The Killers

The Killers are an American rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada, most famous for their hit singles "Somebody Told Me", "Mr. Brightside", and "When You Were Young". Formed in 2002 and made up of Brandon Flowers (vocals, keyboards), Dave Keuning (guitar, vocals), Mark Stoermer (bass guitar, vocals) and Ronnie Vannucci Jr., (drums, percussion), they released their debut album, Hot Fuss, in 2004. Their second album, Sam's Town, was released in early October 2006. Their first two albums to date have sold in excess of 8,750,000 copies.

Formation and Early Success

In 2001, Flowers was abandoned by the first band that he was in, a synth pop band known as Blush Response, after he declined to move with the rest of them to Los Angeles, California. Shortly thereafter, Flowers attended an Oasis concert, and, realizing that he wanted to make the transition from a keyboard band to a true rock band, began searching for a guitarist. It is said that between then and his first meeting with David Keuning, he was rejected by a potential guitarist who claimed that "this 'Duran Duran' crap wasn't going to go anywhere." (After gaining his fame, Flowers was waited on by that same guitarist in a Las Vegas restaurant). He then met Keuning after responding to an ad that Keuning had placed in the paper that listed, among other things, Smashing Pumpkins and Oasis as influences. The two hit it off immediately and began rehearsing. They were joined by a bassist (Keuning's roommate) and a drummer.

Both bassist and drummer quickly moved on to other things, and the drummer later sued the band, claiming that he wrote "Mr. Brightside." After their departure, Vannucci and Stoermer (who were both in other bands at the time; Vannucci was drummer in a melodic indierock group called Expert On October, featuring current backup guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Ted Sablay on bass) were approached by Flowers and Keuning with an offer to join "The Killers," a name which comes from the bass drum of a band in a New Order video for their song "Crystal".

After watching a few of their early shows, Vannucci acknowledged that the group was very green and would need a lot of work to become a polished act and their fan base was scarce. However, Vannucci did eventually join the band.

Stoermer was the last to join. He filled the remaining post at least partly because he and Flowers had quickly become friends. They played their first gig as the new band at a club in Vegas called The Junkyard. After Vannucci sold his house the band found themselves without a garage to rehearse in and took to sneaking into UNLV's music rooms, where Vannucci was attending college, in order to practice.

Initially, the Killers played at small clubs in Las Vegas, Nevada. With the band's lineup stable and their repertoire of songs expanding, the band began to attract attention from talent bookers, local agents, major label, scouts—and a UK representative for Warner Bros. Though the Warner Bros rep passed on the band, he took the demo back with him, showing it to a friend who worked at UK indie label Lizard King. The Killers then signed that summer to a British label.

**wikipedia.org