Bet You Didn’t Know : The Killers

It’s our hobbies to collect all of the fun facts for you, the music fans! For this time, we are bringing up about The Killers’ fun facts since the band is making a debut in Kuala Lumpur on September 22^nd 2013.  Here we go, the 10 fun facts that you didn’t know and you should know about the Killers ;

1. Some bands were formed through music festivals or by living in the same neighbourhood. But the Killers? They did it in a different way to complete the band. The Killers’ guitarist, David Keuning, put a small ad to get a band member for the band and the words that he put were : “Looking to start or join band? Influences: U2, Pumpkins, Oasis.”

 2. Still from the ad, Brandon was clearly not the first person who responded to David’s ad. According to David, Brandon was the first “non-freak” applicant who responded to it.

 3. The Killers’ music video, ‘Mr.Brightside’, was inspired from a romantic musical movie, Moulin Rouge.

 4. New Order’s ‘Crystal’ inspired the band’s name!

 5. Before being everyone’s candy-eye or one of the best rock band vocalists, Brandon worked as a bellboy at a hotel in Las Vegas. And Ronnie Vannucci worked at a flower shop.

 6. The Killers once got offered to perform as one of the headliners for Glastonbury due to Kylie Minogue’s withdrawal to perform since she had a breast cancer on that time. However, the band turned down the offer just because they didn’t have enough songs to perform.

 7. Love or hate it, Brandon Flowers did a solo record before, ‘Flamingo’, and he is planning to do another solo record. Guess we are going to face another hiatus from the band.

 8. Remember when some bands do some different version for their music video? The Killers also took part in this kind of thing. “Mr. Brightside” the UK version is in black and white while the US version portrays “Moulin Rouge”.

 9. It’s not only British bands’ hobbies to badmouth about the other bands to the press. The native American band like the Killers, are also known for their bad-mouth about Fall Out Boy, Panic At the Disco, and the Bravery.

 10. The Killers love using a chapel choir to glorify their music. Sweet Inspirations are the name of the choir that the band. And it’s also the choir who worked for Elvis Presley.

1.The band were formed in 1999 after Kele Okereke and Russel Lissack ran into each other at Reading Festival. But it was not their first meeting, because they have known each other since 1998.

2. If Bloc Party had a “historical places”. Franz Ferdinand’s concert must be one of it. Because in 2003, Kele gave a copy of debut single ‘She’s Hearing Voices‘ to British DJ Steve Lamacq. And he also handed it to Alex Kapranos. So that was pretty much how the band were discovered.

3. Eventhough all of the band’s member have so many disagreement and different taste in many way, but all of them are sure for one thing, They are a fan of the Broken Social Scene’s records.

4. There was a rumour about Bloc Party had a beef with Kaiser Chiefs. But it’s totally not true. In fact, Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs are a good friend! Apparently the press was the one who attempted to put some stuffs around.

5. Liam Gallagher has been known for his cold-handed work (We are talking about his work in Oasis. Not Beady Eye) once was asked about what he thinks of Bloc Party. And he said “They’re like a bunch of University Challenge students.”. And the band responded that his insult was a truly dissapointing. Well, what did you expect from The Gallaghers.

6. In Britain, Bloc Party’s first album “Silent Alarm” was released in Valentine’s Day. But in the US, it was released a month after.

7.It’s maybe the band’s first ever show in Jakarta. But the frontman, Kele Okereke , has done a show in Jakarta before. It was a DJ Set at Blow Fish in 2010.

8.There are so many stories about the lack of “K” in Bloc Party. But here’s the real one according to Gordon Moakes, “It sort of came from when I was a student and I was fascinated by political iconography; you know, like the idea of the Stars and Stripes and the Hammer and Sickle, and how East and West are kind of denoted by different kinds of things. So we liked the idea of the Bloc, the Eastern Bloc, and from that we got the idea of a Bloc Party, kind of like a Soviet image and a classic American image combined. So that’s kind of the true story”.

9. Kele Okereke is a fan of a fashion-themed Tv Show called “Project Runway”. And what is the Tv show that he dislikes the most? Jersey Shore. Well, every cool person doesn’t like seeing a full wax haired dude and Snookie.

10.Bloc Party’s debut album, Silent Alarm, was also shaped by Adele’s 21 producer. Paul Epworth.

1.The band’s name, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, was taken from modern New York City vernacular as in “whatever / ok”.

2.Karen O married Barnaby Clay in 2011 and Clay directed the video of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ single “Zero”.

3.Yeah Yeah Yeahs is not the only band that Karen O work with, she once did a side project called Native Korean Rock (NKR). NKR tend to have more romantic songs than Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and some of the romantic songs in Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ album was influenced by couple of NKR’s tracks.

4. Before Brian Chase hop to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, he was a drummer for a country music band. And he is not the first drummer of Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

5. We all know that Nick Zinner (and Brian Chase) have been to Indonesia for couple of times. But do you know what is Nick Zinner’s favourite dish when he is in Indonesia? Bubur Kacang Ijo.

6.Are you surprised (in a good way) with Karen O’s new hair colour? Okay, it’s not only you who are surprised with it. Karen O has dyed her hair blond before when she was 20 and her mother hated that.

7.Yeah Yeah Yeahs almost made it to Jakarta in 2009, however it didn’t happen. But thankfully, Ismaya Live has granted our wish! Hell yeah!

 
8.There’s a funny yet stupid situation that happened to Nick Zinner when he was in Indonesia. Once he got thrown out of a brothel in here. Which city? That’s still a mistery.

 
9. The band became one of the first western rock acts to play China when they headlined the Modern Sky Festival in Beijing in 2007.

 
10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ new album “Mosquito” is one the toughest albums that the band have done. The album was worked in New York and Karen O stated that the process in making the fourth album is quite like they way how they worked “Fever To Tell” and their first demo.

After reading those ten fun facts, we hope you guys are ready to hit Love Garage 2013!  Let’s roll! (Alcander Alonzo)