When The Killers released their debut album Hot Fuss back in 2005, mainstream rock music seemed to welcome an inviting change. Instead of the old and tired rock acts doing the same thing they've done since the 1990s, The Killers seemed refreshing, and their style combined the best elements of an earlier indie sound with a radio friendly straightness.
But The Killers fooled us. After the thousandth or so time hearing them on the radio and MTV, they became tired and stale, the victims of over-hyped marketing. And for those of us who actually paid attention to the music of the past, they sounded way too much like a badly morphed version of The Smiths. That urged me and my friends to start singing "Morrissey, I sound just like Morrissey" to the tune of the now infamous chorus of "Mr. Brightside."
The Killers also produced a crop of bands with similar pseudo-1980s indie influences. Bands like Hot Hot Heat, The Bravery, and My Chemical Romance owe some debt of gratitude to The Killers' success now that they've made it big as well. The bands just keep popping up, and The Killers haven't yet topped the success of Hot Fuss.
Columbus, OH based rock band The Iry are another band that sounds a lot like The Killers. They fit the formula for a successful pop rock band; vocalist Stefan Schwartz has that lazy, melancholic vocal style reminiscent of The Killers' vocalist Brandon Flowers (and, of course, Schwartz sounds a lot like The Smiths' Morrissey).
At the same time, the comparisons to other popular bands isn't all bad because The Iry pull it off with some nice songwriting. Dinner For Two on the Moon, The Iry's sophomore release, has the band ready and primed to take over the airwaves, and while Schwartz might sound too much like Brandon Flowers, he pulls it off with his accompanying piano riffs and full band sound. For a band that still survives primarily on the local level, they sound like they've been out there for a while, and the songwriting and studio recording of the album are top notch.
Dinner For Two on the Moon starts off with "Blackout," a piano-driven rocker with some complex arrangements. Drummer Jordan Lothes carries a driving disco beat, while Schwartz plays piano in a style reminiscent of piano aficionado Ben Folds. The band pauses for Gregory Hughes' brief guitar solo, and then jumps back into the driving theme of the song. It's a great start to the album, but not the band's strongest song here.
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