I spent part of my summer traveling around the country and talking to bandom writers (bandom, in case you are lucky enough to be out of the loop, is fan fiction about emo bands). The overwhelming consensus among my subjects was that the characterization of Panic at the Disco’s Ryan Ross (not the lead singer, the other one) had taken an abrupt turn from fragile emo kid to twee hippie. Judging from this video for their new single “Northern Downpour,” he seems to be angling for yet another shift: Middle school graduation attendee in 1975, complete with goofy haircut.
Many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock. To help figure out which is which, here’s “Corporate Rock Still Sells,” where Al “GovernmentNames” Shipley examines what’s good, bad, and ugly in the world of rock and roll. This time around, he gives the year’s rock charts a midway-mark overview.
“You can’t download the concert ticket,” Panic At The Disco drummer Spencer Smith told MTV News when he was talking about why the band’s live experience was how the band really gauged itself. In the era of torrenting and Sendspacing, people who are still hoping to make some sort of profit from music are looking at things that you can’t download as a way to bring back the “real” aspects of the artform–but in their quest for tangible objects, and not virtual experiences, they’re kind of overusing the whole “you can’t download” construction After the jump, a list of items that have fallen victim to this cliche, and probably will continue to until the Internet’s backbone gets fat enough to fit things like 12-inch slabs of vinyl or life-size replicas of 3 Doors Down through it or the entire industry collapses, whichever comes first.
Seventeen (which the idea of my infant daughter reading someday fills my heart with dread already) is rolling out widgets that are complete with animated somethings and interactive whatsits, which play tracks selected by today’s biggest pop stars with sizable teen audiences. Apparently, if you are in fact a teenage girl, you could express your fandom for your favorite artist by embedding this sort of thing on your Facebook page. Instead, let’s just take a look at the artists’ choices, and validiate our existing feelings about their artistic output!
“That Green Gentleman” is one of the standouts from Panic At The Disco’s Pretty. Odd, and its fussy harmonies and baroqueish stylings are well-matched with this cute clip, which is stuffed with Russian dolls, old-timey bikes, and lots of kids gleefully running around. (Even the product placement is mercifully–and dare I say tastefully?–brief, although I could just be saying that because I’m still suffering PTSD from that Fergie song for Sex And The City.) “Do you think they want to be the Monkees?” a friend of mine asked after I sent him the YouTube of this clip. “Nah,” I said. “I think they’re aiming in a different direction…”
Surely I’m not the only person who, upon seeing the headline “Beck, Wilco, Panic set for SF music festival,” thinks that it’s kind of cool that Panic at the Disco are going to give at least one of this summer’s festivals something different–only to click on said article and find out that the “Panic” in question is actually Widespread Panic, which I guess makes more sense give that Jack Johnson is also playing the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in August. But still, meh. (Click on the logo for the currently announced lineup.) [Reuters]
Nearly every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today’s installment covers Panic at the Disco’s Pretty. Odd, which lead singer Brendon Urie said should be described in a way that should make at least one reference to its awkwardly punctuated title. Did critics take Urie’s challenge? Let’s find out!
Since many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock, welcome to “Corporate Rock Still Sells,” where Al Shipley (a.k.a. Idolator commenter GovernmentNames) examines what’s good, bad, and ugly in the world of Billboard‘s rock charts. This time around he grades six modern rock bands looking to get their new singles added to radio playlists, both on their chances for hitting big and the relative suckiness of the songs in question.
They may be ditching the exclamation point from their name and chucking the contortionists to the curb, but Panic At The Disco’s video for the (still ridiculously catchy) “Nine In The Afternoon” is a sign that they’re still all about the showmanship, with splashes of bright color, a Beatles-like… More »
ARTIST: Panic At The Disco
TITLE: “Nine In The Afternoon”
WEB DEBUT: Jan. 28, 2008
