Brandon Flowers slams Brian Wilson

[Ananas]

If Flowers wants to talk shit about Brian Wilson, I don't see why he can't. Free country and all.

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[zero]

If Flowers wants to talk shit about Brian Wilson, I don't see why he can't. Free country and all.

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Indeed. And with it being a free country and all, people have the right to call him a hypocrite and a douchebag for it.

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Which by the way, he is a hypocrite and a douchebag.

I could care less about Brian Wilson, I appreciate his contributions to music, but after working for an Oldies station that plays nothing but Elvis, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys, hearing that music is just noise to me. I'll never forget one of my first big production projects I was given, putting together a five hour "Welcome to Summer" Oldies specialty show, which was nothing but a few Jan & Dean songs, "Wipeout" and then the rest pretty much all Beach Boy songs. Gah, that project still haunts my dreams. So don't take my talking about the Killers as sticking up for Brian Wilson, take it as the Killers are huge douchebags.

[Billy Castillo]

That's not a good representation of the Beach Boys, as their best music was from 1966-1973, and you'll NEVER hear any of that material on the oldies stations.

[apsham]

By comparison, we just had Sum 41 in town last week and we had the show set up pretty much exactly like we did for the Killers:  Banners in the venue, soundcheck party, meet and greet, liners, stage announcements.  Everything went off completely perfect and the band's people even helped make it better.  Instead of just a soundcheck party, they bought pizza for all the listeners to eat while watching them soundcheck.  Instead of just signing autographs at the meet and greet, they took pictures with everybody, instead of just cutting liners for the station, they gave us an autographed guitar to give away and asked us to hang out with them after the show, and instead of the headache of deciding whether or not we could do stage announcements at all, they let me get on stage and do announcements after Unwritten Law and mere seconds before Sum 41 came on stage. 

So yeah, fuck the Killers.

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Canadians obviously rawk.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

I have absolutely no idea on who Brandon Flowers or the Killers are, but from Zero said, they seem like total dicks.

Therefore, Beach Boys >>>>>>>>> The Killers.

[ClaRK! Kent]

They're pretty obviously huge morons, in all fairness, and I've found it hard to defend them on the grounds that I like their music.

I have a far less impressive story than Zero, but anyway...

At the NME Awards Tour 2005, in February, I got tickets for a friend and me as it was her 18th birthday on the night of the gig and she absolutely adored the band. Seeing as we didn't have to be in school that day, and she was really excited, we went into Bristol at about 10am to get some lunch and generally just hang out, although we were at the Academy by about 12:45 because she wanted to catch a glimpse of/meet the band, as girls are known to do.

So, we're there - apart from me making the ocassional trip to the pub across the street - for about 7 hours or so, at the dead front, by the time we're let in, and we've been talking to the security/venue people who were all really nice, etc. We go in, watch the bands, and come out, where I buy my friend a T-shirt as a birthday present and we hang around hoping to meet the bands, which it's notoriously easy to do at the Academy.

We met the Kaiser Chiefs, and I saw Ross from the Futureheads at the bar during Bloc Party's set and chatted to him for a bit. All nice as anything, etc, and the next day Bloc Party had a note on their forum apologising to the fans at that show for not meeting-and-greeting because they had to get to an album signing in Brighton at 10am the next day. Fair enough.

I'm chatting to the security guard, and he tells me this story about how Brandon came in the back way at about 4pm, and didn't have an artist's pass, which you need to get in before about 6pm to prove you're in the band. The guard tells him he can't come in, Brandon apparently asks "don't you know who I am?" and the guard tells him no he doesn't, he's not into indie. Brandon proceeds to throw a hissy fit and storm off, promising to get the security guard fired.

By the time we come out, my friend is mega-excited, it's about 11:30 by this time, and the security guard finally decides to go tell the band that there is a huge fan outside who has been waiting all day to see them and just wants her T-shirt signed. He comes out 2 minutes later, saying that the band had told him to fuck off, and one guy - the guitarist with the fro - eventually came out and signed her shirt/my poster. He was a total dick about it, like it was the biggest chore in the world, and he had so many better things to be doing.

Simply put, I like their music but as people they leave a lot to be desired.

Compared to the Futureheads, Bloc Party, and Kaiser Chiefs, who were on that tour and pleasant as punch to us, the Killers really don't know how to look after their fans and it pisses me off. My friend was mega-upset and it's a shame, because she adores them and it was a really nasty wake-up call to her - "oh, my favourite band are fuckwits."

Brian Wilson, by comparison, was beautiful during the 'Smile' show I saw and thanked us all for having him about 10 times.

Brandon Flowers is a cunt.

[The Kraig]

The Killers are shit and people like them. They might actually think they make good music because of it. I smell a bit of random shit-talk to stay talked about in the media. The last time I was them was at the NME Awards, which were what, half a year ago?

Publicity stunt = ratings. Bad ones.

[tristy]

If Flowers wants to talk shit about Brian Wilson, I don't see why he can't. Free country and all.

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Indeed. And with it being a free country and all, people have the right to call him a hypocrite and a douchebag for it.

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[ClaRK! Kent]

It's a free country, yes Tristy, but you've got to admit - whether you like Brian Wilson or not - that Flowers is being wildly hypocritical and frankly has ideas above his station with regard to criticising Wilson's creativity.

I doubt that, when he wrote 'Pet Sounds' and 'Smile' amongst others, Brian Wilson felt the need to thumb through a back catalogue of records from 2 decades previously and nick the keyboard hooks.

[tristy]

No, not really. I don't like either bands, so if one decides to talk shit about the other, so be it. I'm not a huge Wilson fan like Castillo is, so I could care less. I'm not a huge Killers fan like Zero ( ) is either, so, again, I don't give a shit.

[zero]

the guitarist with the fro - eventually came out and signed her shirt/my poster. He was a total dick about it, like it was the biggest chore in the world, and he had so many better things to be doing.

That's the one that smirked at me and wouldn't shake my hand, the dude with the big hair. Exactly how he acted around me, fucking cuntrag.

[Enter Blue Guy]

By comparison, we just had Sum 41 in town last week and we had the show set up pretty much exactly like we did for the Killers:  Banners in the venue, soundcheck party, meet and greet, liners, stage announcements.  Everything went off completely perfect and the band's people even helped make it better.  Instead of just a soundcheck party, they bought pizza for all the listeners to eat while watching them soundcheck.  Instead of just signing autographs at the meet and greet, they took pictures with everybody, instead of just cutting liners for the station, they gave us an autographed guitar to give away and asked us to hang out with them after the show, and instead of the headache of deciding whether or not we could do stage announcements at all, they let me get on stage and do announcements after Unwritten Law and mere seconds before Sum 41 came on stage. 

So yeah, fuck the Killers.

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Edited June 12, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[fineintent]

I met the lostprophets like four years ago in Milton Keynes and they were super nice, signing shit and talking about making bands work etc. Bands like Sikth, Funeral for a Friend and Aconite Thrill were really cool. My mates band played with Breed 77 locally, and their road guy was a complete twat by all accounts - so I guess for every cool band, there are a bunch of faggot ones.

[Billy Castillo]

Just for the record: Flowers is 23, right? When Brian Wilson was 23, he came up with Pet Sounds.

I rest my case.