Comments on: Las Vegas Is A City With Fake Things, We Get It

By: Brad Nelson

Brad Nelson — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:22:12 +0000

As someone born and raised in Las Vegas, the "Orange County without lawns" comment is fairly accurate (though some denizens insist on growing grass in the goddamn desert) concerning non-Strip, non-downtown Vegas, a sprawl of tedious normalcy if their ever was one, bolstered by a bizarrely-there Mormon population.

Also the comment about Balcony Lights made me pine briefly for days gone by.

I've always disliked the tendency of lazy critics to marry sense-of-place to a band's sonic output. The Killers don't sound any more like Las Vegas than R.E.M. do Athens. We're also home to Panic at the Disco (an association some are maybe less proud of but damnit Pretty. Odd was pretty. good, man) and I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone willing to identify pop psychedelia or even their first album's dance-emo-baroque-bullshit to the "glitz and glamor" Vegas cliche.

Though I can't say the Killers don't invite it. They named their second album Sam's Town for chrissakes. Must've made one-sheet writing a breeze.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:26:24 +0000

I can’t wait for Idolator to write more stories with The Killers in them!!

By: KurticusMaximus

KurticusMaximus — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:20:36 +0000

I think the point is, while the Strip-angle is valid to some extent (didn't they spell out their name in neon lights on the cover of their first album?), it's fundamentally lazy to just keep trotting out the band's place of origin for every album review.

I mean, the Killers have kind of brought it upon themselves, since their music really does sound like being surrounded by neon in the middle of a desert, but still.

By: Dan Gibson

Dan Gibson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:28:52 +0000

@owenmeany: A music website with stories about a band that released an album this week! Shocking!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:15:55 +0000

My aunt lives there, and, aside from being the “cool aunt,” I can’t see that she’s really any more immoral or emotionally empty than my other aunts. Judging someone (or a band) based on the major landmark of the city they live in doesn’t make any sense. I live in Indianapolis, and I hate auto racing. I used to live in Kentucky, and I’ve only ridden a horse once in my life. I agree that laziness is rampant in any form of journalism, including music criticism.

By: AutonomyBoy

AutonomyBoy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:29:59 +0000

I don't know, I'm sure not everybody in Las Vegas is overly burdened by the glitz and $4.50 orange juice, but the killers' image, at least at the get-go, was all about sleaze and pop and being very sweaty and commercial at the same time (i mean, it's debatable how successful they were, but still.) so, i don't know, it sort of makes sense, even if it is sort of an obvious reference point for music writers to pick up on. also, you know, it's not like they're the first group to ever come out of that area code:

By: The Illiterate

The Illiterate — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:22:02 +0000

Based on one listen to Day and Age, I’d say the desert is much more important to Flowers’ world view than the strip.

By: mike a

mike a — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:39:11 +0000

I’ve only been to Vegas once, but I made a point one day of getting on a bus and going to what was Balcony Lights record store at the time (it’s since closed, I think). I remember thinking, “OK. As soon as you leave the strip, it’s basically flat sprawl.” And I remember not being surprised one bit by that revelation.

By: Audif Jackson Winters III

Audif Jackson Winters III — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:04:59 +0000

@Ned Raggett: Commercial Center. Now that shows you yet another side of Las Vegas ... the areas that immediately surround the strip, that were abandoned by more affluent families, and now largely are home to lower-rung service industry folks (the dishwashers and cleaning staff at the hotels), and the valley's growing immigrant community. Now, some may say *that* is the real Las Vegas.

By: Ned Raggett

Ned Raggett — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:40:20 +0000

A few years back I joined some friends on a trip to Vegas and we went to the excellent restaurant Lotus of Siam, down some blocks from the Strip on Sahara. The contrast between the Strip and everything else was enlightening.