I Believe This Calls For A Proper Introduction!

Panic at the Disco! songs happen to be my soundtrack for just about anything I do, including my attempt to write this article (¯Ready To Go ¯). A good friend introduced them to me in the summer of 2006 and I am eternally grateful J. At that time I was already a year behind since they released their debut album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, on September 27, 2005.

                Let me start with some introductions. Originally it was Ryan Ross and Spencer Smith who began playing together and started their music career as an amateur Blink 182 cover band. This was all happening in the self proclaimed entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas. Popular culture has made it this ethereal place tucked away in a desert with ‘The Strip’ as a thirst quenching oasis. It was not long before fellow Las Vegas citizens Brent Wilson and Brendon Urie (who has made many a teen’s heart beat just that bit faster <3 ) joined the group. Nevertheless, it was not this town of glamour and entertainment that motivated them. On the contrary, they felt the Las Vegas music scene had become repetitive and was in need of new sounds. This is a reason they felt the need to bring something new. They soon came up with their tongue in cheek name ‘Panic! At The Disco’ inspired by the song Panic by Name Taken. Their rise to fame was like a fresh breeze. When Pete Wentz, bassist of Fall Out Boy, listened to a link P!ATD had sent him he promptly flew to Las Vegas to hear them play. Even though he had only heard them in a garage he did not hesitate to sign them and the rest is history.

Their first album is still a fever I can’t seem to sweat out ;) Firstly, there were the long song names that so refreshingly had no literal meaning, such as ¯I constantly thank god for Esteban¯or even ¯I write sins not tragedies¯. Furthermore, the names were inspired by popular culture, more precisely the books and movies they loved (I think I like them even more since I discovered this). For instance, two songs are a quote by Natalie Portman in Closer (2004), ¯Lying Is The Most Fun You A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off¯ and ¯But It's Better When You Do¯. ¯The Only Difference Between Martydom And Suicide Is Press Coverage¯ is from a Chuck Palahniuk book called Survivor. They also have a not so subtle reference in their last song, ¯Build God, Then We’ll Talk¯, to the Sound Of Music song “My Favourite Things”, giving it their own touch:

There are no raindrops on roses,
And girls in white dresses.
It's sleeping with roaches,
And taking best guesses

At the shade of the sheets and before all the stains
And a few more of your least favorite things.

To top it off they are also visually captivating. Their video for ¯I write sins not tragedies¯was not only an ear pleaser but also an eye pleaser as they had a flair for theatricality and vaudeville inspired costumes, which made it better than an average music video. It would also go on to win Video of the Year at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. It would also kick start their highly praised circus inspired tour and by the end of 2006 it was clear P!ATD had charmed the world. (Currently the somewhat popularly inspired video for ¯Ready To Go¯ is worth a look.)

 Adding to their credibility on the music scene is the fact that their songs have the potential to have so much meaning on a personal level, and still seem frivolous and fun at the same time. Yet, they do not use cliché lyrics or words and with regard to a theme you can have fun guessing.  Actually for seventeen year olds, when they wrote the album, I was quite impressed with their vocabulary. I am not sure if I could have used the word ‘surreptitious’ quite as well as them at that stage (¯There's A Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey. You Just Haven't Thought Of It Yet¯). Nevertheless, the mainstream media were quick to classify them as emo. However, it still helped catapult them to fame. Also judging by some lyrics (such as below) I do not think they were too bothered about what the world thought or labels for that matter:

¯London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines¯

Panic! Meet the Press
It's time for us to take a chance
It's time for us to take a chance
Panic! Meet the Press
It's time for us to take a chance
It's time for us...

While we're just a wet dream for the webzine,
Make us it
Make us hip
Make us scene
Or Shrug us off your shoulders
Don't approve a single word that we wrote

For their next album it was clear they were somewhat older and they wanted to focus on the music in its basic forms. Pretty Odd did not have the characteristically theatrical sound so many of us had grown to love and they had dropped their exclamation mark. Yet, considering they were so young when the first album was written and Brent Wilson had left, to be replaced by Jon Walker, it should not have come as much of a surprise. Although they had seemed to age beyond their years at this point the music was still fun despite its melancholy undertone. ¯Northern Downpour¯ just seems so heartfelt, ¯Folkin Around¯ is a song I imagine cowboys are having a great party to and ¯She Had The World¯ is just something I can imagine Darcy and Elizabeth from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice having a dance to (even though this music would definitely have never fitted in that time). Pretty Odd is like a porthole to a world I can escape to when I need to put things into perspective.

                After this album it was very quite around PATD and in 2009 it became known that Ryan Ross and Jon Walker had decided to go their own way. It was rumoured that there were artistic differences between the band members. Luckily Panic! At The Disco is back in 2011 with an exclamation mark. It took two years for the remaining two band members, Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith, to come up with their yet again unique sound and third album Vices and Virtues. As I mentioned before I love that the songs can have meaning on a personal level and that there is so much emotion. You can truly sing it out however you want to ;) My personal favourite when it comes to raw emotion is ¯Lying Is The Most Fun You Can Have Without Taking Your Clothes Off¯:

Is it still me that makes you sweat?
Am I who you think about in bed?
When the lights are dim and your hands are shaking as you're sliding off your dress?
Then think of what you did
And how I hope to God he was worth it.
When the lights are dim and your heart is racing as your fingers touch his skin.
I've got more wit, a better kiss, a hotter touch, a better fuck
Than any boy you'll ever meet, sweetie you had me
Girl I was it, look past the sweat, a better love deserving of
Exchanging body heat in the passenger seat?
No, no, no, you know it will always just be me

If you sing this out loud you actually feel good about yourself not to mention confident. Urie confirmed this and very convincingly emphasized it at a concert in Trix Antwerp on 11 May. He also performed this song much more effectively this time around than at their first concert in Belgium at the AB in Brussels back in their Fever days. ¯Hurricane ¯is another one of those songs. Need I say more:

Are you worth your weight in gold?
Cause you're behind my eyelids when I'm all alone.
Hey stranger, I want ya to catch me like a cold (achoo!).
You and God both got the guns,
And when you shoot I think I'd duck.

I led the revolution in my bedroom
And I set all the zippers free.
We said "No more war! No more clothes!
Give me peace! Oh kiss me!"

Hey! Hey! We are a hurricane!
Drop our anchors in a storm.

If you are having a fight listen to ¯ The Calender¯ which is a beautiful song with my favourite line because it is just so pure and lyrically said: ‘at night your body is a symphony and I’m conducting’. The whole album is rife with great words, tunes and references to popular culture among which Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is probably the most obvious. This album can truly be to you whatever you want it to be, just listen to ¯Always¯ or ¯Sarah Smiles¯  if you do not believe me. Just listen and you will not be disappointed.  

I wish more people would ‘catch them like a cold’ and appreciate them for the interesting, escapist, motivating and dare I say inspiring music. Surprisingly enough, when it comes to Panic! At The Disco I really will ‘dance to anything’. (and that’s a big thing because I’m not much of a dancer J)