Hot Band: The Killers

Las Vegas has never been a hotbed of cool young rock bands, but there's a new rat pack in town. The Killers are four sharp-dressed Sin City hipsters who have already seduced Europe with their danceable rock attack. Their excellent debut album, Hot Fuss, is a blast of heavy glam guitar, Eighties-style synth beats and gorgeously tormented tales of doomed love and obsession that sound like Morrissey hitting the casinos with Duran Duran. Says twenty-three-year-old singer-keyboardist Brandon Flowers, "We're living in a modern-day Ziggy Stardust song."

Growing up in Vegas, the Killers were surrounded by sleaze. Flowers used to work as a bellboy at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino, where he got to experience the Vegas Strip glitz up close. "I was a bell-man," he corrects. "One night I saw this man chase a prostitute who stole his wallet. He caught her in the valet parking area, but she'd taken off her shoes to run, so she just hit him with her high heels until blood was gushing from his face."

The Killers made their first big splash in England, picking up famous fans such as Morrissey himself, who recently recruited them as his opening act. "It's unreal," says Flowers. "I still have his posters on my wall. But I guess I grew up the same way he did, looking at David Bowie and the New York Dolls." Now the whole band -- Flowers, guitarist Dave Keuning, drummer Ronnie Vannucci and bassist Mark Stoermer -- is primed to take America to the prom. "We enjoy getting dressed up," says Flowers. "I guess it's something we were born to do." But it's the music that makes the Killers such a hot fuss -- especially the anthemic "All These Things That I've Done," which features a gospel choir chanting, "I got soul, but I'm not a soldier." Says Flowers, "If you looked at where music was going a few years ago, you wouldn't think this would happen. But now, rock bands are actually starting to make people dance instead of elbow each other."

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