New Evidence in the Investigation of Brandon Flowers' Sexuality

Why not further the rumours? It's a better headline story than the Kiss bootleg scandal (see below). So here's the deal. If you read into the Killers' debut album, Hot Fuss, the right way, it's a homoerotic love story.

Let me digress for just a moment and explain the album in a little bit more detail. Hot Fuss is an 11-track record released in 2004. The most obvious theme of the album is jealousy. "Mr. Brightside" clearly depicts the singer's desire to be with... well, someone. Either the guy or the girl in the song. You decide, I guess. But anyway, I could go on, but I really don't like the album so I'll be brief.

Junk Magazine's Kathy Cacace took it upon herself to dive into the album and break it apart, verse by verse, line by line, to determine the album's underlying meaning. Her verdict, which you have to scroll down a ways to find is as follows: Yep. He's gay.

I'm not going to say I agree or disagree with the logic. Some of it seems almost painfully obvious. In the song "Andy You're A Star", the singer calls Andy "a star in nobody's eyes but mine." If I were just casually reading those lyrics, I'd have to admit that it does sound like a boy crush. But some of the logic is more of a stretch. Take the song "On Top", which Cacace describes as "overtly homoerotic". The song doesn't say "he" or "him" once. In fact, it never even refers to a member of the male gender, and it only refers to a member of the female gender once at the very beginning. So... it could really mean anything. That song is just a bit too broad to put your money on.

At any rate, the article is, if nothing else, very enlightening. I should point out that, despite what anyone might say, Brandon Flowers is as far as I know a very happily married man. According to Excite News and Phoenix New Times, Flowers married Tana Munbkowsky this past March. What surprises me is that there's very little coverage of the wedding. I haven't been able to find any headlines or anything announcing his marriage. Weird. It should also be noted that Flowers is a Mormon, so if you are madly in love with him, you may not be out of luck just yet.

In other news...

Beware, Kiss fans. If you're being naughty, Gene Simmons will eat your soul. As I previously alluded to, there's a bit of a hooplah surrounding the sale of bootlegged live videos and unofficial merchandise on Kissonline. The band seems pretty freakin' upset about the whole ordeal, and now appear to be on a crusade to kill all the fakers out there. So, yeah, watch your back or something. Not that anyone ever listens to or cares about Kiss anyway. I don't know why I even put this in here. It's a slow monday. Gotta talk about something, right? Right. I'm done with this one now.

A win or a loss for music downloaders everywhere? I'm not quite sure. It would appear that the recent ruling in North Carolina, which prevented the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) from obtaining the personal information of two college students caught downloading music, was a victory for fans of mp3s. Unfortunately, the ruling doesn't exactly matter because the RIAA doesn't use that method of obtaining personal information anymore anyway. Oh well. There will be other victories... right?

Is John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats annoying or not? Voice your opinion.

With The Wedding Present making its local appearance on Wednesday, Columbus Alive is taking a look at the return of the band as a preview for the show. I'd be more interested if I were actually going to the show, but alas, I'm poor and I've been a good girl about not going to shows I'm not really interested in going to. It should be a good one for those of you who like them. Just not my thing, I guess.

After having just released their new album, Elevator, Hot Hot Heat is now recording an acoustic EP featuring songs from the album. As for the format of the release, it's yet to be determined, but the songs may just end up as UK b-sides. We'll just have to wait and see what develops.

Speaking of new releases, The Aquabats will release their new album Charge on June 7th.

The Arcade Fire is also readying a new release, the Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out) Single. So far, it appears that it's only being released in the UK right now, but will probably be imported to the US a few weeks later (as the Laika single is as of today). I'm extremely jealous, however, due to the fact that the Power Out single will be released on May 28th in both CD and limited edition glow-in-the-dark 7" vinyl. Cue me sighing because I live in the US.

Meanwhile, US residents, enjoy the following new releases tomorrow:
The Arcade Fire - Laika (import 3" single)
Mice Parade - Bem-Vinda Vontade
A Northern Chorus - Bitter Hands Resign
The Raveonettes - Pretty in Black
Spamalot (Original 2005 Broadway Cast)

Upcoming Columbus Shows

5.04 - The Wedding Present w/ The Organ and Tiara - Little Brothers
5.04 - Electric Six w/ VHS or Beta - Skully's
5.07 - The Decemberists w/ Willy Mason - Little Brothers
5.08 - The Books - Wexner Center
5.13 - Mae w/ The Academy Is... and Jamison Parker - Little Brothers
5.15 - Andrew Bird w/ Antenna - Little Brothers
5.17 - Stereo Total w/ Les Georges Leningrad - Little Brothers
5.27 - The Killers w/ Hot Hot Heat and Robbers on the Street - Promowest Pavilion
6.03 - Tokyo Rose - High Five
6.08 - Modest Mouse - Promowest Pavilion
6.13 - Iron and Wine - The Newport
6.29 - Black Eyed Peas w/ Talib Kweli - Promowest Pavilion
8.31 - Coldplay - Germain Ampitheater

Daily Downloads
From Regnyouth:
(rar password = rya)

Beck - Guero (link, mp4)
The Mountain Goats - Devil in the Shortwave EP (link, rar)
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup (link, mp3)
Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica (link, mp3)

Did you know that "goodbye" is short for "God be with you"? Goodbye.