Tag: Panic at the Disco

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Video Grab Bag: Panic! at the Disco, Christina Perri, Industries of the Blind and Empires

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This video for Ready to Go (Get Me Out of My Mind), Panic! at the Disco‘s second single off of their new record Vices & Virtues, just came out yesterday, and, you guys, I really just love it so much. Not only is it a great song (turn it up!), but the video is beautifully shot and lit AND there is fabulous choreography. There are also fun costumes, because the whole thing is a visual tribute to musicals, including Grease, Mary Poppins and Singin’ in the Rain. Oh and also SOMEONE GETS SHOT OUT OF A CANNON. It is just delicious.

 

Panic! At The Disco: Ready To Go [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

 

Continuing with the movie theme, this is the lyric video for Arms, from the upcoming lovestrong by Christina Perri, which features words “projected” onto old-fashioned movie screens. I’ve already confessed to typography nerdery; what I especially like about this one is the way the letters shuffle and jump and sometimes arrive as snarled little knots that then expand into words and phrases.

 

Christina Perri - Arms [Official Lyric Video]

 

Next up is music that sounds like it should be in movies, from Industries of the Blind. This video is a teaser trailer for their upcoming record Chapter 1, and so doesn’t contain a full song. It does, however, give you the chance to see all nine (!) of them in action. I haven’t yet had the chance to see them live, but once this semester is over and law school (temporarily) stops interfering with my social life, I’m going to venture out to Brooklyn and catch one of their shows. In the meantime I put it on while I’m working on writing projects, because it is perfect for making all of the other noise in my head settle down so I can focus and concentrate on the task at hand.

 

Industries of the Blind - Chapter 1 promo

 

And in conclusion, a band that I hope gets their Hollywood ending: that’s right, Empires, the little rock band that could/band of my heart, has made it all the way to Round Three of the Rolling Stone cover contest. If they make it to Round Four, they have a shot at playing a battle-of-the-bands style show with the other finalist at Bonnaroo,  and, of course, being on the cover of Rolling Stone.  As an enticement to vote for them as often as you can before the contest closes on May 13, I submit TWO new videos for songs written and recorded during the contest, Night is Young and Hard Times. There is also a third song, Hells Heroes, which is available for free from their website. If you join their mailing list while you’re there, you’ll periodically get epistles addressed “Dear Scholars,” which is one of the very many reasons this band is the band of my heart.

 

 

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Panic! at the Disco / Walk the Moon

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This week, Jennifer reconnects with one of her favorites and discovers a new Ohio band.

Last Tuesday, Panic! at the Disco played their first U.S. show in almost two years. It was an amazing evening, but before I tell you about it, I’d like to introduce the opening band, Cincinnati, OH natives Walk the Moon:

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I am not quite sure what the facepaint has to do with anything, but: they have hot funk grooves powered by two drummers – one whom is also the lead singer – and in addition said lead singer is in possession of a killer disco falsetto. They immediately engaged and kept the attention of a restless crowd, and the reason I took so few pictures of them was because I was busy dancing. I’d also totally go and see them at their own show in the future. You can listen to them on bandcamp and also they will be at SXSW. If you’re going down there check them out, you will not be disappointed.

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Spencer Smith and Brendon Urie

But now, onwards to the main event, with some brief background: In July 2009, Panic! at the Disco split in half. Ryan Ross (guitars, lyrics) and Jon Walker (bass) became The Young Veins, while Brendon Urie (vocals, guitar, piano) and Spencer Smith (drums) continued as Panic! at the Disco. Following a short tour with Fall Out Boy and Blink-182 in the summer of 2009, Panic! have been largely incommunicado while working on their next record.

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Ian Crawford

On Tuesday night, Urie and Smith were joined by traveling members Ian Crawford (Stamps, The Cab) on guitar and Dallon Weekes (The Brobecks) on bass, and from what I saw, the time away has had a rejuvenating effect. The dance party started as soon as they played the first notes of The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage – their early song titles are kind of ridiculous – but ridiculous titles or not, the old songs sounded new and the new songs fit in with them seamlessly. And by “old” songs I mean Fever era tunes. A few tracks from the more recent Pretty. Odd. were in the set, but they were beefed up to fit with Panic!’s current modern pop sound, which MTV’s James Montgomery has dubbed “baroquetronica.” Whatever you want to call it, Panic! at the Disco’s sonic Summer of Love has pretty clearly come to an end.

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L to R: Ian Crawford, Spencer Smith, Brendon Urie, Dallon Weekes

Vices & Virtues is out on March 29, and, seriously, Happy (Belated) Birthday to ME. I am SO EXCITED for this record, y’all, I can’t even tell you. I’m predicting it will be delicious and they’ll have us dancing all summer. I’m especially keen to hear the studio of version of Let’s Kill Tonight, which as best I could tell was a “you do what you want, we’re going to party” song with a headbanging beat and complicated string section accents.

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Dallon Weekes

Panic! has a tradition of playing one cover per tour: in 2006, during the Nothing Rhymes with Circus for their first record, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, it was were Radiohead’s Karma Police; when they went on the Honda Civic Tour in 2008 in support of second record Pretty. Odd. it was The Band’s The Weight ; during Rock Band Live, also in 2008, it was The Isley Brothers’ Shout and lastly in 2009 for the Believers Never Die tour with Blink-182 and FOB it was Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’.

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Brendon Urie

For this show – and I am hoping for the next tour – it was Science Fiction/Double Feature, from Rocky Horror Picture Show, with just Brendon Urie’s voice and the keyboard. It was a beautiful, unfussy valentine to campy ridiculousness, science fiction geekery and musicals all wrapped up into one song. You may, possibly, at this point, be unsurprised to learn that I put it on almost all of my mix-tapes, back when I made mix-tapes, and that it is my favorite song from that movie. Hearing it again, and so unexpectedly, was both a highlight of the evening and the moment that I fell in love with Panic! at the Disco all over again. In conclusion: that was great, and I can’t wait to see them again.

— Jennifer

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Video Grab Bag

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This week, Jennifer shares some music she’s excited about right now, along with visual accompaniment.

Here (In Your Arms), Hellogoodby, from evilp8intpro922

Hellogoodbye put out their first record, Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! in 2006; I stumbled over it in 2008 and promptly bought it because of the seriously irresistible title. The track in the video above is one of my favorites, and indicative of their then sweet synth-poppy sound. After some wrangling with their now ex-label, they have put out a new record, entitled Would It Kill You? (less synth-y, but still poppy; also still delicious) and are hitting the road with, among other people, Gold Motel. That link back there leads to a free-for-Tweet-or-Facebook-Like tour sampler, which I highlight and heartily encourage you to check out because it includes a Gold Motel cover of Here (In Your Arms) which I cannot stop listening to, and much more besides.

The Black Apples – Where the Wild Things Go (Live at The Echo, Los Angeles, 2010-11-08) by lineinla

And then hopping over a couple of genres, for the psychadelic surf-rock fans in the audience, I bring you The Black Apples, who recently released a vinyl LP into the wild. You can find digital excerpts on bandcamp and the full LP on iTunes. Why I like it: They have TWO drummers and a lot of sweet grooves. In my collection, they occupy the “sounds like Scooby Doo” category with MGMT, but their sound is heavier – big solid drums and crisp guitars, as opposed to candy-colored dreamy noodling. They are having a record release party this Friday, January 28 at 7 PM Origami Vinyl in Echo Park, Los Angeles, CA, and, special note to Colorado and New Mexico, they will be headed your way in early March!

Brett Detar, It’s Only The Night from Tocy777

Brett Detar formerly the lead singer for The Juliana Theory, has recently launched a solo career. I found him and his new record when I was noodling around on Facebook one evening and, ladies and gentlemen, if you enjoy old-fashioned country, you need to get yourself over to his website right now and check out his tunes. My favorites: It’s Only The Night, Cocaine, Whiskey & Heroin, A Miner’s Prayer and This City Dies Tonight.

Panic! at the Disco, The Ballad of Mona Lisa lyric video, from Fueled by Ramen

And finally, I leave you with the lyric video – as in, video composed solely of lyrics – for Panic! at the Disco’s new single, The Ballad of Mona Lisa from their third record, Vices & Virtues, which is expected later this spring. I am a tiny bit of a typography nerd and so I must tell you I am all a-flutter because they are using new and different (and lovely!) fonts here and in their other promotional materials. I do also like the song; they would appear to have left behind the ’60s stylings of Pretty. Odd. and jumped back into the present with both feet, and I can’t wait to hear the rest of the record.

— Jennifer