disappointing, since Fuss' better moments make The Killers' knack for hooks and cool poses clear. Vocalist/keyboardist Brandon Flowers has replaced his tonsils with melodrama; he's hijacked Jarvis Cocker's accent to make his Vegas-boy rep sound that much tighter. "Brightside" isn't getting near the dejection of The Stills; it has no illusions about being anything other than a provocative single. Its relentless keyboard 'n' guitar racket shuns dourness altogether, as Flowers remarkably makes lines about a girlfriend getting off with some other guy resonate as some kind of weird triumph. "Somebody Told Me"'s deadpan couplets about having a "boyfriend who looks like a girlfriend" are similarly clever, but the cut's a brazen rewrite of The Strokes' treble-kick heroics. Yes, Casablancas, et al ripped off pieces of their sound, too, but that's the difference-- they already did the ripping. The Killers' recombination arrives too late to be recognized as first-tier thievery. At this point, Hot Fuss is just bringing it from what's already been brought.

Hot Fuss opener "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" establishes Flowers' admirable love for tones lost to rockers' rising fears of sounding too fruity. But as the album's singles follow in quick succession, rocking a sound softer than post-punk but full of the stuff that came right after it, The Killers can't figure a way to add resonance beyond adding more keyboards, more layered guitars, more cribbing of established tastemaking currency (check the intellectual-property-case-waiting-to-happen that is "Change Your Mind"). In other words, Hot Fuss has no use for subtlety. It revels in its appearance as The Shit from day one, allowing for filler-type indulgences like the impossibly aimless-- and quite possibly shitty-- "Everything Will Be Alright". Meanwhile, Fuss' UK version excises the brazenly contemporary raggedness of "Change Your Mind" for the astoundingly inane "Indie Rock 'n' Roll", a blaring joke of thick-chorded guitar and arrogant, pitch-corrected yowling that gives out cornholes to every unknown American group valiantly trying to find the cracks of creativity in its titular sound.

So, it's plain that The Killers have made a record more concerned with artifice than artistry. If the intent is to place their album's principal teases on the next Now That's What I Call Music compilation, then bravo. But why does it try to squeak by as another deft pop reversion when it actually seems to be a revisionist cash dance? For the kids, I presume. But Hot Fuss is not hardcore; it's hard evidence that it's tough to focus on making great rock when you're preoccupied with cultivating an image.

-Johnny Loftus, July 6th, 2004

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record...hot-fuss.shtml

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by Fugee
Maybe this is just semantics (hoping TM isn't a complete emotional miser). What kind of frequency are we talking about and do you just consider it a compliment when you say something big like "You are so beautiful"?

Uh...Yez.

I can't measure how often it is. I do it when I feel like it. I'm sure of one thing, though. You would think it wasn't often enough.

Originally posted by Fugee
For example, when you see she is wearing something new and it looks nice on her, do you say "That ______ looks good on you" or do you wait until she has clearly spent a lot of time getting glammed up?

I have no set rules. Whether she is wearing something new and it looks nice on her I might say it. I most likely won't. Not because I'm holding back, but because that's the way I am. (Maybe holding back is the way I am and just don't know it. I guess all my relationships are doomed.)

Originally posted by Fugee
I don't think it is a question of something wrong with a relationship but, unless you are with someone who is uncomfortable receiving compliments, giving sincere compliments, even little ones, is a loving act and it makes people feel good. I don't know anyone who has gotten to the point of expecting compliments but my population sample is limited. Has anyone experienced this?

Obviously there is a huge grey area between extremes. But I can tell you that I've been with women who compliment me too much and it's annoying. I've spoken to women who feel the same way about someone they're with who does the same.

TM

[notcasesensitive]

Originally posted by Pretty Little Flower
...female professionals who still wear cool hairstyles...

thank you for noticing. I've banked that one too.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by bold_n_brazen
Thank you.

And you know what else? I believe you.

Good. Now finish up your will and bend over.

TM

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
thank you for noticing. I've banked that one too.

With all this banking, I'm starting to think you really do need to start getting more compliments from your paramour. Or someone.

That's some great flair you're wearing today, btw.

[SlaveNoMore]

Pretty Little Flower
Anyhoo, if I cared enough to be more familiar with The Killers' latest record, this is what I would think of it:

...yada yada yada...

I'm still waiting for your review of the Zutons CD

[Flinty_McFlint]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
I'm still waiting for your review of the Zutons CD

My new addiction is Louis XIV....

Click to hear Louis XIV's live version of "Finding out true is blind"

It's hard trying to pretend to be cool.

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
I hate that person. You are ugly and have a tiny penis.

You are correct. I do have a very very tiny penis-like thingey. But I am not ugly.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
You are correct. I do have a very very tiny penis-like thingey. But I am not ugly.

But you're Canadian, and I hate Rush.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Pretty Little Flower
O.K., I'm done with the Thurgreed/Bold 'n' Brazen posting-history death march. Candidly, I'm not sure it was worth it, although Thurgreed had a totally excellent post about blow jobs a couple of years back.

Anyhoo, if I cared enough to be more familiar with The Killers' latest record, this is what I would think of it:

The Killers
Hot Fuss
[Island; 2004]
Rating: 5.2
The Killers' press release is surprisingly straightforward, explicitly detailing the punchcard proving ground that this Las Vegas quartet sprang from before phrases like "bidding war" and "headlining tour" entered their daily vocabulary. But it can afford this bit of honesty, since the British music press has shouldered the load of attendant Killers hyperbole, and because the band's Hot Fuss checks most of its truths at the door to their 800-foot limo.

By autumn 2003, their single "Mr. Brightside" had secured the usual Best! Band! Ever! overstatements from UK scribes, and the song's happily vacant grafting of New Order decadence to Housemartins bop bounced it hard into CMJ and SXSW. Subsequently, the band's dance card attracted Warbucksian suitors of the largest variety. And now, the resulting Hot Fuss drops on both sides of the Atlantic wrapped in this tabloid backstory, unable to separate its hype from its unabashedly referential sound.

Hot Fuss floats boatloads of blasé lyrics about the pressures of being fabulous and the politics of fucking over an easily sippable blend of 80s and 90s British pop influences, rarely pausing to test the end product. Top-shelf mixing and attention to melody helps out the record's appeal as lifestyle music for sheltered bloggers and female professionals who still wear cool hairstyles. But damnit if that demographic leaves little room for a life of The Killers' own. Where are they, besides their wily references to past pop pros and a vague sense of Sin City cynicism? Not anywhere, really: The Killers are just the latest band to be born too quick inside the popular music vacuum, where expectations for broad accessibility kill dudes' potential for deeper creativity quite fabulously dead.

This is disappointing, since Fuss' better moments make The Killers' knack for hooks and cool poses clear. Vocalist/keyboardist Brandon Flowers has replaced his tonsils with melodrama; he's hijacked Jarvis Cocker's accent to make his Vegas-boy rep sound that much tighter. "Brightside" isn't getting near the dejection of The Stills; it has no illusions about being anything other than a provocative single. Its relentless keyboard 'n' guitar racket shuns dourness altogether, as Flowers remarkably makes lines about a girlfriend getting off with some other guy resonate as some kind of weird triumph. "Somebody Told Me"'s deadpan couplets about having a "boyfriend who looks like a girlfriend" are similarly clever, but the cut's a brazen rewrite of The Strokes' treble-kick heroics. Yes, Casablancas, et al ripped off pieces of their sound, too, but that's the difference-- they already did the ripping. The Killers' recombination arrives too late to be recognized as first-tier thievery. At this point, Hot Fuss is just bringing it from what's already been brought.

Hot Fuss opener "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" establishes Flowers' admirable love for tones lost to rockers' rising fears of sounding too fruity. But as the album's singles follow in quick succession, rocking a sound softer than post-punk but full of the stuff that came right after it, The Killers can't figure a way to add resonance beyond adding more keyboards, more layered guitars, more cribbing of established tastemaking currency (check the intellectual-property-case-waiting-to-happen that is "Change Your Mind"). In other words, Hot Fuss has no use for subtlety. It revels in its appearance as The Shit from day one, allowing for filler-type indulgences like the impossibly aimless-- and quite possibly shitty-- "Everything Will Be Alright". Meanwhile, Fuss' UK version excises the brazenly contemporary raggedness of "Change Your Mind" for the astoundingly inane "Indie Rock 'n' Roll", a blaring joke of thick-chorded guitar and arrogant, pitch-corrected yowling that gives out cornholes to every unknown American group valiantly trying to find the cracks of creativity in its titular sound.

So, it's plain that The Killers have made a record more concerned with artifice than artistry. If the intent is to place their album's principal teases on the next Now That's What I Call Music compilation, then bravo. But why does it try to squeak by as another deft pop reversion when it actually seems to be a revisionist cash dance? For the kids, I presume. But Hot Fuss is not hardcore; it's hard evidence that it's tough to focus on making great rock when you're preoccupied with cultivating an image.

-Johnny Loftus, July 6th, 2004

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record...hot-fuss.shtml

Johnny Loftus
Review of Hot Fuss
Loftus' review is suprisingly straightforward. Clearly hungover as hell and against a very tight deadline, he yanked the "more image than music" critique macro from his computer and inserted the band Killers' members' name. Loftus then furiously googled three groups that sounded like the Killers and inputed them into the piece for sound comparisons and hit 'send' just in time to get his piece posted.

Its not a terrible piece, but this critics' critic wonders how anyone could phone in a review of Who's Next.

Next month: Is Zeppelin III really Page's nadir?