DATE | WEEKS |
September 4, 2004 | 4 |
The story of alternative rock in the 2000s shouldn't have had room for the The Killers. It was supposed to be about a bunch of weirdos in New York City creating a vibrant music scene that lasts to this day. It was supposed to be about how emo was the next evolution of punk rock, connecting with high school kids like myself who felt misunderstood but didn't necessarily want the machismo that nu metal and post-grunge bands brought to the party.
The Killers don't fit neatly within that narrative. They're a band from Las Vegas whose inspiration was 1980s new wave and synth-pop. They broke big in the UK before American audiences even took notice of them. As I try to make sense of it for this post, it all feels like a goddamned miracle.
But that's usually how bands are able to have long, sustained careers, by being one of one, sui generis. And even as their career has wound on, The Killers have sometimes turned everyone's expectations of them on their head. The only band I feel I can appropriately compare them to is my favorite artist of all time, U2. They too are a band who's subverted people's expectations of them at times, that aren't afraid to fail trying something different. (They'll appear in this column soon, as well.)
The difference is I've had the opportunity to observe the Killers' career from the beginning, and at just the right age where their biggest hits loom massively in my mind. For me, that beginning was "Somebody Told Me", a jangly, jittery song that made something old feel brand new again.
Brandon Flowers was born in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson as the youngest of six siblings in a Mormon family. Flowers' family moved to Utah when he was child, and he lived there until he was 16, when he moved back to Vegas to live with his aunt.
After graduating high school, Flowers joined a synth-pop group called Blush Response, but was eventually fired from the group. He soon responded to an ad posted by guitarist Dave Keuning looking to start a band. Eventually, Mark Stoermer and Ronnie Vannucci joined the fold, and the band was known as The Killers. They took their name from the fictional band in the music video for New Order's 2001 song "Crystal". (I remember seeing the video for "Crystal" on MTV2 at the time, and I deeply regret not charting it then. New Order's only hit on my chart, 2015's "Restless", peaked at #22.)
By the summer of 2002, The Killers had established themselves on the Las Vegas music scene. They would sneak into the music facilities at UNLV to practice late at night. There, they wrote many of the songs that would make it onto their debut album, Hot Fuss. An A&R rep for Warner Bros. Records heard about the band and went to one of their performances. But ultimately, no American label was willing to sign The Killers to a deal.
The Killers had to go overseas to get some traction to their career. Ben Durling of the London indie label Lizard King Records heard the group's demo and was so impressed he got them signed to the label without ever meeting the band in person. By 2003, The Killers generated so much buzz in Britain that American record labels were forced to take notice, and they eventually signed with Island Def Jam Records.
Working with Jeff Saltzman as producer, The Killers finished up Hot Fuss by the end of 2003, using many of the demos they recorded to complete the album rather than re-record them. All the while, The Killers kept touring, including opening for new wave legend Morrissey, who no doubt influenced The Killers' sound. (Morrissey's biggest hit on my chart, 2004's "Irish Blood, English Heart", peaked at #4.)
"Somebody Told Me" would be The Killers' first single released in the United States. It was amongst the songs the band wrote at UNLV. Brandon Flowers described the song as simply about "trying to meet someone in a club." It's a simple premise for such a momentous song. But sometimes that's how things work out.
Flowers' narrator sounds anxious about trying to approach a girl at the club, and seems to be getting the cold shoulder. "I'm breaking my back just to know your name, but heaven ain't close in a place like this. Anything goes but don't blink, you might miss." The story takes a turn in the chorus. "Well somebody told me that you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I had in February of last year. It's not confidential, I've got potential."
The Killers played some shows early in their career as a transgender bar called Sasha's, so it's entirely possible that some element of the song is based on a true story. Even if it's not, the line about a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend was instantly memorable for me. The fact that Flowers sings the lyrics with urgency and despondency allows it to not come off as judgmental or creepy. It just sounds like he's singing about Las Vegas characters because he's so intimately familiar with his hometown.
There's a lot more going on with "Somebody Told Me" that makes it so special. Keuning's pulsing guitar at the beginning is vital to the song's quality. So too are Vannucci's drums as the song goes on. The whole thing feels sweaty and nervous, like you're at the club dancing your ass off, but you have no idea what you're doing or how the night will end.
I wasn't going to any clubs when I was 18, and I knew how most of my nights would end before they started. That didn't stop me from enjoying the song as much as I did. It almost feels like the sonic distillation of Las Vegas itself. I've never really wanted to go to the city for a variety of reasons. It always seemed like a place where you go to watch magic shows and drop that month's rent or mortgage payment at a blackjack table. I was content on feeding my imagination with films like Casino or Steven Soderbergh's remake of Ocean's Eleven.
"Somebody Told Me" just didn't sound like anything else I was hearing at the time. Maybe that's why it was a slow burn for me. It debuted on my chart on April 24, and slowly sneaked up the forty until, in it's 20th week, it finally hit number one. It lingered on my chart for a long time afterward, eventually spending 48 weeks on the top 40, tying the record held by Lifehouse's "Hanging by a Moment".
It took a while for the rest of the United States get on board as well. "Somebody Told Me" peaked at #3 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, and eventually crossed over to pop radio, reaching a respectable #51 on the Hot 100.
The Killers were part of a (very) gradual shift happening on alternative radio at the time from the post-grunge and nu metal dirges that had been dominating the chart in the first half of the 2000s. Earlier in 2004, Modest Mouse scored an out-of-nowhere #1 alternative hit with "Float On". And while "Somebody Told Me" was in the top 10 on alternative radio, so was Scottish band Franz Ferdinand's nervy, energetic hit "Take Me Out". ("Float On" peaked at #38 on my chart; Modest Mouse will eventually appear in this column. "Take Me Out" peaked at #6; Franz Ferdinand's biggest hit on my chart, the follow-up single "This Fire", peaked at #2.)
If "Somebody Told Me" had been The Killers' biggest hit, it still would've meant The Killers left quite a mark. But "Somebody Told Me" wasn't The Killers' actual first single; in the UK, it was a different song, and that song became The Killers' second single in America. And it would absolutely leave "Somebody Told Me" in the dust in terms of its impact on pop culture.
Pace yourself for me. We're gonna see a lot more of The Killers in this column.
EXTRAS
Apparently "Somebody Told Me" was featured in a season four episode of Six Feet Under, but I can't find the exact clip anywhere. So instead, here's Måneskin performing "Somebody Told Me" when they competed on the Italian version of The X Factor in 2017:
(Måneskin's only appearance on my top 40 so far (perhaps ever), was 2022's "Supermodel", which peaked at #33.)
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