who was at this point the lead guitarist for local progressive rock band the Negative Ponies. The band were keen on Stoermer joining them on a permanent basis, but he was initially reluctant to commit. They had first approached him to be the second guitarist when they were considering turning the band into a five-piece, "possibly more like the Strokes, with a keyboard". Stoermer mentioned later on that he could also play bass. The band had continued as a three-piece trying out other bassists until November 2002, when Stoermer eventually accepted the invitation to join. According to Ryan Pardey, who booked many of the band's early shows, "They (the Killers) became a great band when Ronnie and Mark joined. That’s when they finally became a cohesive unit. What Ronnie did — he was the discipline — and Mark was just a solid musician." While walking through a Virgin Megastore in Las Vegas in 2002, Flowers noticed the album artwork on the then-new Elvis Presley compilation album ELV1S: 30 No. 1 Hits. This gave him the inspiration to use a marquee sign motif as the band's logo. The band hired Vannucci's roommate's girlfriend to design it, and the logo has been used in the band's branding, releases, promotional materials, and merchandise ever since. The four members would get together in Vannucci's garage to work on song ideas. They would also sneak into the band room at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (where Vannucci was studying classical percussion) at night to practice. It was during this period that the band wrote much of their debut album Hot Fuss including hit singles "Somebody Told Me" and "Smile Like You Mean It". The band continued playing at small venues around their hometown, often playing Sunday nights at a transgender bar named Sasha's (later renamed Tramps). It wasn't long before they caught the attention of Braden Merrick, an A&R rep for Warner Bros. Records who had come across their demo on a website dedicated to unsigned bands in the Las Vegas area; after attending a live show he offered to help the band find a record deal and eventually became their manager. He took the band to the San Francisco area, to Berkeley, California, to record demos with former Green Day manager Jeff Saltzman, they then sent the demo tapes out to major record labels in the US. The band was invited to perform