Brandon Flowers Gets Picked On

And does some serious picking himself.

The Killers' lead singer Brandon Flowers is not in a good mood. As MTV.com reports, the band's original drummer is suing, claiming that he in fact wrote the song "Mr. Brightside." Flowers denies this, saying that, while he was definintely their drummer at the time, he was merely just that and had no hand in writing the music.

I honestly felt kinda bad for the guy after reading about that. I mean, that has to suck, and the article reports that he appears to be genuinely distraught by the situation, but I think he should have just stopped talking after that. Unfortunately, he continues to whine and get all pretentious like usual. First to get smacked is The Bravery, who Flowers says got "signed because we're a band" (read the article for more smack). Second to get smacked is, well, The Killers themselves, or at least their new music video for "Smile Like You Mean It." The video, which was just shot in the UK, is supposedly the story of a house over twenty years. Ummm... what does that have to do with the song? They don't plan on scrapping the video like they did with the original video for "Mr. Brightside." Just as a sidenote, that video was their first video, and it's awful. Scour the internet and I bet you'll find it.

Arjan Writes premieres a clip of the video on his blog here.

In other news...

The Canadian version of Time Magazine has one hot coverstory. The latest issue features Montreal's gem, The Arcade Fire, as a case study of Canadian indie rock. The article is awesome and I really recommend reading it. It takes a very in depth look at how they got to where they are, where they were, and background on their lives. If you don't know much about them, take the time to read it. You'll be better off. Do it quickly though, because the feature probably won't be up much longer than a week or two.

I can hardly think of The Arcade Fire anymore without thinking of David Byrne, and as luck would have it, there's news on his front. Byrne has just launched his own internet radio site, and you can listen to it here. I wonder who he'll play... hmm...

The White Stripes announced that their new album will be released on June 14. The album is currently untitled and has no track list. Sounds promising.

What actually does sound promising is the forthcoming Damien Jurado album, On My Way to Absence, which will be released next week. Pitchfork announced the track listing and tour dates, but unfortunately for us Ohio folk, he won't be coming here. C'mon, Wexner Center, get your act together!

First Toyota announced they were starting a label called Scion that would feature music geared toward the kind of people who drive the car. Yet though I saw a really old couple drive one out of the K-Mart parking lot last week, the label is signing hip-hop artists. Now McDonalds is getting in on the hip-hop action. The New York Daily News reports that if any hip-hop or rap artist writes a song that includes the words "Big Mac" in its lyrics, Mickey D's will pay them $1 to $5 every time the song is played on the radio. It's things like this that make me sad I'm majoring in public relations.

Upcoming Columbus Shows

4.07 - Copeland w/ Lovedrug and Acceptance - The Basement (or the Newport... conflicting sources)
4.09 - Aesop Rock w/ Hangar 18 and Metro of S.A. Smash - Little Brothers
4.19 - M. Ward w/ Norfolk & Western and DeVotchKa - Little Brothers
4.20 - m83 w/ Ulrich Schlauss (feat. the Moog documentary prior to performance) - The Mershon Black Box
4.21 - Clem Snide (w/ Robert Schneider of Apples in Stereo?) - Little Brothers
4.26 - House of Heroes w/ New Republic - Little Brothers
5.07 - The Decemberists w/ Willy Mason - Little Brothers
5.08 - The Books - Wexner Center

Daily Downloads

Aphex Twin "Come to Daddy" video (link)
Belle and Sebastian - Step Into My Office, Baby EP (link)

That's all.