Las Vegas Review Journal Thanks to Stace at tkn

After completing a tour that's taken them around the globe since 2003, the local boys made good tell me they're heading back here in two months.

In interviews last week, band members revealed for the first time that their next album will be recorded in their hometown. They want to start laying down tracks in December.

"We plan on being done touring in October, and that only leaves a month-and-a-half to write songs in Vegas," road-weary guitarist Dave Keuning says.

"We don't wanna leave that soon since we're never anywhere more than a couple of days, so we're definitely going to record there," he says. "We all still call Vegas home, and that's where we want to settle for a little bit, and go to our own homes at night."

During breaks in their punishing schedule, band members have been hitting town to scout spots.

"We're still looking for a studio," Keuning says. "We may end up building our own."

With an anthemic new single, the gospel-tinged sing-along "All These Things I've Done," the Killers are still riding high on the success of their debut album, "Hot Fuss."

It's in its 59th week on Billboard's chart of the top U.S. albums, but the band already has penned six tracks that could make it onto the follow-up.

"We've got a four-track in the back of the bus that we wrote stuff on," Keuning says. "We're always writing on the road, but it's hard to finish anything. ... All we have is an hour during sound check to try them out."

They previewed one of the new tracks, called "All the Pretty Faces," July 29 while headlining San Diego's Street Scene festival.

"Faces" is a guitar-driven tale of love gone wrong. On it, Flowers sings with a resounding desperation before adopting a threatening tone.

"I'd do anything just to be your man," he pleads. "You're not going anywhere without me."

Without the poppy keyboards that perk up much of "Hot Fuss," the song hints the band is headed into darker musical territory.

Keuning says the new material is much like the debut's 11 tracks. But, he acknowledges, "being on the road for two years, that's had some influence on us."

"Faces' " inclusion on the next album is almost guaranteed, Keuning says, while some of the other road-composed tunes could end up as B-sides or cast off altogether.

The recently written track "Reasons Unknown" is likely to make the follow-up, but tunes like "Where Is She?" and "Uncle Johnny Did Cocaine" are less likely to make the cut.

If they don't, there's always another way of hearing them.

"You can download them illegally," Keuning says with a grin, "because they're all out there on the Internet.