New from The Killers

Killers 2019

It has been a while since I featured The Killers on the blog. If I’m being honest, Hot Fuss is the only album I ever really listen to.

But this new standalone track ‘Land Of The Free’ is quite good, and the video directed by the legendary Spike Lee is incredibly pertinent.

Can’t wipe that wind blown smile from across my face
It’s just the old man and me
Washing his truck at the Sinclair station
In the land of the free
His mother Adeline’s family came on a ship
Cut coal and planted a seed
Down in them drift mines of Pennsylvania
In the land of the free
In land of the free
When I go out in my car I don’t think twice,
But if you’re the wrong color skin
You grow up looking over both your shoulders
In the land of the free
And we got more people locked up than the rest of the world
Right here in red white and blue
Incarceration’s become big business
And it’s harvest time out on the avenue
In the land of the free
Move on, there’s nothing to see
So how many daughters?
Tell me how many sons
Do we have to put in the ground
Before we just break down and face it?
We’ve got a problem with guns
In the land of the free
Down at the border
They’re gonna put up a wall
With concrete and rebar steel beams
High enough to keep all those filthy hands off of our hopes and our dreams
People who just want the same thing we do
In the land of the free

Christmas posts 2013 part 10

Killers

The Killers have done a number of Christmas songs since 2006, when they did their first ‘A Great Big Sled’ and it’s still my favourite of their Christmas songs. After all, who wouldn’t like just one more Christmas as a child? That sense of fun and looking-forward and not worrying about paying for the damn thing. It’s now reached that point as a Dad when son 17 Seconds is looking forward to it…

There’s well over a half a dozen Killers Christmas songs and this is the original and best. Not least because it features guest vocals from Toni Halliday, once of Curve, who provided a fair part of the soundtrack to the nineties for yours truly.

This can be be bought as a download from iTunes and other online stores. It’s on an EP called (RED) Christmas

I am the owner of a USB turntable!!

(The Killers)

One of the wedding presents Mrs. 17 Seconds and I received was a USB turntable, which as you might imagine, is already getting a fair bit of use, not least for all the stuff I want to put on my iPod. Here for your listening pleasure are five 12″ mixes – Dance? Indie? Electronica?!? You decide, but hey…

First up, this came out in early 2005, just as Mylo and the Killers were starting to get big not only critically but commercially in the UK. This is from the 12″:

The Killers-‘Somebody Told Me (Mylo mix).’ mp3

I said there would be more Arab Strap soon, and I was not kidding. Here, from the 2001 12″ of Turbulence mixes (original version on ‘The Red Thread’ album) is the song remixed by Bis (who subsequently split, but have since reformed):

Arab Strap -‘Turbulence (Bis mix).’ mp3

Also from 2001, orginally from their ‘Origin of Symmetry’ album, here is Muse’s ‘Newborn’ remixed by Paul Oakenfold, who transforms it from a mini-prog masterpiece, into a trance masterpiece (Glowsticks optional):

Muse-‘Newborn (Paul Oakenfold’s Perfecto remix).’ mp3

Trevor Jackson’s Playgroup act must have put out numerous 12″s of remixes of this track (I own at least four 12″s of this) but here is the original extended mix in all it’s nine minute glory. Altogether now: ‘I can see it in your eyes…I can see it in your face…MAKE IT HAPPEN.’

Playgroup -‘Make It Happen (extended mix).’

Finally, from 2003, Electrix Six promised much, were great in their briefly lived original line-up, then ultimately delivered little, but this track is still fab. (Can you tell what track was an influence on this?!)

Electrix Six -‘Danger! High Voltage (Soulchild 12″ Blitz mix).’ mp3

You know the score. The tracks will be up for a week. If you like what you hear, support the artists involved. If you cannot find these tracks in your local independent record shop, or even your local capitalist chain, then try Amazon or ebay. There are many, many more where these came from…