WEBVTT - The Killer’s Ageless Classic: Mr. Brightside 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.800 Welcome to five hundred Greatest Songs, a podcast based on 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:09.239 Rolling Stones hugely popular, influential, and sometimes controversialist. I'm Britney Spanos. 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:11.600 And I'm Rob Sheffield. We're here to shed light on 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:14.760 the greatest songs ever made and discover what makes them 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:19.040 so great. This week, we're diving into an absolute classic, 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:23.200 Mister Bright's side by The Killers. What a song, so good. 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:25.400 It comes in at number three seventy eight on the 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.120 five hundred Greatest Songs of All Time list. I love 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:30.440 this song, I love this Another album, pop Us was 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.959 the first album I ever bought. It is a favorite. 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:36.080 I just absolutely adore The Killers. 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:38.400 The first album you ever bought, YEP, and it was. 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.519 I've still listened to it all the time. It's a 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:42.120 perfect album. 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.839 Actually, it's a perfect album. It's really one of the 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:47.280 perfect albums from that era. 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.680 Yeah, I mean just kind of that like New Waves shund. 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.040 I mean, I think especially this time, I was listening 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.760 to so much emo and pop punk and it just 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.160 felt so, I know, so much cooler. 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.600 Yeah, really amazing. The first single comes out, somebody told 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.840 me just phenomenal song. It's funny now to think that 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.520 that was the lead single from an album where mister 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:14.440 Bright's eide was just sitting there, but somebody told me 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:18.400 was the first time I guess anybody heard The Killers, 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.399 And that song was such a statement of purpose. It 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.520 had like you said, it had that emo sound, but 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.760 this whole level of disco gloss. It was really the 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.440 quintessential example of two great tastes that taste great together. 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:32.920 Yeah, like i'd heard Maps, of course, and like it 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:34.920 hadn't heard like the Strokes really and like a lot 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:36.920 of the other bands from that New York era and 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:39.240 like that sort of post punk. So I kind of 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.080 like didn't have so much of that knowledge of this 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:43.960 like other scene that was happening, and so I was 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.360 just like the Killers are, like they just like invented something. 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:52.000 It's funny how the Killers, being from Las Vegas very 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.760 much so, were embraced as a New York band at 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:56.640 the time. They were big in New York before they 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.520 were big anywhere else. They were playing clubs and bars 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:05.480 and they were absolutely so amazing as a live band, 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.240 and so they were thought of as honorary locals even 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:12.120 though they weren't even from here. They really epitomize that 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.280 sort of rare because that kind of soundcraft, like the 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.080 Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Strokes, they figured out how 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.919 to do that with the disco beat and completely invented 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:21.440 something new. 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.160 Yeah, And they felt so much in between those two 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.200 sort of popular rock scenes of that time, which was 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.080 that sort of post punk sound with like the emo 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:33.440 pop punk that was also emerging, you know, thinking of 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:35.680 just like the presentation of the Killers in a lot 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.640 of ways and that sort of coming up from with 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:40.800 another Vegas bandpack of the disco they always just felt 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:43.160 so like intertwined with that presentation of this kind of 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:47.280 guyliner sort of glam essence of them. It just felt 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:50.320 so like kind of a part of They felt sort 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.079 of in between those two worlds almost. 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:57.000 Yeah, they really did. They were a combination of so 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:01.440 many different things. And it's while the out Hot Fuss, Yeah, 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.360 I mean, an album filled with bangers, an album filled 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:06.840 with potential hits. Every song that wasn't a hit on 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:09.200 that album still feels like it should have been. Yeah, 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:11.680 somebody told me it was such a great song in itself. 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.560 Mister Bright's side, on a totally different level, it totally 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:17.400 makes sense that that's the one that's that's become the 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:19.200 mega canonical killer song. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.680 Absolutely perfect song, like great sing along song, had an 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:24.519 amazing video. I mean, I think sort of the early 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:26.840 two thousand songs we talked about are so intertwined with 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:29.399 their videos because it was so such off the time 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:31.000 and such of the way that so many people were 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:32.680 hearing these songs for the first time, or the way 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.080 they were blowing up. But I mean, just that kind 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.360 of like weird kind of Marie Antoinette Sophia Coppola style 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.640 one of the thirty videos, and Eric Roberts in it 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:44.760 as a as an antagonist in it. You know, it's 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.800 just kind of like a great sort of visual presentation 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:49.920 of them that was so unique and so different from 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:51.960 what a lot of other bands were doing at the time. 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.000 On top of it, this like incredibly kind of like 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.920 sparkly synth with like this like perfect kind of sing 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.320 along scream along chorus and also verse that was also 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.200 scream alonga bale and just yeah, everything about that song 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:06.480 is just immediately stuck in your head for the rest 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.080 of your life and you can never get rid of it. 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.160 Absolutely, it's forever coming out of that cage. That song 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.240 has never been in its cage mister Brightside such an 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.160 audacious pop song. Yea from the beginning the quote of 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:21.799 David Bowie not derivative, but very clear and very witty 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.000 in itself, and of course works even if you aren't 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.440 a big fan of that particular David Bowie era. Queen 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.599 Bitch is the song that was the kind of thing 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:32.560 where hearing mister bright'siye for the first time, I was 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:36.560 laughing out loud that how blatant that quote was and 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:40.360 yet used so beautifully. The you know, calling a cab 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.279 and everything about that song. It's so filled with individual details, 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.920 and it's funny that it's, as you said, ultimate sing 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:50.440 a long song, but it really is filled with so 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:55.120 many tiny details that become just absolute permanent part in 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:55.599 the memory. 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.800 Yeah, I mean, one of the most iconic opening lines 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:00.520 coming out in my cage and I've been doing just fine. 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.520 Like I feel like that's like just like from It's incredible, 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:08.159 like how immediately sort of ingrained into culture. Every part 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:10.760 of this song would be. Like it's almost strange because 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:12.760 I don't think like I could have ever imagined that 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:15.200 I would be hearing the song at like sports games, 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:17.320 you know, for the rest of my life. Or like 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:19.479 any like other sort of random places like it just 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.600 felt so of that time, and I'm sure the band 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.400 obviously is very like can't believe all the places the 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:27.800 song has gone, but yeah, I mean it's just like 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.520 one of the most immediately kind of catchy rock moments 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.479 of this era, and just like that sort of like perfect, perfect, 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:38.880 perfect chorus that exists on there. And Brandon Flowers very 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:44.080 like Britishism, sort of like delivery of everything. 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:47.960 Of everything, of everything, best English accent in Las Vegas. 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:49.320 And does he does David Bowie on this one, and 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:51.320 Sam Sound is his Bruce album and he kind of 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.600 was like sort of testing out the waters on I'm 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.080 kind of those evoking those heroes. 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.719 Of his the Mister Brightside, very Bowie song, a very 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.919 Deuranduran song, that kind of aesthetic, but particularly the idea 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.599 of it being a rock song, a rock band song 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.400 that would also work on a total pop level, and 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.080 so much of that is just that perfect sort of 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.800 disco propulsion that it has. It was really a song 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:19.200 designed to make rock girls dance, which at the time 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.560 before The Killers was something that had been neglected a 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:25.160 bit in rock the rock bands of the early two 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.359 thousands were not concerned so much with making girls dance, 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.880 whereas mister Bright's side was that from the beginning. 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:34.880 Yeah, and I mean just like the sort of like 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:38.880 bodily reaction you could still have is still experience people 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.520 having whenever the song comes on anywhere, I mean, any 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.920 sort of wedding that you're at, It's like the song 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:46.680 will likely play by the end of the night, especially 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.279 any millennial wedding you're at, the song will definitely play 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:50.839 by the end of the night. And sort of the 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:53.279 reaction that everyone has is just like one of my 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.040 favorite things that this is just like an immediate kind 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:57.679 of excitement and thrill. 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.000 I always have to hang around for it was only 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.880 a kiss. It was only a kiss. That second, it 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.159 was only a kiss. Such a brilliant, brilliant move, so 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:07.680 many brilliant details in this song. 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:09.200 Yeah, and I mean, just like the way that the 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.680 Killers have developed since then, I mean, with the Bruce 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:14.560 mentioned that I had brought up earlier with Sam's sound, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:16.000 kind of seen the way that they sort of developed 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.320 their music, Like, what is your sort of take on 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.000 how how the Killers have moved since mister Bryce sie 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.480 what they did in the album's following Hot Fuss and 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.480 sort of changed their own kind of musical development over that. 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:29.000 Hot Fuss is so perfect. Also, Day and Age is 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.360 also a perfect album, but those two really loom large. Yeah, 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.560 Hot Fuss for a debut album. I remember when we 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.520 did the list of Rolling Stone five hundred albums of 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:40.680 all Time. Yeah, that Hot Fuss was high on your 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.320 list as an all time album, and it really is 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:46.800 in terms of a debut album that really has a 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:50.680 fully developed sound and a fully developed esthetic. It's well, 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.080 that a bit of a one off for that, but 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:56.800 that's an album where every single song I think my favorite, 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.680 My favorite has always been all these things that I've done. 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.160 Yeah, that one is very very high on my Killer's 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.200 song ranking list. I'm a big fan of that one, 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.800 and believe me, Natalie is another favorite from that album. 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:13.160 Unbelievable. Yeah, well it's will that one of my favorite 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.920 songs from the Killers from that era didn't even make 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:18.560 the album is very scandalous when the Hot Fuss came out, 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.600 that it didn't have glamorous indie rock and roll, which 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.680 was such a highlight of their live show at that point. 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.680 A song that is the Killers that they're at their 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.600 most brilliant. Yeah, take my twist with a shout might 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:33.720 be my favorite lyric in any of their songs. 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.040 Yeah, like you mentioned, kind of this album does feel 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:37.720 like so much of a wane off, But I feel 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.600 like that like discoe post punk dance sound that they've 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.200 sort of really i mean perfected on this album. Kind 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:45.880 of when they've returned to it over the years, you 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:47.600 can kind of see the way that they It's like 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:49.000 it's sort of hard for them to shake in a 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:50.880 lot of ways. I feel like it's like on Day 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.760 and Age especially and later songs, like it's still such 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:55.840 an ingrained part of who they are and still my 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.440 favorite thing they'd done in terms of how they've seen 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.200 themselves as a band or like been fully realized as 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:01.559 a band. 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:04.040 There's sort of that tension between their Anglo side and 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.880 their American side. The Anglo side really takes over on 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.320 Hot Fuss for sure, as well as Day and Age, 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:13.080 which is that's a whole journey in itself. But it's 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.760 amazing also that Hot Fuss, despite very much being a 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:21.679 band from the deepest, most iconic of American Western areas, 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.360 being very much like an album of its place. It 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.040 was so huge in the UK. Heard it constantly in 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:31.640 Ireland that summer for something that was so plainly an 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:36.160 American band coming on, very very English. Yeah, and the 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.440 Killers very much part of that just by doing it 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:39.880 so well. 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:42.960 Yeah. I mean it almost feels like it's kind of 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.199 the Wonderwall Mister Brightside exchange, you know, like I feel 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.640 like Wonderwall I hear constantly here of course, And like 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.120 the amount of times I heard mister Brightside in London 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.240 was like obscene. It's just like hearing it everywhere, just 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:57.679 like every like pub, every single place. I was just 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.400 like hearing mister Bryceide Costa in the last like two years, 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:01.960 you know, in the same way that I feel like, 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:05.000 you know, there's always someone covering Wonderwall or playing Wonderwall 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:05.520 here somewhere. 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:08.680 Yeah, it must have been wild for you, as a 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.440 lifelong fan of that song to have it pop up 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:13.680 in public places all the time, which it does. What 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:15.640 do you think it is about mister Brightside that makes 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:17.720 it a song? It's always going to pop up in 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.440 public places, whether in the US or in the UK. 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.920 That opening kind of like sparkly synth sound is like 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.400 almost like a siren, like it's like immediately the minute 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:30.480 you hear it is like a Pavlovian effect that it 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.880 has on everyone's brains, and even just the way, like 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.160 I feel like that very specific way that Brandon Flowers 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.599 sings everything, that very kind of like British sort of 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:42.839 like new wave delivery of the song, which is in 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:45.800 retrospect over like the course of their career, very unusual 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.640 for him, and like the sort of intonation of it 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.800 where he's almost like like talk singing it is just 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.240 like so easily imitatable, Like it's like something that you 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.079 like want to sort of imitate and try out and 0:10:58.240 --> 0:10:59.840 do for yourself. And I feel like that sort of 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.400 made that song so big in the moment, and obviously 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:04.920 all the lyrics and kind of just like the simplicity 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:08.720 of it just kind of became just so woven into 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.880 our own pop music consciousness. But yeah, I mean, it's 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:14.920 just like there are some songs that are just so 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:19.160 perfect for screaming along in a crowded place, and this 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:21.280 was immediately one of them. And it's crazy like just 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.560 from this era, the number of songs that became that 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:28.000 way or that just were written maybe not even with 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:30.520 that in mind, but just have become that part of 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.680 culture examination Army and hey A we had talked about 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:35.920 in the Beyonce episode, But just like this sort of 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.079 like two thousand and three sort of blockbuster Ye're just 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.600 leading up to this. It's wild to think of those 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:45.200 songs that are so unique and so weird, even just 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:47.280 not even just for those artists, but just in the 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.160 context of pop music at that time. Mister Brightside being 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:52.480 like that, and just the way that they became such 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.880 like those groups sing along songs in a lot of ways, 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:58.079 is so fascinating. It's so weird to me. But I 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:01.080 think it's because those songs were so so strange, both 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:03.400 for the artists and for those eras. I think is 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:06.640 what kind of allowed them to become bigger than the 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.600 year they were released. And mister Bright's Side is so 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:11.920 much bigger than the year that was released. It it 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.560 feels very two thousand and four, but it's also not, 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.640 which is like so strange, Like I think it's kind 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.200 of crazy twenty years on to I feel like maybe 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:21.440 ten years ago I would have been like, oh, this 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:23.480 is such a two thousand and four song, and now 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.520 I'm like, actually no, It just kind of feels like 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:27.800 a timeless like it's not just like this timeless classic 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:30.280 and it's become so much bigger than that era or 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:31.720 that nostalgia that's around it. 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:36.120 Really brilliant point about that era and how many universal 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.520 songs that never feel old came out of that moment. Yeah, 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.480 another one like obviously like Toxic from two thousand and four, 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:45.760 the Britney song that I guess it was on an 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:47.480 album in two thousand and three, but it was very 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:49.760 early two thousand and four when it was a hit, 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.400 And it seems like that was a song that you 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:56.320 knew instantly liked these songs that you've mentioned that these 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:57.400 were permanent songs. 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:00.440 Yeah, and all of them have really iconic opening, Like 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.920 I'm responding to it faster than I'm realizing when I 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.480 hear that like opening since so. 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.160 It really is, like you said, Pavlovian. Yeah, another band 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.360 from this era that I think of his so linked 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.840 to the Killers in so many ways. Franz Ferdinand, who 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.960 had their perfect debut album, not their last perfect album. 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:24.920 Franz Ferdinand made three perfect albums in the two thousands. 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.000 But take Me Out another song, Yeah, that is universal, 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.360 another song designed to make rock girls dance and another 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.199 song with a very intense opening that power strung. 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.480 Yeah, I feel like that like era of like dance 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:40.600 rock music was just so perfect, Like it was just 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.839 so much fun, just like really really kind of lighthearted 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:46.040 and weird, and like I was listening to the song 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.840 do You Want To from their second album, and that 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.600 was a song that I just like forgot how immediately catchy. 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.839 It was, again not even like the big hit by them, 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.360 but also still kind of just like super catchy from 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:00.240 this era of just like this like super light hearted 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.840 kind of dance rock music that I really love. And 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:07.320 obviously the Killers kind of being sort of the forefront 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.240 of that and of that sort of movement in pop music, 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:12.880 I think allowed a lot of weirder rock bands to 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:14.040 have a. 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:16.840 Moment absolutely to be fun and like you said, to 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:19.440 be very dance oriented after a time when that was 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:23.440 really lacking in popular rock music. It's funny that the 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.840 Killers from Las Vegas Franz Ferdinand from Scotland were both 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:30.240 so tied in with this New York rock explosion and 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:32.840 Meet Me in the Bathroom Lucy Goodman's History of that era. 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:35.400 Those are both very prominent bands, even though neither one 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.400 was from New York, but they were both responding really 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:40.400 directly to what was coming out of New York with 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:42.280 the Strokes in the aas. 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.400 Yeah, and made it even more pop, made it even 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:48.480 more you know again for the girls who want to dance. Yeah, 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.640 I mean everything about Hot Fuss like it is so dancing. 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:54.480 I think a part of what appealed to me too, 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.280 just like that kind of darkness to the entire album too, 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.760 that like New Wavy kind of joy division order type 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.600 of like influence that is, you know, so big on 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:06.080 Brandon Flowers and not on the Killers at this time. Of course, 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.080 they have a great cover of Transmission that I was 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:10.520 really really obsessed with, and you know there is that 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:13.480 sort of that bright kind of danciness and still that 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:16.640 sort of like underlying kind of post punk New Wavy 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:20.480 like post wave kind of darkness that they lean into 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:21.520 on parts of the album. 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:25.720 Definitely there's that combination obviously, like you said, emo influencers, 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:26.480 I guess. 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.240 Like mister Bryceiye is an emo song that was like 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:32.400 a very very emo song about jealousy, and you know 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:34.920 it's the very again sort of that feeling of them 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:38.680 being in between these two rock scenes that were blowing 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:40.640 up at the same time and both. You know, I 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.080 feel like the emo and pop punk was very much 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.520 for sort of the teenagers at the time, and you know, 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.520 the kind of like post punk movement was for a 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:50.440 little bit of like an older sort of listener, And like, 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:52.040 I think that they were sort of like in between 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:54.400 where they can kind of appeal to both sides of 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.320 that and in a lot of ways totally. 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:58.720 I read about The Killers that summer in Rolling Stone. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.680 It was their first America an interview. Yeah, and I 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:04.440 love something Brandon said that it was great to look 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.040 out at a crowd and see people dancing instead of 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.440 elbowing each other. It's funny that they think of late 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.400 nineties early two thousands rock, especially with the emphasis on 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.520 metal type stuff, that it was very much designed for 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.800 elbowing each other and you know, crowding in for room. 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.040 The change was really kind of amazing to see. 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.320 Yeah, I feel like it feels so intertwined to me 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:30.280 because that Panka Diisco album came out two thousand and five, 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:32.080 so it was around the same time. Obviously, you know, 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.720 a couple of their singles were already blowing up, and 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.680 the Vegas connection. I feel like esthetically they were so similar, 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:41.760 so they always felt like so obviously not in that scene, 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:43.640 Like they weren't a fuel by ram and band. They 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.280 weren't like, you know, performing with these bands. But because 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.600 of the lyrical nature of the song and a lot 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:51.240 of the presentation that was so similar to a lot 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:52.760 of the emo bands at that. 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:55.960 Time, Clearly Hot Fuss is an album made by band 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.240 that really wants arenas. Yeah, which is funny because that 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.480 was they were come out of a scene where that 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:05.080 wasn't something a band was even supposed to admit that 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.159 they were even curious about. Yeah, this was at the 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:12.480 time when the Strokes were still refusing to do encores. 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:14.160 It's part of it because it was two show biz. 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.399 It was a time when the resistance to show biz, 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:22.440 even with very crowd pleasing, very outreach, very pop oriented bands. Yeah, 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.119 And it was so wild to hear a song like 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.120 all these things that I've done and has the moment 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.280 where it stops and it's I got sold, but I'm 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:34.000 not a soldier. And it was wild to hear them 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.720 play that song in a bar but very different thing. 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.480 You hear it on the album and you think this 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.560 is so designed for Arenas. This band wants the Arenas. 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:46.080 Yeah, yeah, I mean, listening to it now, it's kind 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.840 of amazing to realize how ambitious the entire record is. 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:51.760 This was their debut album. I think it was so 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:55.119 much that kind of like charisma of Brandon, just like 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:57.000 the way it was just like, you know, just like 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.439 the weirdness of the song, the delivery, the kind of 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:02.840 you know, it was retro, but it wasn't. Just that 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:05.520 kind of combination of things was like, this is the 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:06.680 only band that could pull that off. 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.639 Absolutely so true. You're so right, and it's so well 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.720 that so many bands tried that. When The Killers came 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:16.320 out and they had really cracked the code of how 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:20.520 to do this very dance oriented rock music, that we 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:23.880 were flooded, although I would choose to say blessed with 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.280 so many bands that wanted to be The Killers, well 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.639 that they spawned rock imitators, like a band I happened 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:33.439 to love, The Bravery. Yeah, they sounded so much like 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:38.600 a Killer's tribute band with an honest mistake, which I 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.600 totally love a song about post nine to eleven panic 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.679 terror sex as it was called at the time. But 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:46.840 it's wild that you know, they had this really a 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:49.320 few that turned very very nasty, very fast. 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:51.720 I didn't even realize they had a feud. Yeah, No, 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:55.000 I think there's definitely like a direct line from the 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:59.439 Killers and like Brandon Flowers as like rock heart Throb 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.040 to sort of like that Tumbler era that would come 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:05.520 like a few years later of like very steeped in 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:09.840