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The Killers fans are only just realizing what the iconic band's name means after 25 years

The Killers fans are only just realizing what the iconic band's name means after 25 years

Daily Mail​a day ago

After 25 years, fans of the rock band The Killers are only just discovering the origin of the band name.
The musicians behind iconic anthems such as Somebody Told Me and Mr. Brightside were initially formed in Las Vegas in 2001 by singer Brandon Flowers and guitarist Dave Keuning.
The following year, they added additional band members in bassist Mark Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr.
But it seems that even die-hard fans have been in the dark about the popular band's name, only now realizing what it really means.
The Killers name actually came from the fictional band featured in the music video for New Order's song Crystal from 2001.
Brandon was a huge fan of New Order and spotted the name on the drum kit of the fictional band in the music video, per The Mirror US.
The name has previously been a topic of conversation on Reddit with people questioning where the band's name originated.
'How did the band name "The Killers" survive until the early 2000s without being claimed by someone else? You'd think something like that would have been the name of some mildly successful band by then,' someone asked.
A person responded: 'It's very surprising indeed. I wouldn't be shocked if some guys in some dorm room in the '70s or something had called themselves The Killers for two gigs and then called it quits, but at that point, it would be so hard for anyone to prove the name was ever theirs.
'That would be like me saying I created the name "Post Malone" when I was eight years old, and that it is rightfully mine.
'The band actually saw the name "The Killers" on the drum head of a fictional band in a New Order music video, and when they found out it was available, they decided to take it. That was actually while the band was still forming, in 2001.'
Another user said: 'I guess it's just one of those things...
'I bet there were a dozen heavy metal bands called The Killers in the early 80's that never got off the ground.'
Fans of another famous 2000s band - MGMT - recently found out how to pronounce the name and what it means.
Resurfaced footage showed MGMT members Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser when they were fresh-faced students at Wesleyan University in 2003.
They were playing an early version of their hit single Kids to a small crowd.
While many have marveled over how long ago the song came out, it was the duo's pronunciation of their name that has truly sent fans into a spin.
Many longtime fans were shocked to learn that it's not actually pronounced em-gee-em-tee like the letters of MGMT, but it actually stands for 'Management.'
In the clip, VanWyngarden introduced the band, telling the crowd: 'We are the Management.'
According to an article published by Vulture in 2008, the band's label, Columbia, and a publicist told the outlet it's 'definitely pronounced "Em-gee-em-tee."'
Several sources noted that the band's original name was The Management, but they shortened it to MGMT after discovering another artist had the rights to it.

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Brad Pitt, 61, wears ANOTHER wild outfit for date night with girlfriend Ines de Ramon, 32, in NYC
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You could spend days touring witch-themed attractions in Salem, slick venues where talented actors win awards for their brilliant recreations. I don't. I see and feel enough with the Salem Witch Museum and the Witch House. The latter is an eerie, dark-hued wooden mansion that chills me back to the American horror films of my childhood. The only building that actually played a role in the trials that you can still visit today is even more chilling inside. The floorboards creak with the spectre of Jonathan Corwin, a judge appointed after his predecessor resigned in protest at the first hanging. Corwin had no such qualms. In many ways, Salem has been paying penance for the horrors of 1692 ever since, trying to bury its baleful past. Salem gave the world the joy of Monopoly and Clue (Cluedo in the UK) and America the Peabody Essex Museum, its oldest continually operating museum. Salem knows both the consequences of evil and of other people doing nothing to stop it. These are lessons that resonate today Jill Christiansen It also gave sailors to fight in the War of Independence – and then its warships (along with more than a few appropriated from the British) became trading vessels opening up new routes to China, Japan and Madagascar as America's busiest port and one of the country's 10 biggest cities in the 19th century. The national guard was founded in Salem. The city's rich history lingers on at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, the first of its kind, established back in 1938. This waterfront quarter was never ravaged by the British navy, with its largest wharf, Derby Wharf, still proudly stretching out into the lifeblood harbour. Information boards tell the stories of the days when silks caressed the waterfront and exotic spices filled the air. And US novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne's time working at the Custom House inspired him to write his seminal gothic novel, The House of the Seven Gables, on visits to his cousin's house, which still stands as a museum nearby. Salem has also found its place in the world today – with a sense of deep irony, unsettling for some – as the self-styled 'Witch City'. Witches are everywhere. And out in the open. You would think that being most renowned globally for murdering ' witches ' is not a public relations win, but dark tourism descended on Salem as early as the arrival of the railroad in 1838, with ghoulish visitors knocking on doors demanding eyewitness accounts. The public fascination with the occult has, if anything, increased down the centuries, and Salem has cannily embraced its 'Witch City' moniker. There is a Witch City Mall, Witchcraft Heights School, and a flying witch even adorns police badges. I can have my fortune told, buy a crystal to cure any ailment and explore myriad alternative lifestyles. Blackcraft is a teenage goth's paradise. I explore it with a Halloween-themed – of course – pumpkin-spiced latte from their cafe. At Kakawa Chocolate House, I try their delicious new Salem Spice Elixir. Salem does witch tourism big time. And it does it well. Thankfully, today's witches are not persecuted, more celebrated. At the Halloween Museum, I learn that around 2,000 locals today identify as witches out of a population of around 45,000. This population swells with more than a million visitors during the tourist invasion that swirls around Halloween, a global phenomenon with roots as Samhain in pagan-era Scotland and Ireland, but associated with Salem via its infamous trials. 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Our guide, Hancock, shares his eclectic Irish, Scottish and Native American heritage, before swirling me back through the centuries to the baleful days of 1692, the shiny shops and foodie haunts vanishing under the bleakness of a Puritan capotain hat as the sky clouds over. The tour shudders to an end at the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, a brutally simple garden with stones for each of the 20 executed. Another innocent quintet died in custody. But Hancock is proud of Salem today: 'You can truly be yourself here, not like in some parts of America today,' he says. 'Everyone is welcome, witches and all.' His eyes narrow, though, and his smile disappears as he whispers a cautionary note: 'There is always a danger of witch trials in many forms, and we all must make sure we don't sit around and do nothing when they threaten to start. Above all, 1692 has taught us that.'

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