The Killers could develop into a major force in rock
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 2, 2004
When Brandon Flowers first started writing songs and formed his first group, Blush Response, he found himself pursuing a sound that wasn’t exactly a chart-busting trend of the late ’90s – the keyboard-driven style of synth-pop.
Blush Response never made much of an impact. Flowers, in fact, was dumped by the band in 2001 when the other members decided to leave their home base of Las Vegas for Los Angeles in an attempt for a record deal.
Flowers, though, has never really left his synth-pop leanings behind.
And that musical ingredient is one of the defining features of the group he now fronts – the critically acclaimed buzz band the Killers.
After being dumped by Blush Response, Flowers wasted little time brushing off his setback. He answered an ad in a local paper placed by guitarist David Keuning.
Soon after meeting, they went to work to see if they had any chemistry as songwriters. In short order, they completed a song, “Mr. Brightside.”
Flowers and Keuning recruited a drummer and bassist in order to play gigs, adopted the band name The Killers (the name of a fictitious group in a New Order video) and went about building a repertoire, a local following and a career.
Things started falling into place for The Killers within months. By late 2002, the group’s early rhythm section had been replaced by current bassist Mark Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci, who proved to be more compatible with the songs filling the group’s set lists.
The Killers also began to make noise outside of Las Vegas. Around the summer of 2003, the group landed a deal with the independent British label Lizard King. An initial round of United Kingdom tour dates and the release of “Mr. Brightside” as a limited edition single came next.
After a showcase at the 2003 CMJ Music Conference in New York, The Killers were signed by Island/Def Jam Records.
Now less than a year later, the buzz that began in Britain shows no signs of quieting. The Killers’ appearance this past March at the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin was one of the conference’s highly touted performances.
By the time the group’s full-length debut CD “Hot Fuss” arrived in stores in June, magazines such as Spin, Alternative Weekly and Rolling Stone were touting The Killers as one of rock’s hottest new bands.
The band has created a sound that stands out from the modern rock pack.
Flowers’ keyboard lines and the danceable rhythms created by Vannucci and Stoermer give the Killers some of the synth-pop sound Flowers first pursued in Blush Response. But the band’s songs also have a decidedly punchy guitar rock element – courtesy of Keuning – that gives the music much-needed edge and a modern sensibility.
The band’s songs at times point a bit too obviously to their musical heroes. “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine” betrays a strong Cure influence. The new single “Smile Like You Mean It” suggests a more upbeat New Order.
There’s more than a little Duran Duran in the single “Somebody Told Me” (which went top five on the Billboard magazine modern rock chart) and some U2 trademarks figure into “On Top.”
But on tunes where the influences aren’t so obvious, the Killers sound like a band that could develop into a truly inventive and potent force on the rock scene.
The Killers perform Thursday in Seattle.
The Killers
107.7 The End’s Deck the Hall Ball: With Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand, The Shins, Snow Patrol, Keane, 6 p.m. Thursday, KeyArena. $35, 206-628-0888.
The Killers
107.7 The End’s Deck the Hall Ball: With Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand, The Shins, Snow Patrol, Keane, 6 p.m. Thursday, KeyArena. $35, 206-628-0888.
