"He doesn't look a thing like Jesus..."

Last Saturday I was driving my oldest son work when The Killers' song "When You Were Young" came on. Somehow it came up that we both thought it was cool that Brandon Flowers, the band's founder and singer, was from Utah. My son then noted that there were a lot of alternative groups that came from Utah, The Killers being among the most successful. Utah really was and remains a thriving place for alternative music. This goes back to early '80s, probably even the late '70s. The best description I can think of for alternative music is that it is post-punk popular music, which means that it ironically fuses these two things together, not taking either one that seriously.

It might surprise many to know that Flowers is an active member of the LDS Church. In fact, he's recorded an I'm a Mormon spot. The reason I mention this is because I think there's something deeply attractive to LDS young people about Alt. music as a way of expression that largely tends to eschew the notorious excesses of punk and heavy metal and the sappiness of happy-clappy pop music, which is not say that it has no edge, it does, a pretty sharp one most of the time. I love The Killers, especially this song because the first time I heard it I recognized it some weird, intuitive way.

In any case, The Killers' "When You Were Young" is our Friday traditio this week:

... but he talks like a gentleman