For Panic at the Disco drummer Spencer Smith, Las Vegas will always be home. “It’s not a bad place to be in December, but it’s not t-shirt weather,” he laughs. “Right now, the tourism’s mellowed out because of the economy. The winters tend to be pretty popular, since it’s a vacation destination that won’t get snowed in. You don’t have to worry about missing your plane because the airport’s shutdown. There will always be people who want to gamble too, so Vegas is pretty good.”

It’s been good to the platinum-selling rockers as well, constantly offering a foundation for them to return to after a slew of energized and incendiary shows. One of those particular shows is captured vividly in the band’s recent CD/DVD combo release, Live In Chicago. It’s bombastic and vibrant, just like Panic is. Spencer sat down with ARTISTdirect.com to discuss his band’s latest release, touring and much more in this exclusive interview.

Live In Chicago really captures the immediacy of a Panic at the Disco show. It’s very in-the-moment.

We put a lot of effort into trying to make it that way. From watching other bands’ DVDs, we developed a style for this. One of our best friends, Shane, was filming everything on tour, and he was the head of filming in Chicago. Read the full article »

December 30, 2008

S

S is for…Smokey Robinson

Smokey Robinson-Going to a Go-Go

Smokey sure has a voice doesn’t he?

-RR

Norway – June 2008
by Carl Martin Nordby

Brendon and Jon during an interview for regiomusik.de backstage at Batschkapp in Frankfurt, Germany. July 2, 2008. Credit: sue_downpour90 @ LJ.

December 28, 2008

T

T is for…There are Too many Bands I want To use for T.

So I will.

The Troggs-Wild Thing

Now if this isn’t a party song, what is?

The Turtles-Happy Together

and one more

Television-Venus

oh and one more thing… watch this

unreal. Short update, lots of goods though, gotta go get on this plane.

-RR

Panic At The Disco were sort of busy in 2008. They parted ways with a punctuation marker and arguably managed to shake the sophomore jinx, delivering the highly anticipated follow-up to 2005′s ridiculously huge breakthrough, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. Pretty. Odd. was described by at least one observer as “ignored by fans and critics alike,” but it seemed to do all right, garnering positive reviews from AP and a few of those competing magazines that shall remain nameless. It also spent more than four months on the Billboard chart and is currently certified gold. Not to mention, you can see (and hear) a whole swath of fans emphatically singing along to the material on both the compact disc and DVD portions of their new live package, the modestly titled …Live In Chicago.

Brian Shultz recently spoke with drummer Spencer Smith to talk about bizarre video featurettes, the politics of press, and how the band managed to hold out on a live offering despite exploding early on.

Have Panic been entertaining offers to do live albums for a few years now?
It was more just a band decision that at whatever point…”if you want to do it or not.,” We wanted to do something at some point, so we just decided to record it in Chicago. Read the full article »

December 26, 2008

U

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I hadn’t had a home cooked meal or played, and lost so badly to a seven year old at wii, in quite sometime. Onward though, I bet you didn’t think i’d come up with one for U. I almost didn’t, but I remembered someone that everyone knows, probably without knowing.

U is for…Ukelele Ike

Ukelele Ike- “I’m a bear in a lady’s boudoir”

Even Though his real name was Cliff Edwards he went by Ukelele Ike for quite sometime in his professional career. He sung such classics as “Singing in the Rain” and “When You Wish Upon a Star”. He was also the voice of Jiminy Cricket. Told you you’d know him. Read the full article »

December 24, 2008

V

writing this from a plane in Charlotte, yea I missed my flight yesterday. But anyway looking through some comments alot of you suggested the band XTC for the letter X. Rob Mathes loves them, and they totally slipped my mind, he’d be ashamed. Someone also said “Xenon” referring to the Disney movie, which I was pretty obsessed with when it came out. But i looked it up and they actually spell it with a Z. I think the band in that movie was called Protazoa but I could be wrong. Onward, to V. V is for…Velvet Underground! Velvet Underground- Candy Says theres lots of good ones for V, Van Morrison, Van Dyke Parks.. But i’ve been listening to this band more lately, this self titled album in particular, but check out “Loaded” also, it’s louder. -RR

Merry Christmas!!! [And if you don't celebrate it,] I hope everyone is having a wonderful Holiday Season!

From MySpace…

The audio from the new CD/DVD …Live In Chicago is available now on iTunes! Click here to check that out now!

And while you’re on iTunes, check out The Fueled By Ramen 2008 Year In Review to save $2 on Pretty. Odd. along with all the other FBR releases from 2008! This deal is only valid for two weeks so stop by iTunes soon!