Scattered Thoughts: ONTD!
So … did you guys see that the Killers called U2 old and said that they are the next U2?! Oh no they didn’t! (No, really, they actually didn’t.) Just ContactMusic trying to stir it up with sensationalized BS, as per usual.
However, the out-of-context quotes that ContactMusic attributed to Killers singer Brandon Flowers actually did come from a pretty long and interesting article on that band in this past weekend’s Observer. Portions of said article are excerpted below, with U2 references at the beginning and end of the excerpt. The full article is much longer and much more full of ridiculous Brandon Flowers statements, and can be read here.
Dublin, 20-21 August
“Fifteen minutes after they come offstage at the Academy in the Irish capital, the Killers’ small and busy dressing room under the stairs is sweltering.
Ronnie Vannucci is forced to stand in the corridor outside to talk to Jack Black. The actor-cum-comedy-rocker’s band Tenacious D are in town to support Metallica at Marlay Park. Vannucci and Black are guffawing about the perennial rock star problem of overly sweaty gussets. Brandon Flowers, still wired and still perspiring from the performance, sits on a chair, both knees doing the St Vitus Dance. He’s digging into a full size box of bran flakes, shovelling the dry cereal into his mouth but taking care to avoid the raisins. Mark Stoermer idly fingers a leather case containing champagne and Guinness. It’s a gift from Dublin’s favourite sons, and the band the Killers most want to emulate. A card inside reads: ‘Welcome to Dublin from The U2′ers’. Their manager, Paul McGuinness, stands by the doorway, chatting. ‘He owns the space around him,’ Flowers will later chuckle. ‘Makes our manager nervous!’
Flowers, too, is a little nervous. Tonight’s 850-capacity club show, a warm-up for tomorrow night’s show at Marlay Park, which is itself a warm-up for headline slots at the Reading and Leeds festivals, was great. The band played a quasi-acoustic version of ‘Smile Like You Mean It’, with Flowers at the piano. Their decidedly strange collaboration with Lou Reed, last year’s ‘Tranquilize’ single, worked well. Two new songs, ‘Neon Tiger’ and ‘Spaceman’, were greeted enthusiastically by the crowd. But Flowers’s racing brain is already on to the next hurdle. Chatting to McGuinness, he discovers that U2’s new album is scheduled for release a week before theirs. How do they follow that? ‘So there’s U2, Oasis, Snow Patrol, Keane, Kaiser Chiefs…’ He ticks off the autumn’s big albums on his fingers (the U2 record later shifts to next year). Sh*t. Lot of competition. Flowers chomps at his cereal with agitated gusto…
…The next day Flowers and I sit down with tea and cookies in the deserted hotel restaurant. Last night, once he got over his collywobbles about the U2 album, he seemed friendly and relaxed but today, talking about the new album properly for the first time, there are nerves…
… He’s open in his desire for the Killers to be a stadium-sized act, to catch up with Coldplay and join up with U2 on the top ‘pedestal… They’re getting old. You know there’s going to be a coupla songs on [U2's new] record you’re just going to love. They’re unbelievable. But there’s gotta be… I dunno, it feels like it’s time.’ “
Oh no he didn’t! (Ha ha, just kidding).
All of this just gives us an excuse to post this:
-This post brought to you by Scatter O’ Light.
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So … if the new U2 album drops a week before The Killer does anyone know when the new Killers album is expected?
The Killers album is due Nov. 24-25.
It might not be clear from that excerpt, Cameron, but the article does go on to say that “the U2 record later shifts to next year.”
So Paul McGuinness told Brandon on Aug. 20-21 that the U2 album was due out on Nov. 17-18, but then later Brandon found out that the U2 record got delayed until next year. (According to the Observer article).
Thought there was a simple explanation like that … just got a little excited I guess.
Thanks!
Caravox, thank you so much for posting this!
I was at that show on the Vertigo tour and it stands out as one of the best “U2 moments” I’ve ever experienced.
You brought back a great memory (and prevented me from being disappointed in Brandon Flowers, who I’ve always liked).
I like the Killers. I don’t think they’re the next U2 as big as U2 is now, but they could certainly be U2 as U2 was back before JT, if they stay consistent.
I think Brandon said _Shatter_O’Light, not Scatter. I would take offense if that meant something to me
How many really good bands have we seen come and go since U2 became popular? Good luck, Brandon, you’ll need it!
ha ha, yeah he definitely says shatter of light. that HAS always bothered me about this version. but i think his voice actually really suits the song. i’m not some big killers fan, but i do think their first album was full of some really great pop songs. i enjoy them more when they are doing their cars/duran duran thing rather than their let’s be u2/springsteen thing. $.02
the reason there won’t be “the next u2″ is that u2 never came up in the ranks by trying to fill anyone’s shoes, or match what earlier bands had accomplished. no band that has made a meaningful impact has ever looked to be the next big thing, they simple became it.
Jesus – U2, in their endless efforts to jump on any bandwagon going, get someone from one of the most musically desperate bands going, to get onstage with them.
If you’re in Vegas chaps, why not drag Britney Spears onstage. At least she’s funny…
And Bono, TAKE OFF THOSE RIDICULOUS SUN GLASSES
It was the Grammys:
http://www.wattscarr.com/images/U2/britneybono2.jpg