Rock
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The Killers have been filling arenas for nearly two decades with their signature soaring rock anthems about strivers, dead-enders and dreamers searching for the heart of the American spirit. But if singer Brandon Flowers is to be believed, those days are over.
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In an interview with England’s The Times, the 42-year-old frontman said despite just dropping the Depeche Mode-like yearning synth rock single “Your Side of Town,” from now on the band is looking forward and leaving their patented sound in the past.
“Halfway through recording I realized, ‘I can’t do this,’” Flowers told the paper about the song that was meant to appear on the band’s upcoming as-yet-untitled eighth studio album. “This isn’t the kind of record… I think this will be the… I don’t think you’ll see us making this type of music any more.”
Described as being nervous while discussing the creative break with the past — “Your Side of Town” has whiffs of the band’s new wave-inspired smash 2004 debut, Hot Fuss — Flowers admitted that he’s had a change of heart since the Killers released 2021’s concept record Pressure Machine. The latter was a collection of very personal Nebraska-era Springsteen-style Americana story songs inspired by the singer’s childhood in Nephi, Utah.
“This is the crisis I’m in,” Flowers said of the crossroads he finds himself at. “The Killers are my identity and our songs fill the seats, but I’m more fulfilled making music like Pressure Machine. I found a side of myself writing it that was strong. This was the guy I’d been looking for! I’m as proud of Hot Fuss as you can be for something you did when you were 20, but I’m not 20. So I’m thinking about the next phase of my life.”
Flowers said he’s simply a “different person” now and that “it’ll be difficult to go back,” suggesting that he’d like to make more emotional music that could play well in smaller rooms. “It is a conflict. It is just, well, at what point do I make that change?” he said. “Who in the band wants to do that too? No matter what, there will always be people who look at me and just think of Somebody Told Me. And I get that. But I’m interested in evolving.”
The interview also touched on a recent incident in Georgia, in which Flowers brought up a Russian fan and caused a bit of an international incident when he asked fans if it was okay and got roundly booed by the citizens of the nation that was partially invaded by Russia in 2008.
“I had to calm an impossible situation. We want our concerts to be communal and I had no idea words I was taught my entire life to represent a unity of the human family could be taken as being pro-Russian occupation,” he said of the attempt at reaching across the divide with a speech about brotherhood that fell flat. “We’re sad how this played out.”
Killswitch Engage‘s tour bus collided with an elk as the rock band was driving to an appearance at In Flames’ Dalhalla Brinner festival in Rättvik, Sweden, on Friday (Aug. 25). Frontman Jesse Leach took to Instagram shortly after the terrifying experience to share a video of the large vehicle’s shattered windshield and pen a deep […]
Alice Cooper‘s new makeup products, released in collaboration with Vampyre Cosmetics, have been dropped from the cosmetics brand’s website in light of the rock singer’s recent anti-trans comments.
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In an interview published by Stereogum earlier this week, Cooper shared his opinions about best-practice medical care for transgender youth, saying that he was “afraid that it’s also a fad.” Using common anti-trans talking points to elaborate, he said he feels children are not mature enough to make decisions about their gender identity.
“I find it wrong when you’ve got a 6-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you’re confusing him telling him, ‘Yeah, you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be,’” he said. “I mean, if you identify as a tree … I’m going, ‘Come on! What are we in, a Kurt Vonnegut novel?’ It’s so absurd, that it’s gone now to the point of absurdity,” Cooper said. Research shows that gender-affirming care significantly reduces rates of depression and suicide among transgender youth.
He also shared anti-trans rhetoric about access to public bathrooms, claiming that allowing transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity would lead to violent crimes. “A guy can walk into a woman’s bathroom at any time and just say, ‘I just feel like I’m a woman today’ and have the time of his life in there,” Cooper said. “He’s just taking advantage of that situation … Somebody’s going to get raped.”
In a statement posted on social media on Friday (Aug. 25), Vampyre Cosmetics wrote, “In light of recent statements by Alice Cooper we will no longer be doing a makeup collaboration. We stand with all members of the LGBTQIA+ community and believe everyone should have access to healthcare. All pre-order sales will be refunded.”
Alice Cooper Calls Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Kids a ‘Fad,’ Condemns ‘the Whole Woke Thing…
08/26/2023
Vampyre Cosmetics x Alice Cooper Makeup Collection products have been completely removed from the company’s website.
The collection, which had launched its presale on Aug. 14 and was announced on Cooper’s official website, was said to “exude Alice’s style” with guitar- and amp-shaped makeup palettes and microphone-styled lipsticks. It also featured “a new version of Alice Cooper’s iconic Whiplash mascara, a unisex product originally created to ‘Liberate Your Eyes.’”
Vampyre Cosmetics is described as a “women owned, disabled owned and LGBT+ owned” company on the “About Us” page on its website. “Our products are vegan, cruelty free and talc free. They are also super long lasting as they were specifically formulated for stage and screen.”
Bernie Marsden, the original guitarist for Whitesnake and co-writer behind some of the band’s biggest hits, died on Thursday (Aug. 24). He was 72 years old. Marsden’s family shared the news via a statement posted to the rocker’s Instagram page, along with a photo of Marsden smiling at the camera. “On behalf of his family, […]
Green Day is mocking Donald Trump’s mugshot for a good cause. The former president was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on Thursday (Aug. 24) on felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and while it’s his fourth indictment this year, the booking marked the first time Trump’s mug […]
Late last year, Ben Gibbard was staring down a pair of significant milestones: Death Cab for Cutie’s breakthrough album, Transatlanticism, would be turning 20 in 2023, as would Give Up, the lone full-length that Gibbard and electronic artist Jimmy Tamborello released as The Postal Service. Death Cab’s management suggested separate 20th-anniversary tours, but Gibbard envisioned a two-for-one nostalgia jamboree.
“I was like, ‘People are going to lose their minds if this is one tour,’ ” he recalls. “And I think the initial response and ticket counts were certainly a vindication of my approach.”
Indeed, the Give Up/Transatlanticism joint tour will bring both indie touchstones to arena and theater crowds beginning Sept. 5, with stops at New York’s Madison Square Garden and two hometown gigs at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena among 31 scheduled dates (up from 17 when the tour was announced in December). Gibbard will naturally pull double duty — performing Transatlanticism front-to-back with Death Cab and all of Give Up with Tamborello and Jenny Lewis, who provided backing vocals on six album tracks.
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For Gibbard, the tour will revisit the most pivotal year of his career. Death Cab, which formed in 1997, famously came close to breaking up in late 2001 after touring and recording at a breakneck pace. The subsequent downtime gave a then-25-year-old Gibbard the space to craft the foundation of Transatlanticism, as well as work with Tamborello on an indie-pop side project by mailing CD-Rs to each other (hence the name The Postal Service).
“All of a sudden, I found myself with a lot of time to meander creatively,” recalls Gibbard, now 47. “I felt very confident, and maybe a little bit cocky. I could musically wander and explore the space, and it was very fruitful for me.”
Give Up turned into a blog-adored cult classic, while Transatlanticism took Death Cab “from indie-rock popular” to “popular popular,” as Gibbard puts it. Although Give Up peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 and Transatlanticism at No. 97, they’ve earned 1.8 million and 1.1 million equivalent album units, respectively, according to Luminate.
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Looking back, Gibbard is grateful that his breakthrough with both albums occurred a half-decade into his career. “We had [already] gone through some very difficult times together, and come out the other end,” he explains. “I can’t say with any certainty that if things were like they are now — a band puts out a three-song EP and is selling out shows and has people putting cameras in their faces — there’s no way we would have survived that.”
While Death Cab was just on the road in support of its 10th album, 2022’s Asphalt Meadows, the upcoming tour will mark The Postal Service’s first concerts in a decade, since Give Up turned 10. For Gibbard, these Postal Service shows will be slightly different — unlike in 2013, Give Up will be played in order, without B-sides or covers — but performing again with Tamborello and Lewis will be just as fulfilling.
“These are two of my best friends, that I get to spend extended time with on this trip,” says Gibbard. “We get to celebrate this record that we made, that became this kind of lauded moment in indie rock — but also, it’s a celebration of our friendship.”
A version of this story will appear in the Aug. 26, 2023, issue of Billboard.
The Jonas Brothers definitely didn’t let Switchfoot down. As part of a special anniversary edition of the latter band’s breakthrough 2003 album The Beautiful Letdown, Joe, Nick and Kevin Jonas have released their version of the influential record’s title track.
Produced by John Fields, “The Beautiful Letdown (Jonas Brothers’ Version)” dropped Friday (Aug. 25), featuring the three brothers replicating Switchfoot’s original slow-burning alt-rock recording. Complete with whirling strings and call-and-response vocals, the track marks the third cover contributed by a guest artist to be released off Switchfoot’s upcoming 25-track celebration album, The Beautiful Letdown (Our Version) [Deluxe Edition].
“We grew up listening to their album The Beautiful Letdown, and ‘Meant to Live’ was a huge influence for us,” said Joe in a statement on behalf of his brothers. “‘Twenty Four’ was the first song that me and Kevin ever played together. This album has incredible significance for us on an emotional level but also sonically it was a big part of our sound.”
“The guys in the band have always been so supportive of us,” the DNCE frontman added. “Thank you for inspiring us and we are so happy to be part of this project singing one of our favorite songs ‘The Beautiful Letdown.’”
The Jonas Brothers cover follows reimagined recordings of Beautiful Letdown songs from Jon Bellion, who put his spin on “Meant to Live,” and Ingrid Andress, who recorded her take on “On Fire” for the project. Those three covers will appear alongside upcoming contributions from One Republic’s Ryan Tedder, Dayglow, Twenty One Pilots’ Tyler Joseph and more on The Beautiful Letdown (Our Version) [Deluxe Edition], which will follow Switchfoot’s May 2023 re-release The Beautiful Letdown (Our Version).
The original The Beautiful Letdown album came out in 2003, marking Switchfoot’s very first entry on the Billboard 200. More than a year after its release, it peaked at No. 16 on the chart.
“The first time we met the Jonas Brothers was on our tour bus somewhere in the middle of the country,” said Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman. “This was at least a decade ago and I had never heard of them before. (Apparently I live under a rock!) They seemed like wonderful, talented young men … From the beginning, I’ve been impressed by their musicality and talent.”
Stream the JoBros’ cover of Switchfoot’s “The Beautiful Letdown” below:
While he may be best known as one of the gender-bending faces of the shock rock movement, Alice Cooper revealed that he’s not in favor of real gender-affirming care.
In a new interview with Stereogum, the 75-year-old rock star shared his opinions about best-practice medical care for transgender youth, saying that he was “afraid that it’s also a fad.” Using common anti-trans talking points to elaborate, the star said that he felt children were not mature enough to make major decisions about their gender identity.
“I find it wrong when you’ve got a 6-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you’re confusing him telling him, ‘Yeah, you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be,’” he said. “I mean, if you identify as a tree … I’m going, ‘Come on! What are we in, a Kurt Vonnegut novel?’ It’s so absurd, that it’s gone now to the point of absurdity.”
Cooper then took aim at “the whole woke thing” at large, claiming that society has taken progressive language too far. “Who’s making the rules?” he asked. “It’s getting to the point now where it’s laughable. If anybody was trying to make a point on this thing, they turned it into a huge comedy. I don’t know one person that agrees with the woke thing.”
The “School’s Out” singer even shared anti-trans rhetoric about access to public bathrooms, claiming that allowing transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity would lead to violent crimes. “A guy can walk into a woman’s bathroom at any time and just say, ‘I just feel like I’m a woman today’ and have the time of his life in there,” Cooper said. “He’s just taking advantage of that situation … Somebody’s going to get raped.”
Despite Cooper’s claims, research shows that gender-affirming care significantly reduces rates of depression and suicidality among transgender youth. Meanwhile, medical professionals providing gender-affirming care point out that minors are not able to make these life-altering decisions by themselves, and that the Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health do not recommend gender-affirming surgery for anyone under the age of 18.
“Prior to any gender-affirming medical or surgical intervention, all minors must have an intake with a knowledgeable mental health provider internal to our system,” Dr. Joshua D. Safer told Billboard last year. “Once deemed ready for a medical/surgical intervention, the processes we have for adults are then brought into play.”
The “No More Mr. Nice Guy” singer is far from the first rocker to share anti-trans sentiments over the last year. In May, Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley called gender-affirming care “a sad and dangerous fad,” making similar claims to Cooper about children “playing” with gender rather than understanding their identity. Twisted Sister lead singer Dee Snider backed up Stanley’s comments, saying “there was a time where I ‘felt pretty’ too. Glad my parents didn’t jump to any rash conclusions.” Both rockers have since walked back their comments.
Olivia Rodrigo launches at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart for a second time, as “Bad Idea Right?” debuts atop the Aug. 26-dated survey. The singer-songwriter first led with “Brutal,” which reigned in its debut week in June 2021. “Bad Idea Right?” concurrently bows as Rodrigo’s second No. 1, again after […]
Anitta, D-Nice and Sofia Carson have joined the star-studded lineup of the 2023 Global Citizen Festival slated to take place on the Great Lawn of New York’s Central Park on Sept. 23. The artists join a previously announced list of headliners that includes the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Megan Thee Stallion, Conan Gray and Stray Kids.
Other performers, activists and actors slated to appear at the event include Bill Nye, Bridget Moynahan, Busy Philipps, Carmelo Anthony, Common, Connie Britton, Danai Gurira, Gayle King, Jordan Fisher, Lewis Pugh, Padma Lakshmi, Phoebe Gates, Rachel Brosnahan and Sophia Bush.
This year’s Global Citizen Festival campaign is focused on urging governments to take immediate action to address systemic issues around extreme poverty. “We’re thrilled to join forces with these passionate artists and advocates to call for urgent action to address the climate crisis, demand equity for women and girls and disrupt the cycles holding people in extreme poverty,” said Katie Hill, SVP, Head of Music, Entertainment and Artist Relations, Global Citizen in a statement. “This year’s campaign is driving a record number of actions from global citizens around the world, and we’re grateful to this year’s performers and presenters for leveraging their voices and joining us on the Great Lawn on September 23.”
Tickets for the 2023 Global Citizen Festival are free and can be earned by taking action on the Global Citizen app or here. The festival be broadcast and streamed on ABC, ABC News Live, Apple Music and the Apple TV app, Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch, Facebook, Hulu, iHeartRadio, Instagram, Mediacorp, SABC, TikTok, TimesLIVE, Veeps, X, YouTube, the Global Citizen app and globalcitizen.org.