Yesterday I watched the Killers’ recently released DVD, Live from the Royal Albert Hall. And. It. Was. Amazing. Unreal. Phenomenal. I can’t think of enough accolades for how much I loved the performance. I love the Killers.

You don’t like the Killers, you say? Well, good Sir or Madame, I believe this is where you and I part ways. Why don’t you like them? Are you onto the next band every two weeks? Are the Killers a retro act to you by now? Are you already tiring of Grizzly Bear?

Or did you never like the Killers to begin with? You didn’t like ‘Somebody Told Me’? Forget the past, homeslice. The Killers are a top-notch rock and roll band. Or maybe you don’t like Brandon Flowers? I’m not even going to listen to those arguments. (It’s the beauty of this one-way communication we have. Don’t bother commenting. I will delete any negative Brandon Flowers comments. Censorship is sweet!)

How could you not like Brandon Flowers? He has an amazing voice, oodles of charisma, and to top it all off, he’s a very good-looking man. Listen, I’m a raging heterosexual, but I believe that as music listeners, our love of a particular band is directly influenced by the attractiveness of the lead singer and, in some cases, the entire band.

In pop music, it’s obviously no secret that artists achieve success largely on the strength of their appearance. Because so many of the songs are written by hit-making producers, they really just need an attractive, young person to act as a vessel to deliver their catchy song. They require someone with a decent voice (at least decent enough that Auto-Tune doesn’t have to do all of the work) and a symmetrical face and killer abs for the magazine covers.

We accept this as a universal truth in pop music. In fact, we are surprised when our young idols turn out to be immensely talented as well. If you have the requisite sexiness, the ‘it’ factor, and talent to top it off, you’re headed for superstardom. A prime example of this is the ascent of former pre-fabricated boy-bander Justin Timberlake.

Timberlake has the whole package and has achieved mega-stardom as a result. Timberlake’s former ‘N Sync homeboy, JC Chasez, is not as attractive, only has a little bit of the ‘It’ factor, and much less talent than JT. Consequently, he is a talking head on ‘America’s Best Dance Crew’. Another former ‘N Syncer, Chris Kirkpatrick, who lacks any of the key attributes, has faded from public consciousness and is probably best remembered for his place in an Eminem lyric. So you can see how exact of a science this attractiveness-success formula is in pop music.

However, in the world of rock and roll, most enthusiasts would probably claim they are above the superficial element that defines pop music. Rock and roll fans would probably tell you that the physical appearance of the band has no impact on their enthusiasm for the artist because it is all about the music, mannnn.

Bullshit. List your favourite five bands right now. Are the lead singers attractive? If your answer is no, then you either listen to obscure, über-indie bands that Pitchfork hasn’t even heard yet, or you’re lying. Almost all of the greatest bands, both modern and legendary, have been fronted by attractive singers. Robert Plant, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder, Julian Casablancas, Caleb Followill, the list goes on.

As with any theory, there are going to be exceptions. Some bands have achieved stardom despite the singer’s lack of beauty. Neil Young very closely resembles a caveman. Van Morrison is a short, doughy white man, and, for a modern example, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy took everything that is unattractive about Van Morrison and then added an even uglier face.

All of these musicians have achieved success despite their appearance because they are all supremely talented. If you don’t agree that Fall Out Boy would be much more popular right now if Patrick Stump looked like Brandon Flowers, you’re kidding yourself. Stump is so ugly, Fall Out Boy fans have had to convince themselves that Pete Wentz is attractive.

I’m not saying that I love the Killers because Brandon Flowers is an attractive, charismatic man. I’m just saying it doesn’t hurt. When I watch a musician perform, I want to be that person so badly. And why would I want to be an ugly, uncharismatic dude?

Well now, that was a bit of a tangent. Back to the DVD. If you’re a fan of the Killers, or just a fan of live music DVD’s in general, you owe it to yourself to watch. Royal Albert Hall in London, England is a beautiful venue, and the camera work at the concert is stunning. The fans go absolutely bonkers for the Killers and the band gives them what they came for, performing for over two hours.

Brandon Flowers sings the hell out of the songs, Dave Keuning makes the guitar-work look easy as usual, Mark Stoermer slaps the bass, and they even got Jason Lee to leave the set of ‘My Name is Earl’ and join them on drums. And boy, does he look pumped to be there! Oh wait, that’s their drummer Ronnie Vannucci. See what I did there? Their drummer looks like Jason Lee, but you may not know that, so I explained the joke. Terrible.

Holy crap. Thank you for reading all of this. I swear to God, I sit down and try to write a couple hundred words and it turns into this. I’m performing at Hot Box Café in Kensington Market tonight at 7 pm. I’m also performing at the Kitchener Yuk Yuk’s on Saturday night. That starts at 10 pm.

Thanks for checking in, cyber-friends.

Natal é época de gastar dinheiro pagando de gente boa com os amigos do serviço no amigo secreto. Se você é um pouco mais abastado você faz média com a mídia, fazendo enormes doações a instituições ou fazendo parcerias bizarras que dão luz a músicas com arranjos estranhos. Foi o caso do The Killers para trazer ao mundo essa versão “from Cuba” de Hotel California, do Eagles.

Gosto bastante dessa música do Eagles, principalmente a versão acústica com trezentos violões e também gosto muito do The Killers. Só não fui ao show dos pais de Mr Brightside no Brasil porque 1) R$350,00 o ingresso e 2) Chácara do Jockey é sempre uma furada. Mas nem meu amor por The Killers consegue aceitar que essa versão é boa. Desculpa Brandon Flowers, mas ó, Natal e músicas para a caridade são ruins em qualquer parte da galáxia. E se segurem porque daqui a pouco a Globo surge com aquelas cantoras obscuras que só aparecem nessa época do ano.

Os Matadores fizeram isso para contribuir com a APE, Artists Project Earth, uma entidade que ajuda a galera que sofre com desastres naturais e tals. Mais aqui.

Vi no With Lasers, onde ele fala até um babado satânico.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – allegedly. If I had written that song, I think the lyrics would have been more along the lines of ‘it’s the most anticipated commercial event of the year, which will inevitably end up in a fight over the christmas lunch‘. Some might argue those lyrics are missing a certain je ne sais quoi, but I’m betting that those are the kind of people who put up christmas decorations in November and go carol singing, i.e. people who are hated by society and therefore aren’t entitled to a critical opinion of my song lyrics.

Christmas is a time for family, a time for giving, and a time for musicians to quickly cobble together a half-arsed song, throw some sleigh bells on it and cash in on the whole circus. It takes a certain panache to do it to a standard that I find acceptable  – as a hint to anyone who’s hoping to make this list next year, I staunchly believe the more sleigh bells, the better – so here’s this week’s anticipated laurawire blog post of the week: my top five christmas songs. I jest of couse: no one’s anticipating this. You lot only seem to care about posts where I lay into Muse’s management. But I’m carrying on regardless dammit.

Top three christmas carols:
There’s no write up for each individual song. I just think they all sound quite nice when they’re sung well on the one day a year that I go to church to celebrate the birth of someone who didn’t exist. And I’m usually drunk, which helps. If you don’t know any of these songs and you are the religious type, you should be ashamed that the alcoholic atheist is more familiar with your songs of praise than you are. If you don’t know any of these but you’re not religious, you’re off the hook. Have a look on YouTube.

5. Good King Wenceslas
4. Away In A Manger
3. Once in Royal David’s City
2. O Little Town of Bethlehem
1. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Exciting stuff. On to the slightly less traditional tracks now:

5. I Wanna Kiss You So (Christmas In A Nutshell) – Girls Aloud

There’s no video with this song on it on the entire internet. What the hell is that about? We7 is here to save the day though – if you’re dying to hear the best christmas song by Girls Aloud, you can do so here. They released a bonus CD of christmas songs with the ‘Chemistry’ album a few years ago. On the whole, it was crap. Their rendition of ‘White Christmas’ is as soulless as Britney’s last album and that’s saying something. This one song saved my purchase being a complete write off: it’s bubblegum pop at its finest. I love it because it is so tacky and fun. And the best part is that they’re completely aware of this fact as well. I think you have to be when you start singing lyrics that actually go “bish, bash, bong, WOO”. Amazing.

4. It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Andy Williams

I definitely think that generations prior to mine generally did christmas music better than we do. Maybe it’s because they did it all with proper orchestras – there’s none of this bleepy electro nonsense going on (Lady GaGa, I’m looking at you). It just has this indescribeable quality that isn’t quite matched up to by its modern-day counterparts. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule (see below) but they are few and far between. J’adore Andy Williams, and this song is just lovely. It sums up everything I love about this season.

3. All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey

I can hear the collective eye roll from here. You should just be grateful that I picked this over Steps’ take on ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ or Britney Spears’ ‘My Only Wish This Year’. You’ve got off lightly, believe me.
This song is a stone cold classic. It resurfaces in the chart every year for a good reason – copious amouts of sleigh bells. I don’t think any of the traditional christmas pop-song-by-numbers have lived up to this track, and I can’t put my finger on the reason for it. I can’t believe I’m about to admit this, but I listen to this song all year round. I was actually asked to leave a bar in central London in May last year because a friend and I were dancing on a table singing this. It’s not as good as the first time you hear it in winter, but it’ll do when you need a festive hit, as I so often do.

2. Don’t Shoot Me, Santa – The Killers

No matter what your feelings are towards this band, they do christmas songs very well. They’ve released one every year for the last four years in aid of the RED campaign on December 1 which is today, fact fans. I could have quite easily made four songs of this top five their complete christmas catalogue, but that wouldn’t be very interesting to read. One might argue this isn’t interesting either but I’m going to overlook that and go back to raving about the song.
This song is like the ultimate anti-christmas song. It’s such a novel take on christmas. It beats yet another song about the snow, or sitting by the fire. Everyone paints Father Christmas as this jolly old gentleman, and in the space of four and a half minutes, Brandon Flowers has completely destroyed that image and created this psychopathic murderer with whatever is left. I love it. And I really adore the video for this. It’s one of my all time favourite music videos. Brandon’s face at 3:16 makes me smile every time I see it. I really am infatuated (read: obsessed) with him.

1. Somewhere in my Memory – John Williams

If you don’t know this, you’re dead to me. This is the signature tune from Home Alone (which is actually my favourite film of all time, but I tell people it’s Garden State so they don’t judge me. I love Garden State too, but nothing can match up to Home Alone) and I can’t hear this and not feel completely saturated with love for everyone and everything. It’s just the perfect christmas song. I love John Williams’ work anyway – the only reason I went to see the first three Harry Potter films was because he did the scoring for them. I think he’s a genius. I’d love for him to work with Muse on a song one day. In fact, that is what I’d like for christmas. If someone can get on the case please, that would be fantastic.

Expect more festivity on this blog over the coming weeks. I’m not sure what form it will take, but it will definitely happen.

The final contenders

Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not – By Ciaran Jones

Brand New – The Devil And The God Are Raging Inside Me – By Hugh Morris

Sufjan Stevens – Come On Feel The Illinoise – By Alex Smith

Bloc Party – Silent Alarm -By Joe Curtis

At The Drive In – Relationship Of Command – By Tom Victor

Bon Iver – For Emma Forever Ago – By Ammelio

The Libertines – Up The Bracket – By James Franklin

Daft Punk – Discovery – By Will Gilgrass

Coldplay – Parachutes – By Dan Bloom

Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night – By Caroline Cook

Bright Eyes – Digital Ash In A Digital Urn – By Emma Davies

The Strokes – Is This It? – By Alfie Tolhurst

Kings Of Leon – Youth And Young Manhood – By Becky Rutt

Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP – By Tom Mooney

Johnny Cash – Man Comes Around – By Mike Brown

Regina Spektor – Begin To Hope – By Fiona Roberts

Snow Patrol – Eyes Open – By Sarah Scott

Arcade Fire – Funeral – By Rob Goodman

Here’s the Poll. Get voting!

The San Diego Chargers end the junior varsity portion of their schedule this upcoming Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, seven days after pounding the Kansas City Chiefs into submission for the second time this season.

The 43-14 trouncing over the Chiefs on Sunday was the Chargers’ sixth straight win and boosted their record to 8-3. They finished 5-1 against their powder-puff rivals in the AFC West.

The Chargers have been hot down the stretch in recent years but don’t have any of their divisional doormats left to play. That makes the upcoming contest against the abysmal Browns important because only a full lack of preparation (remember, Norv Turner does coach this team) can keep the Chargers from rolling over Cleveland.

Of course, the Chargers should be well-rested after beating the Chiefs — doesn’t playing Kansas City equate to at least half an off day? The Chargers forced four turnovers and quarterback Philip Rivers was 21-of-28 passing for 317 yards and two touchdowns, both to Antonio Gates, who had seven receptions for 118 yards.

LaDainian Tomlinson rushed for two touchdowns and fumbled away a third when Kansas City’s Brandon Flowers forced him to fumble at the goal line. But you have to love Tomlinson’s fumble because it led to a Chargers’ safety and a rare 5-point quarter.

Always fun to see a 5 up on the scoreboard. Even more fun than seeing a 2.

Tomlinson had just 39 yards on 13 carries while moving into 10th place in NFL history with 12,257 career rushing yards. He passed both Marcus Allen and Edgerrin James during Sunday’s game. Tomlinson should pass former San Diego State star Marshall Faulk (12,279) and NFL legend Jim Brown (12,312) against Cleveland.

Former Chargers receiver Chris Chambers caught seven passes for 70 yards and a touchdown for the Chiefs — hey that’s more production than 2007 first-round pick Craig “The Bust” Davis has all season — but more worrisome is that Kansas City running back Jamaal Charles totaled 147 offensive yards, including averaging 6.6 yards per carry (93 yards on 14 carries). The Chiefs offensive line isn’t exactly ferocious and Charles is the starter only because Larry Johnson tweeted himself off the team.

But the Chiefs are in the rear-view mirror and the only scary thing about facing the Browns is worrying what might occur after overmatched quarterback Brady Quinn throws an interception. Quinn displayed that he’s better at throwing cheap-shot blocks (see the Nov. 16 game against the Baltimore Ravens when he went after Terrell Suggs’ knees — Suggs hasn’t played since) than throwing a football.

Remember that odd debate over who was the better quarterback of the 2007 draft class between JaMarcus Russell (Oakland) and Quinn?  Russell had the strong but erratic arm and Quinn was overhyped because of the Notre Dame hype machine. That the two went in the first round shows how ridiculous the draft system has become when dealing with quarterbacks.

Something tells me that Philadelphia Eagles backup Kevin Kolb will eventually prove to be the best quarterback of that draft class once Donovan McNabb moves on. Buffalo’s Trent Edwards has had the best career so far from that class but losing your job to someone named Ryan Fitzpatrick isn’t something you want to mention on your resume.

Fitzpatrick played college football in the Ivy League at Harvard and is with his third organization since entering the NFL in 2005. 

Regardless, playing against Quinn should allow the Chargers’ defense to accumulate a few more takeaways and help the Chargers easily cruise to their seventh consecutive victory.

The Killers are one of the biggest bands around at the moment. Every single they release is pretty much guaranteed to make it into the top 20. It is my opinion that their debut album, Hot Fuss (2004), is the greatest album of the last ten years.

I wouldn’t say the Killers are my favourite band. Not now and not back in 2004 when I first heard Hot Fuss. But the album as a whole is a brilliant piece of work. From start to finish you don’t get a dud track.

I challenge you to pick a bad song from that list!

It’s ironic that the songs that made me buy the album in the first place are now the songs I dislike the most. Namely Somebody Told Me and Mr Brightside. They, like the Killers themselves, suffer from that most tainted of double edged swords, being overplayed and too popular.

Get off your high horses and accept the undeniable: Hot Fuss is a brilliant album. Is there anyone who wasn’t obsessed with it for at least a short time? I think not.

So vote for Hot Fuss as the greatest album of the decade.

Here’s a clip of the Killers at Glastonbury 2004 playing Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll, a bonus track found on European copies of the album.

Here are the other contenders. The poll will soon follow.

Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not – By Ciaran Jones

Brand New – The Devil And The God Are Raging Inside Me – By Hugh Morris

Sufjan Stevens – Come On Feel The Illinoise – By Alex Smith

Bloc Party – Silent Alarm -By Joe Curtis

At The Drive In – Relationship Of Command – By Tom Victor

Bon Iver – For Emma Forever Ago – By Ammelio

Daft Punk – Discovery – By Will Gilgrass

Coldplay – Parachutes  – By Dan Bloom

Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night – Caroline Cook

Bright Eyes – Digital Ash In A Digital Urn – By Emma Davies

The Strokes – Is This It? – By Alfie Tolhurst

Kings Of Leon – Youth And Young Manhood – By Becky Rutt

Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP – By Tom Mooney

Johnny Cash – Man Comes Around - By Mike Brown

Regina Spektor – Begin To Hope – By Fiona Roberts

Snow Patrol – Eyes Open – By Sarah Scott

Arcade Fire – Funeral – By Rob Goodman

“I was working on this dope-ass song with Jared and Brandon stopped by. I played them some of the new Jeezy beats, and before everybody bounced, Brandon hopped on the keyboard and I hopped on the MPC”

And this was the product. Enjoy. DL link thanks to illroots via h.e.r.

30 Seconds To Mars feat. Kanye West- Hurricane

“British designer Fee Doran [made my feather inspired jacket]. She goes by Mrs. Jones, and she’s kind of an eccentric English woman who’s worked with people like Kylie Minogue and the Scissor Sisters.”

“I don’t think anything was butchered for my jacket,” says The Killers front man, Brandon Flowers to MTV. 

~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 11.25.09~

O melhor Show que fui até hoje.

Sério, Brandon Flowers, vocal, e  Ronnie Vannucci, baterista,  foram os melhores. O baixista e guitarra são bons, mas não passavam nada para o público, eram meio “frios”.

Apesar Da Lama, O Killers destruiu

A Setlist do Show foi muito boa.. misturou música novas, com antigos sucessos do Hot Fuss e Sam´s Town, como Mr. Brightside e Read My Mind. Sendo que as músicas estavam todas em uma ordem bem legal, o que fez com que todos pulassem em certas música, ou apenas apreciassem outras.

A única coisa ruim, acho que todos que foram concordam, foi a lama. Era barro pra tudo quanto é lado. Nossos pés estavam cobertos por água cheia de lama.

Apesar da lama, não digo que a chuva foi uma coisa ruim, só fez o show ficar melhor e mais agitado ( como tava todo mundo com frio, ficaram pulando o tempo todo)

I GOT SOUL, BUT I´M NOT A SOLDIER

A Melhor música foi When You Were Young, clássico do Guitar Hero. A última, com direito a chuva prata ( só que dourada) e com a platéia toda pulando e cantando junto!

Já a parte mais engraçada do show foi a saída, eu Yugo e Vasco andando 1km atrás de um posto pra se lavar, e depois andando mais uns 2 tentantdo achar minha mãe pra ir embora. Depois disso, a gente foi no Burger King da Sto. Amaro (por sinal um burger king nunca foi tão bom) iguais mendigos, descalços, sujos de lama, e todos molhados.

WHAT A SHOW!

Click on this image of my desktop (ie, a legal image reproduction of copyrighted images, so suck it).

Is it just me or do we see a “[male name] does [male name]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But not literally SADFACE” headline on Noodles’s site every single day, at least once?

Okay, just checking.

Queridos! Estou aqui escrevendo um post especial apenas para comentar minhas impressões sobre o show do The Killers em SP (21/11). Bom, tudo começou errado. A banda de abertura, Black Drawing Chalks, não tocou às 20:00 como esperado. Eu, como boa brasileira atrasada, pensei em chegar só às 21:00. A sorte foi que desisti dessa idéia. Cheguei as 20:30 e já havia perdido 4 músicas, pois os caras do Killers, super agradáveis, simplesmente resolveram começar o show antes. Além desse ‘ imprevisto ‘ que MUITO me irritou, ainda havia barro para todos os lados (sim, o local era aberto e estava chovendo). Ok. No momento em que entramos, Brandon errou porcamente uma nota no piano ao reproduzir o refrão de ‘ Human ‘. Mas tudo bem, pois ainda desconfio de um playback uó em ‘All these things I’ve done ‘, e, o MAIS bizarro: após tocar Mr. Brightside o público ficou alguns segundos em silêncio, e, se não estou maluca, ouvi um áudio por trás do som (tipo aquela risada de fundo que rola no Chaves) de platéia aplaudindo e gritando. Juro, foi TENSO. Maaaaaas, num balanço geral, valeu a pena pela animação e presença de palco dos caras.

Playlist do show:

Human

This is your life

Somebody Told Me

Reasons

Bones

World We Live In

Joyride

Bling

Shadowplay

Smile

Spaceman

Dustland (Elvis)

Read My Mind

Mr. Brightside

All These Things I’ve Done

Jenny was…

When we were young

Beeeeijo

Wise men say, only fools rush in
But I can’t help, falling in love with you
Shall I stay? Would it be a sin
If I can’t help, falling in love with you?

For I can’t help falling in love with you.

.

Ontem, uma pessoa me fez chorar ao cantar essa música. Não só eu, como grande parte daqueles 12 mil debaixo da chuva.

Sabe quando você quer muito algo? Sempre sonhou em ver, em chegar perto? Então, é o que eu sinto em relação ao The Killers.

Quando o Killers veio para o Brasil em 2007, no Tim Festival, não tive chance de vê-los. Aquela fase pré-vestibular, eu era muito nova, sem grana e ainda não nutria um amor tão grande pela banda.

Em julho, quando anunciaram o show deles aqui em São Paulo, surtei. Comprei o ingresso na primeira semana. O que restava era esperar.

E o dia chegou! É amanhã. Amanhã vou poder cantar, gritar, dar uma de tiete mesmo. Gritar pro Brandon Flowers como ele é lindo e que eu sou a mulher da vida dele jurando que ele vai me escutar. Amanhã é o dia.

Depois conto como foi viver esse sonho (meio programa do Gugu isso, né?).

Ah, essa é uma das minhas músicas preferidas, Good Night, Travel Well, e está no cd Day & Age:

The unknown distance to the gray beyond
Stares back at my grieving frame
To cast my shadow by the holy sun
My spirit moans, with a sacred pain

It’s quiet now
The universe is standing still
And there’s nothing I can say
There’s nothing we can do now
And there’s nothing I can say
There’s nothing we can do now

And all that stands between the soul’s release
This temporary flesh and bone
And know that it’s over now
I feel my fading mind begin to roam
Every time you fall, and every time you try
Every foolish dream, and every compromise
Every word you spoke, and everything you said
Everything you left me, rambles in my head

And there’s nothing I can say
There’s nothing I can do now
And there’s nothing I can say
There’s nothing I can do now

Up above the world, so high

Everything you loved, and every time you try
Everybody’s watching, and everybody cry
Stay, don’t leave me, the stars can wait for your sign, don’t signal now

There’s nothing I can say
There’s nothing I can do now
And there’s nothing I can say
There’s nothing we can do now

Goodnight, travel well

Goodnight, travel well

There’s nothing I can say
Nothing I can do now

Goodnight, travel well

Never heard of it? Nor had I. Let me explain: November is now Movember - a month long charity event where some seriously cool dudes grow moustaches to raise awareness of men’s health issues such as prostate cancer.

I’ve always been fascinated by moustaches.  I mean, what on earth are these:

These are champions by the way. Actual award winning champions. Amazing.

I like to look at these on a photo, but close up I think I may vomit. HOWEVER, i am rather fond of the more acceptable every day moustache. The closer shaved and less wig – on - your – top - lip type of moustache. Like this:

Of course, it does help if you’re Brandon Flowers and thus impossibly awesome.

Sweet, no?

by Dylan Tucker

In the midst of all of the drug-taking, player-poking, bashing tweets, and general disarray surrounding Kansas City and KU sports right now is a small ray of light. Sure, Zack Greinke won the Cy Young yesterday, which I’m not sure everyone is aware of due to all of the day’s other breaking news, but an even bigger award was presented to a KC sports figure.

I’m talking, of course, about the legendary Mike Brown. After picking off two “in the wrong place, at the right time” tipped balls against the Raiders on Sunday, Brown was recognized as the AFC defensive player of the week. What. A. Joke. Did no one else in the league play defense this weekend, or what? If it wasn’t for the Raiders dropping about 47 balls, Mike Brown may have been the worst defensive player of the week. Whoever decides on this award needs to be fired immediately. Flowers, Hali, and Dorsey (just off the top of my head) were all better than Brown on Sunday, and that’s just on the Chiefs!!! I’m willing to claim that you could have found at least 30 players who had better games than Mike Brown this weekend. Good Lord.

The main point of this post, however, is to express how important it is for Todd Haley to start making some progress. We talked before the season about wanting to see a team that got better as the season crawled along. Well, here’s the thing: they’re not much better right now than they were week one against the Ravens. Players and coaches are still making mistakes all over the field. Haley appears to have taken on too much responsibility as a first year HC/OC, and the offense has been pathetic. The Chiefs must show signs of progress down the stretch, and it needs to start on Sunday with Pittsburgh. Now, I’m not asking for a win or anything, but just a dramatic decrease of simple mental and physical mistakes.

The road’s only going to get tougher, as the Chiefs lost their biggest play maker for four weeks.