The Killers (Boston Phoenix, 1/20/09)

LEAVING LAS VEGAS: “After you’re gone for a long time and you come back home, it kind of makes a man out of you,” says Ronnie Vannucci (seated). “You see how different you are.”

When you get down to it, the world of rock and pop is really about fantasy and illusion. Or, more precisely, about the fabrication of authenticity, the right contrast of pain and pleasure making the music taste and feel like life itself. Which is why the best pop music often seems, on the surface, to be complete nonsense. Your average over-analytical rock critic might look at the chorus of “Human” (which asks, “Are we human/Or are we dancer?”), the lead single from the new album Day & Age by rock dramatists the Killers, and declare it the sort of meaningless piffle that clogs charts. But screw that — to wrench the lyrics from the song and dissect them on a page is to ignore the way the swelling, insistent beat and interlocking melodies merge into the climax of the lyrical plea. It’s a bit more complex than a wonky line.

And the genius behind this clever interplay? Day & Age was helmed by Stuart Price, a British producer and electronic musician famous for producing Madonna’s megahit 2005 album Confessions on a Dancefloor, as well as for his own take on French house under the moniker Les Rythmes Digitales. For the Killers, Price “has become a fifth member of the band,” says drummer Ronnie Vannucci, speaking to me during a rare respite from rehearsals for their impending tour (which hits Agganis Arena on Monday). “He really understands us, he has the same sensitivities as us, similar sensibilities. And he definitely added an interesting dance feel on some songs, especially ‘Human.’ When [Killers vocalist] Brandon [Flowers] came up with that, it was almost like a little folk song, and Stuart just kind of helped with giving it a different feel, a modern twist — and he gave it a strong dance influence. He took this simple folk song and took it in this very obvious dance direction and brought out this almost timeless-sounding feel. It’s this really strange dichotomy.”

The Killers have never been strangers to the dance floor, having blown up out of their home town of Las Vegas when two singles from their 2004 debut, Hot Fuss (“Mr. Brightside” and “Somebody Told Me”), went Top 10 and became massive international hits — in large part because of their rock-concert/dance-floor compatibility. With Day & Age, and the choice of Price as the fifth Killer steering them in a groove-shaking direction, they seem to be zagging from the zig of 2006′s sophomore effort, Sam’s Town, which saw them eschew dance-floor mayhem for a more earnest vibe full of Southwestern desert mythology — as well as flamboyant show tunes like the title track and “This River Is Wild.” “With Sam’s Town,” Vannucci explains, “the songs we were coming out with were much more introspective and fictional than what we were bringing across before in the lyrics. But you know, we spent two years out on the road, seeing the world, and we grew up! After you’re gone for a long time and you come back home, it kind of makes a man out of you. You see how different you are, and you realize how different the place you come from is.”

The place they come from is a topic that frequently surfaces, and perhaps because their music showcases not only Sin City’s glammy glitter and dark decadence but also the prairie mythology of the town’s yesteryear. “We’re happy to represent Vegas — but to a point. I mean, to us it’s home, but Vegas is kind of a mythical place to a lot of people. And it’s a neat story and all, and we see it, we get it — but we didn’t really see the big deal about being from there until we got back after touring for the first record. And the reason Sam’s Town sounds the way it sounds is we got back and were like, ‘Holy shit, we’re from Vegas, this is home now.’ “

The band eventually built their own Battle Born studio in Vegas, and they’re pretty hunkered down there. When recording Day & Age, they corresponded with Price, who was in London, via e-mail, sending mixes and tracks back and forth in a strange long-distance relationship that saw Price receiving songs only to rework them completely and return them as a new beast to be pondered. Perhaps that’s why the album is a drastic stylistic departure from the driving synth-rock of the past four years. Yes, “Human” and “Spaceman” are in the same dance-rock ballpark, but listeners could be excused for not recognizing the Killers in the horns-and-disco funk of “Joy Ride,” the almost Hall & Oatesian “The World We Live In,” or the closer, the Floyd-esque space-rock epic “Goodnight, Travel Well.” “Stuart really got it when we wanted to try something different,” says Vannucci. “And as a band we were a lot more confident and it kind of came out in the music — whereas before we were sometimes, I dunno, afraid of doing our own thing.”

It’s heartening to see a band grow out of their mold and still find success, but it may just be a side effect of growing up wise in Vegas: they always have one eye on the bottom line even while taking a chance. “I think that one of the things we do best as a band is that we turn things on their side and still make them accessible, still make them listenable. In many ways, I think that’s what we’re about.”

THE KILLERS + M83 | Agganis Arena, 925 Comm Ave, Boston | January 26 at 7:30 pm | $43.50 | 617.562.8800 or www.livenation.com

The Killers: Rockers moonlighting with non-rock producers (Boston Phoenix, 1/20/09)

. . . or are we dancey?

The Killers first worked with Stuart Price on a dance remix of their hit “Mr. Brightside” (under Price’s French house pseudonym, Jacques Lu Cont) — and so far, this blend of rock-band brawn and electro-dance bliss has worked smashingly, with Price often taking bits of the band’s instrumentation and creating a rich musical loop bed where elements emerge to the surface in fascinating ways. Here are five more of rock’s more interesting collaborations with the world of the non-rock production.

VINI PONCIA | KISS’S DYNASTY | Including Kiss’s unlikely disco smash “I Was Made for Loving You,” this one was produced by the man behind drummer Peter Criss’s solo album — and, more important, by the co-author of Leo Sayers’s “You Make Me Feel like Dancing.”

GIORGIO MORODER | BLONDIE’S “CALL ME” | Before he went on to change the sound of film forever with his era-defining work on Top Gun, Scarface, and Flashdance, Italian disco producer Moroder hooked up with the pop-sensible Blondie to merge Donna Summers with Black Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave” beat; the result was the ur dance rhythm of the decade.

WILLIAM ORBIT | BLUR’S 13 | Damon Albarn’s Britpop band were no strangers to fey dance pop (see early hit “There’s No Other Way”) — which is probably why their collaboration with trance guru and “Ray of Light” creator Orbit is anything but. The brittle, stinging distorted St. Vitus’ dance of “Bugman,” the perky acoustipop of “Coffee & TV,” and especially the gorgeous church-revival solemnity of lead-off track “Tender” prove that going to a producer who’s outside the realm can really draw the best from a band.

BUTCHER BROS. | URGE OVERKILL’S SATURATION | Where Chitown Albini acolytes go to the Cypress Hill triggermen to mine such alterna-radio hits as “Sister Havana” and “Positive Bleeding.” Forsaking the solemn oath of Minimal Spartan Production never sounded so rocking.

GIL NORTON | FOO FIGHTERS’ THE COLOUR & THE SHAPE | I know what you’re thinking: “Gil Norton produced the Pixies, he’s not a dance producer!” And yet The Colour & the Shape could go down as one of the first pure rock/techno hybrid albums, since it used computer-powered cut-and-paste to produce repeated guitar hooks, drum fills, and identi-choruses that were just as artificially manufactured as that year’s Prodigy album — while being undetectable to sensitive rockist ears. Technology 1, Luddites 0.

Fall Music Preview 2008: Fables Of Reconstruction (Boston Phoenix, 9/8/08)

HEAD SCRATCHERS: Expect another work of genre-hopping, inscrutable genius from Of Montreal.

In a few decades, we’ll probably look back on the tumultuous days of autumn 2008 the way we now look back on the fall of ’68: as a tense political atmosphere subsumes all, the stirring pop hits of the day can’t help but reflect the refracting cracked mirror of our nation’s increasingly emotion-laden psyche. Or at least, that’s the conventional fable about why major labels and rock stars exist: to take our hopes and fears and produce the archetypes that will inspire us during the interesting times we hope to live in. But those broken mirror shards now resemble nothing more than the zillion smashed-out pieces of our pop culture, as everything from Disney tween pop to vinyl-only garage scuzz to low-down stripper krunk exists on its own little fringe island.

NELLY’s long-delayed Brass Knuckles (Derrty/Universal) sees the light of day on September 16, with the unlikely guest-list mishmash of Fergie, Chuck D, Akon, Snoop Dogg, Usher, and T.I. Being under house arrest on pending gun charges hasn’t slowed T.I. down — his new Paper Trail (Grand Hustle/Atlantic) hits on September 30. Swizz Beatz and Kanye are all over it, and watch for M.I.A.-sampling lead single “Swagger like Us” with Jay-Z and Lil Wayne. R. KELLY is another artist who hasn’t let his recent run-ins with the law slow him down: this fall will see the release of 12 Play 4th Quarter (Jive). Kelly dials down the outlandish tone of his last few albums, but if lead single “Hair Braider” is any indication, this isn’t going to be a chaste and penitent move for the R-Man. LUDACRIS’s new Theater of the Mind (Def Jam; October 21) is billed as “conceptual,” though we can assume that he’s staying away from the kind of political diss that got him in hot water with the Obama campaign.

Pop diva CIARA’s Fantasy Ride (Jive; December) is rumored to be a multi-disc extravaganza in three parts titled “Groove City,” Crunktown,” and “Kingdom of Dance.” This fall will also see two former Destiny’s Child solo discs: BEYONCÉ’s Virtuoso Intellect (Columbia; November 11) and MICHELLE WILLIAMS’s Unexpected (Columbia; October 7). And October 7 marks the release of two competing hipster-diva records: Norwegian electro-dance queen ANNIE’s Don’t Stop (Island) follows up on her 2004 Pitchfork-friendly debut, and LADY GAGA’s much delayed debut, The Fame (Interscope), shows her taking Kylie Minogue’s Eurosleaze throb and giving it an American twist. Lady GaGa is also part of the songwriting/producing army behind the PUSSYCAT DOLLS album Doll Domination (A&M/Interscope/Polydor; September 23), where the production credits will include Timbaland and Cee-Lo. Likewise on the manufactured-pop front, there’s the HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 soundtrack (Walt Disney; October 24), which will probably sell enough copies to allow the rest of the music industry to wheeze along for another quarter. November 11 will see the release of the as-yet-untitled fourth album by former American IdolKELLY CLARKSON, whose powerful voice and unpretentious vibe have, no surprise, doomed her to a drama-laden trip through the biz; we’ll all have to wait with bated breath to see whether Clive Davis has shackled her with an overbearing production and songwriting team as penance for the underwhelming sales of 2007’s self-written and gloomy My December. Speaking of gloomy: October 13 marks the release of the CURE’s self-produced 13th long-player, 4:13 Dream (I Am/Geffen), which is rumored to comprise the more upbeat songs they recorded during a recent productive stint. (The darker tunes may be released on a future album.) Also look for a more stripped-down feel on the forthcoming third album from the KILLERS, whose Day and Age (Island; November) jettisons the overblown studio pomp of 2006’s Sam’s Town in favor of a Roy Orbison–influenced shimmering pop sheen under producer Stuart Price (Madonna’s Confession on a Dance Floor). OASIS return this fall as well, with Dig Out Your Soul (Big Brother/Sony; October 7), which, much like 2005’s Don’t Believe the Truth, is an expertly crafted rock album with crushing sonics, big hooks, stellar playing, and a winning glance back at rock’s history that’s being hyped as a return to form by a band who never fell off the horse in the first place. AC/DC’s new Black Ice (Columbia; October 21, only at Wal-Mart — go figure) will shock fans by veering into trip-hop and sensitive balladry. Just kidding. Lead single “Rock N’ Roll Train” is pretty much what you’d expect: Highway to Hell riffage, Powerage production, and the glottal howl of Brian Johnson. Metal Blade spits up a few Viking-themed metal releases on September 30, with AMON AMARTH’s Twilight of the Thunder God and BISON B.C.’s Quiet Earth. And all hail the return of Brooklyn-via-Columbus stoner thrashers EARLY MAN, whose Jack Endino–produced Beware the Circling Fin EP (The End Records; October 14) finds them surviving their dumping at the hands of old label Matador and living to thrash another day. Brooklyn’s VIVIAN GIRLS convert their garage-rocking out-of-print vinyl-only homonymous album to 1’s and 0’s on October 7 with the help of In the Red Records. Swedish ’70s psychedelic guitar-hero revivalists DUNGEN unveil their fourth long-player, 4 (Subliminal Sounds) on September 23, alongside TV ON THE RADIO’s dark, angry and yet glammy and funky Dear Science, (Geffen). Also on October 7: two head-scratching works of inscrutable genius, OF MONTREAL’s dense, genre-hopping Skeletal Lamping (Polyvinyl) and San Francisco punk-art weirdos DEERHOOF’s new two-act opus, Offend Maggie (Kill Rock Stars).