The Killers Frontman Announces Sophomore Album Title, Release Date

The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers has officially announced his sophomore solo album will be released this Spring.

Late Friday evening, Flowers released a teaser on his website of a hand (his, we assume) playing an invisible piano. The short video sparked talks that Flowers'”in the works” studio album would be released sometime soon.

Today, the singer confirmed the news on his website with a handwritten note to fans.

The new album will be titled The Desired Effect and is set to be released on May 18.

Last August, Flowers revealed that he would be heading into the studio with producer Ariel Rechtshaid who had previously worked with Vampire Weekend, HAIM, and Charli XCX.

He also told the interviewer that unlike 2010’s Flamingo, The Desired Effect would not be as influenced by his hometown of Las Vegas. Instead, with Rechtshaid producing the album, they decided to go in a different direction with this album.

Check out the teaser for the new album as well as Flowers’ handwritten letter.

Watch Footage from the George Harrison Tribute Concert

It feels as if September 2014 has been a month dedicated to the late and former Beatle, George Harrison.

It all began with Capitol Records revealing plans to re-release Harrison’s first six record and never-before-released material in a box set titled, George Harrison: The Apple Years 1968-1975 which was released last week.

After that, plans were revealed for a one-night tribute concert to take place at the end of the month, last night in Los Angeles to honor Harrison.

Then, not to be outdone, Conan O’Brien dedicated last week to Harrison with all his guest performers including Beck, Norah Jones, and Harrison’s son Dhani, playing tracks from the late Beatle.

Last night, George Fest hit L.A.’s  El Rey Theatre with a long list of performers which included previously confirmed acts such as Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd, Spoon’s Britt Daniel, Brian Wilson, “Weird” Al Yankovic, The Killers’ Brandon Flowers and Mark Stoermer, members of The Strokes, Weezer and Norah Jones.

Watch some of the videos directly from the concert.

Brian Wilson– “My Sweet Lord”:

“Weird” Al Yankovich– “What is Life”:

Conan O’Brien– “Old Brown Shoe”:

Brandon Flowers– “Got My Mind Set on You”:

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club– “Art of Dying”:

A hundred percent of the profits from “George Fest” will be donated to Sweet Relief, a charity that offers financial assistance to struggling musicians.

Brandon Flowers Working on Second Solo Record

Brandon Flowers is in the middle of recording his second solo album, the follow-up to 2010’s Flamingo which will be released sometime in 2015.

The Killers’ frontman revealed to NME the news that he has headed back into the studio to do a little recording of his own, solo material. Joining him in the studio as producer on the upcoming record is Ariel Rechtshaid who has previously worked with sister group HAIM and Vampire Weekend.

In the interview, he reveals that the album will have a different sound than Flamingo, his hit debut record, which mostly had a Las Vegas sound to it, paying homage to the band’s hometown. But it’s not like Flowers, is completely getting away from the Vegas sound; he does admit that there will be a little bit of that influence in it.

“People are going to interpret it how they will, but there’s only a little bit of Vegas in there.”

Flowers was also asked about Rechtshaid and how he works in the studio to which he revealed there have been several head-butting moments.

“He’s taking me out of my comfort zone. Normally, I make demos and they’re pretty similar to how the song ends up, but he’ll take a song and be like, ‘I hear this.’ It’s incredible. His palette and his range, what he’s able to say. At first, we were butting our heads together, but now, we’re hitting it off.”

If you’re a Killers fan and think that this means Flowers might be saying good-bye to the band like rumors said back when he announced a solo project, then you would be wrong. Flowers says he has no plans on quitting the band or leaving them behind.

“I wanna keep being in this band. I don’t think we’ll get too morbid about it, I think we wanna keep going.”

That’s great to hear.