History Music / TheKillersBand

!! Principal Members (Founding members in '''bold''', current members in ''italic'':)

* '''Brandon Flowers''' - lead vocals
* '''Dave Keuning''' - lead guitar

!!Current Touring Members:

!! Former Members:

** One of Mark's preferred bass guitars is the "Fender Geddy Lee signature bass"of {{Music/Rush}} fame.

* HopelessWithTechnology: The band's fandom knows very well that the band just has ''no clue on how to do social media.'' Take the release of the single "Boy" a song which the band had teased for a while as having been written before ''Pressure Machine'' and having inspired many of the themes of that album, but unfortunately was unable to appear in the album do its quickly evolving tonal differences. So "Boy" itself finally made its long hyped public debut live at a show in Madrid in 2022, and the band uploaded it to Instagram and the results are... [[https://www.instagram.com/accounts/login/?next=/p/CfusNoZlis5/ a potato quality video and rough recording of the song shot on a cellphone.]]

* OppositesAttract: Brandon and Tana in the autobiographical title track "Music/ImplodingTheMirage". Brandon describes himself as an innocent "[[Creator/NormanRockwell Rockwellian]] boy" while Tana is depicted as more world weary being "tattooed and ready to deploy" and burdened from the abuse in her past.

* OldShame: "Get Trashed" a song recorded pre-''Hot Fuss'' and released quietly as a bonus track on the single for "Smile Like You Mean It." Its never appeared properly on an album (not even Sawdust) and for good reason, its ''atrocious''. Its good for a song to show how much the band has evolved at least, or an ironic laugh.

* CoolTrain: The grandchildren of the spoken word narrator at the end of "The Getting By" seem to think this of the Union Pacific trains passing through their hometown... although the train has a much darker connotation in the rest of the album. The end of the animated music video for "Quiet Town" shows a steam train passing through which resembles the Union Pacific's restored Big Boy locomotive which actually visited Nephi, Utah in 2019 a few years before ''Pressure Machine'' was released.

* CareerEndingInjury: A large reason for Mark's absence in live shows was due to a pyrotechnics accident at [[https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/music-2/mark-stoermer/ Wembley in 2013]] which damaged his hearing. Although Mark will still play a live show on special occasions, his hearing damage has made him primarily only work with the band in studio with Jake Blanton taking his place in most live performances. Its not quite bad enough hearing damage to consider Mark a DeafComposser, but it has certainly changed his career outlook.

** Ironic since other than Brandon and Ronnie; the rest of the band has mentioned none of the rest of them have that strong friendships with each other. It has always been a ''music first attitude'', and it was part of the strain as to why Dave chose to take a hiatus from the band briefly. Brandon and Dave jokingly pointed out that when Dave returned to the band they talked to a group therapist to try and strengthen their working relationships once Dave returned.

* CareerEndingInjury: A large reason for Mark's absence in live shows was due to a pyrotechnics accident at [[https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/music-2/mark-stoermer/ Wembley in 2013]] which damaged his hearing. Although Mark will still play a live show on special occasions, his hearing damage has made him primarily only work with the band in studio with Jake Blanton taking his place in most live performances.

* BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce: Taken ''literally'' with the band having a licensed hot sauce label that pops up every few years with flavors named after their songs, with the sauce sharing a title with "Blowback" being the hottest one available in the box set.[[https://thekillershotsauce.com/]]

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cYuQP80tWY Drunk Dave]].

* CoolOldGuy: Almost any Killers collaboration with an older "classic rock" legend, such as Lou Reed, Elton John, Neil Tennant, and Lindsey Buckingham. Especially in the reworking of "Dustland Fairytale" released in 2021 as simply "Dustland" featuring Music/BruceSpringsteen, ''The Boss'' himself.

** "The Calling" also mentions a good book being open in front of a judge, however its possibly a play on words referencing betting on horse racing as well.

After another four year sabbatical following ''Direct Hits'', the band released their fifth studio album, ''Wonderful Wonderful'', in 2017. This was followed by their sixth studio album, ''Imploding the Mirage'', in 2020, and their seventh, ''Pressure Machine'', in 2021.

* ''Imploding the Mirage'' (2020)

** Also present in "Flesh and Bone" and "Battle Born", on ''Battle Born'', as well as "Wonderful Wonderful" from ''Wonderful Wonderful'', "Imploding the Mirage" on ''Imploding the Mirage'', and "Pressure Machine" on ''Pressure Machine.''

* AngelicBeauty: Some of the various pieces of Thomas Blackshear used as art on the singles in ''Imploding the Mirage'' and within the album folds. The "Caution" single art shows a blonde haired woman surrounded by butterflies and sun glistening in her hair, while the art for "Blowback" shows an angel standing over a sleeping child.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Flowers, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, always snuck in religious imagery into his lyrics, but it becomes stronger in their latter albums as he became more active again in his church, notably with ''Imploding the Mirage's'' track 6 "Fire in Bone" being a re-telling of the parable of the prodigal son from the Bible. Flowers does somewhat avoid being ''too'' overt with his religious references, taking influence from how Bono handles his experiences with Catholicism in U2's music. Often religious imagery is invoked to purposefully contrast with the image of Las Vegas being "Sin City."

* BreakUpSong: Nearly for the band itself and narrowly avoided during the ''Wonderful Wonderful'' era. Dave Keuning facing burnout and clashes with the rest of the band took a hiatus from the group and followed solo projects. Mark Stoermer who was involved in a pyrotechnics accident on stage suffered hearing damage, and although he remained an active part of the band in the studio, he took a hiatus from touring. As such ''Wonderful Wonderful'' ends with a song titled "Have all the Songs Been Written?" both a reflection on writers block and the possibility of a band break-up, featuring one of the few Keuning performances on the album. For several years this left Brandon and Ronnie as the only original band members still regularly active in both studio and on tour, and this is reflected particularly with the amount of guests artists such as Adam Granduciel (The War on Drugs), Lindsey Buckingham (formerly of Fleetwood Mac) and Lucius who appear in ''Imploding the Mirage.'' In 2021 Dave returned to the band full time with ''Pressure Machine'' and Mark performed with the band for an online show, marking the first time all four members of the band were together again in public since Dave's hiatus. Dave is touring regularly with Brandon and Ronnie again, but Mark's public performances are still sporadic with touring member Jake Blanton taking his place in most live shows.

** More subtle, but both ''Wonderful Wonderful'' and ''Imploding the Mirage'' are partially autobiographical focused on Flower's and his wife Tana's relationship dealing with her PTSD in ''Wonderful Wonderful'' while ''Imploding the Mirage'' deals with triumph over that and a hope for their relationship to continue into the afterlife.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Brandon and Ronnie. Both currently live near each other in Park City, Utah; and it was clear that while Dave and Mark were often absent during the making of ''Imploding the Mirage'' that Brandon and Ronnie were just chugging away at the album because they enjoy the work and working together; and seemingly bizarre band projects such as the ''official Killer's hot sauce'' came from shared hobbies between Brandon and Ronnie.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Dave was on a hiatus after ''Wonderful Wonderful'' and up until his return in ''Pressure Machine'' but despite that he is still listed in the album notes for ''Imploding the Mirage'' as a member of the band despite being in zero songs, writing none of them, and his whole interaction with the rest of the group during the making of the album being apparently via the occasional text message to respond to some samples they'd send him. Dave is absent from the album art inside ''Wonderful Wonderful'' as well, but does appear in some of the music videos. Of course it did allow his return for the next album to be properly hyped.

** There is no other way to explain the existence of "C'est Le Vie" a bonus track for the deluxe release of ''Imploding the Mirage;'' than as an exercise of goofing around and being as big of a ham as possible, including lines about Shih Tzu's peeing on trees.

* OppositesAttract: Brandon and Tana in the autobiographical title track "Imploding the Mirage." Brandon describes himself as an innocent "[[Creator/NormanRockwell Rockwellian]] boy" while Tana is depicted as more world weary being "tattooed and ready to deploy" and burdened from the abuse in her past.

* PutOnABus: The Killers are noteworthy for having a stable permanent lineup that hasn't changed since the band first made it big in 2004. That said, two of those members have had noteworthy absences from entire album cycles: Dave Keuning was absent for segments of ''Wonderful Wonderful'' and all of ''Imploding the Mirage'', while Mark Stoermer was absent from ''Pressure Machine''.

* SixthRanger: Ted Sablay during Dave Keuning's hiatus. Although Ted didn't appear on any of The Killer's albums (he does release his own solo work though), he stepped up from being a backing guitarist to the band's lead guitarist in concert; even learning the guitar solo to "Caution" originally performed by Lindsey Buckingham. Once Dave returned, Ted briefly continued to play the guitar parts for songs from ''Imploding the Mirage'' those first few months until Dave had a chance to learn them, and once the Imploding the Mirage Tour kicked off in 2022, Ted graciously stepped back into a backing role as Dave took over the lead guitar parts for those songs.

* SkyFace: The cover for ''Imploding the Mirage'' using Thomas Blackshear art. Brandon said he selected the piece for its thematic connection to the album's themes of marriage, love and eventually death and the hope for an afterlife together.

** Flower's decision to move out of Las Vegas and back to Utah later in life due to his wife Tana's traumatic experiences with her upbringing in Las Vegas can be seen as an attempt to escape ViceCity for Arcadia, and is reflected in the tonal shift between ''Wonderful Wonderful'' and ''Imploding the Mirage'' the albums that came out right before and after that move.

* PutOnABus: The Killers are noteworthy for having a stable permanent lineup that hasn't changed since the band first made it big in 2004. That said, two of those members have had noteworthy absences from entire album cycles: Dave Keuning was absent for both segments of ''Wonderful Wonderful'' and all of ''Imploding the Mirage'', while Mark Stoermer was absent from ''Pressure Machine''.

* SoloSideProject: Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vanucci both released solo albums in the last few years, and eventually Keuning and Stoermer followed. Keuning also released a second solo album while on his hiatus from the band.

** One of Mark's preferred bass guitars is the Fender Geddy Lee (of {{Music/Rush}} fame) signature bass.

* WorkingTitle: Pre-release review copies of ''Day & Age'' were titled ''Sway & Rage'' by "The Humanoids" to prevent online leaks. ''Battle Born'' followed with pre-release copies named ''Cattle Horn'' by "Vegas."

* ''Hot Fuss'' (2004)

* CantHoldHisLiquor: Brandon during the band's early years, coming from a household where none of his parents drank since he was a child; meant there were plenty of stories of Brandon struggling a bit to keep his drink down in many parties and events the band attended in the ''Hot Fuss'' era. His decision to return to church and a desire to protect his vocal cords lead to him eventually decide to stop drinking altogether, and he's been sober since.

* {{Eagleland}}: Upset that many mistook the band for being British when ''Hot Fuss'' first came out, future albums began borrowing heavily from Springsteen-ish influences to root the band into Americana starting with ''Sam's Town.'' Taken to narmish levels in ''Battle Born'' and then perhaps perfected with a more somber mood in ''Pressure Machine.''

** From ''Hot Fuss'', there's a split-second where the end of "Mr. Brightside" overlaps with the start of "Smile Like You Mean It".

** One of Mark's preferred bass guitars is the Fender Geddy Lee (of Music/Rush fame) signature bass.

* VeryLooselyYBasedOnATrueStory: While the story of a cop having an affair with a woman who was with an abusive husband in "Desperate Things" is grounded in real life events that occurred in Nephi, Utah while Brandon lived there... the cop then ''murdering'' the abusive husband is fiction.

* AsTheGoodBookSays...: Flowers, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, always snuck in religious imagery into his lyrics, but it becomes stronger in their latter albums as he became more active again in his church, notably with ''Imploding the Mirage's'' track 6 "Fire in Bone" being a re-telling of the parable of the prodigal son from the Bible. Flowers does somewhat avoid being ''too'' overt with his religious references, taking influence from how Bono handles his experiences with Catholicism in U2's music. Often religious imagery is invoked to purposefully contrast with the image of Las Vegas being "Sin City."

** Flower's decision to move out of Las Vegas and back to Utah later in life due to his wife Tana's traumatic experiences with her upbringing in Las Vegas can be seen as an attempt to escape ViceCity for Arcadia, and is reflected in the tonal shift between ''Wonderful Wonderful'' and ''Imploding the Mirage''.