Future synth-pop icons The Killers have had a good year.
Their debut EP has generated nothing but anticipation for their full-length album, to be released this June. The Killers' music, a mixture of guitar and unabashed synthesizer, has garnered them comparisons to Duran Duran, a comparison they would turn down, but a sound quickly coming into vogue.
On the strength of their now out-of-print EP, The Killers have started to build an international following. Sporting songs that are overtly poppy and subtly layered with a jarring '80s synthesizer and a build and release ethic, shows the most promise on a debut this side of TV on the Radio. And, as clear as their talents are on the album, their live set offers enough promising material to fill an entirely different album.
But more impressive than their talent is the release of their EP. contains two remixed tracks from The Killers' demo and two tracks recorded in Los Angeles. It is an archive of no fewer than three natural disasters.
\We recorded the EP in L.A. during the fires in Simi Valley,"" recalled drummer Ronnie Vannucci. ""It was, like, less than a mile away. Ash was falling down. A couple of days later we got floods. And earthquakes. During one of the songs, 'Believe Me Natalie,' I was doing a drum take for it and we got it on film: we had an earthquake. It's actually the take we ended up using. We thought it was the second coming or something, the end of the world. Floods. Fires. Earthquakes.""
The Killers have worked up a heavy following in Europe, headlining the British leg of the same tour that had them opening for Stellastarr* recently in Madison. American critics are now taking notice of a band with a sparkling debut EP and an electric live show.
""We started sending out demos and a lot of the labels who were interested in us were from Britain,"" Vannucci said. ""And for whatever reason-well, for obvious reasons, we followed the momentum.""
Britain bills The Killers as a swaggering, bright-lights Las Vegas band. The novelty of a band from Las Vegas seems to overshadow how good the band actually is. The city's mythos is a larger-than-life land of sin-you'd think a band being promoted by it would have a swagger and a bright-lights mindset. They don't.
Being from The Killers' hometown, as it turns out, is a hindrance. Vannucci's view of Las Vegas' musicians is high, but the city's music industry can't support all the bands there.
""The music scene in Vegas is spotty at times; other times you find it thriving with many good bands. But they go away as fast as the venues do. I think it's correlated. Unless you've got a venue that has an owner with enough money and time to blow to see it through, they start up and six months later, it fails. And it seems like the bands follow that same kind of pattern, with the exception of a few,"" Vannucci said.
But magazines like NME and even the band's publicity play up the Sin City chic as much as possible.
""They like to glamorize a lot of things,"" Vannucci said. ""The fact that we're from Las Vegas is a really big deal. They live in this town that is hundreds of years old but we live in this new neon 24-hour anything-is-possible type of life. Being from there makes people say 'Woah.' We're not ashamed, we're really glad we're from Las Vegas, but it's not all there is.""
To be fair, though, at least some of the glitz is true.
""We got threatened with a knife one time from a band that wanted to play first because one of the guys in the band needed to pick up his stripper girlfriend who was getting off work. We said 'By all means,'"" Vannucci said.
The American press, like the British, tend to oversimplify The Killers. For us, it's lumping them in with the growing herd of synth-pop bands, the Stellastarr*s, Interpols and Hot Hot Heats, all reference points that The Killers have heard time and again. They expect to be asked about it now, and Vannucci was more than ready to answer.
""That's a question we get asked-it's essentially code for 'Are you following the trend?' And I think that when you hear about a band like ours, with keyboard, drums, guitars and bass, that's natural. It's not a cut, or anything like that. People need a box to put it in. They need something to relate it to. And I think that once they hear the album, it will be in its own box. Hopefully people will still be able to relate to it,"" he said.
""There is always an aesthetic to rock 'n' roll, I don't doubt it, but I don't think it supercedes the music. And I never underestimate the listener-music lovers are smarter than a lot of bands realize. If you're writing a pop song or a rock 'n' roll song, write it with passion. That will be timeless. People say, 'Oh, you're a new wave band.' It seems kind of temporary, and I don't think we're temporary,"" Vannucci said.
Vannucci denies '80s synthesizers are a trend which will have a greater life span than did garage rock. And at this rate, it won't. Hot Hot Heat garners its popularity from its catchy, acrobatic drum work. Stellastarr* gained its following from being the first band to throw themselves completely into synthesizers alongside better-than-average music. But The Killers have the potential of being the first great band in the genre, a band that would have been great even without the keyboard.
If the essence of garage rock is simplifying music to fun, looping, drunken chords, the essence of synthesizer music is adding depth back into music changed by punk and garage, using layers to convey a song. The Killers have this down, and they might be the first new band to do so.
Watch for The Killers' full-length album this June. It's a genre album that will be stronger than a genre album should be.
jhuchill@wisc.edu.
