2011 – Vices & Virtues

First they infected us with A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, then they captivated us with Pretty. Odd. and now it’s Panic! At The Disco’s turn to remind us why we fell in love with them in the first place. With Vices & Virtues, their first album as a duo, frontman/multi-instrumentalist Brendon Urie and drummer/percussionist Spencer Smith have proven that their best ideas are just starting to get realized—and the disc not only marks the beginning a new era for this Grammy-nominated, Las Vegas-based rock act but in many ways also rings in a new period of musical and emotional growth that shows no signs of subsiding.

Panic! At The Disco began writing the follow-up to 2008′s critically acclaimed opus Pretty. Odd. a year-and-a-half ago, however once they entered the studio with acclaimed producer John Feldmann (The Used, Neon Trees) in California, they quickly realized that so many songs were pouring out of them that they literally couldn’t stop the process if they tried. “It just felt right to keep at it so we wrote 15 more songs in the studio with John as we were recording,” Urie explains. Afterward the band headed to the West Coast to add some “accents with Butch Walker (Weezer, Pink), but ended up pushing out their older material and replacing it with new songs during those sessions, too.

“We never expected to record more songs with another producer [after working with Feldmann], so it was very unexpected but equally awesome,” Urie admits. That isn’t to say that the band faced some uncertainty when two of the group’s founding members decided to leave in 2009. “There was a month or two where we didn’t have any material or direction and that was scary,” Urie recalls. “It took a lot of work to get up every day and just try to make the best record we could—especially because we hadn’t written in so long—but once we found our groove it seemed like nothing could slow us down.”

The result is Vices & Virtues, an album that effortlessly bridges the gap between the energetic pop anthems of their debut A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out and the psychedelic leanings of Pretty. Odd. while simultaneously showing a progression that’s evident in everything from the album’s arrangements to its instrumentation. “It’s always been important for us not to copy what we’ve done in the past,” Urie says, “the songs on Vices & Virtues are very stylistically diverse and that happened naturally. There are songs that have a jazz feel and then rock songs with strings and hyper-energetic moments, too. It’s really all over the place.”

From the breezy pop of “Ready To Go (Get Me Out Of My Mind)” to airtight groove of “Hurricane” and over-the-top grandiosity of “The Calendar,” Vices & Virtues shows a new side of the band without sacrificing the identity that they’ve worked so hard to establish over the past seven years. “It was definitely different to have two voices instead of four, but Spencer and I have such a comfortable dynamic together that really helped when it came to the whole creative process,” Urie explains. “It took quite a bit of time figuring out which of these songs to put on the album and it was definitely a learning process, but I’m glad we did it the way we did because it helped us prove to ourselves we had the talent to pull something like this off.”

This fact is stridently evident on the album’s first single, “The Ballad Of Mona Lisa,” an upbeat anthem that proves that Panic! At The Disco’s knack for writing the perfect pop hook has only grown stronger over the past few years. “That song started as a bridge and chorus that I had kicking around on my laptop—and when we’re in the studio I showed it to Butch and he really liked it but we didn’t know where it should go from there,” Urie recalls. “But once we started playing around with that track it felt really natural and I think that song signified a fresh start for us in a lot of ways,” he continues. “It’s similar in the vibe and energy of the first record and it really proved that we could just have a good time and not care what other people think.”

Lyrically Vices & Virtues is also an intensely personal record for the band, despite the fact that some of the messages are cloaked in metaphor and wordplay. “A lot of the songs are very straight-forward about what we’re going through but there are a few that have a little more a fantastical presentation,” Urie says. “It was important that we were excited with the words on this record and that they touched us in some way,” he continues. “A lot of the albums we were listening to while we were making this record have a verse about one thing and a chorus about something else, but it doesn’t matter as long as the song is good and I think that discovery gave us carte blanche for chaos… so we went nuts.”

When you look back on Panic! At The Disco’s musical career, the one constant is the fact the group has never been the type of act that’s easy to categorize and Vices & Virtues continues in that tradition, which is something the band couldn’t be more thrilled about. “I love that we don’t fit in to one genre because we’ve never wanted to limit ourselves creatively because that’s the best part of being in a band,” Urie explains. “When we’re making music we’re not thinking about pressure or expectations; we’re thinking about making the best record possible and giving our fans something they’ve never heard before,” he continues.

“If we didn’t have our fans’ admiration we wouldn’t have the creative vision to do any of this so we’re eternally grateful to them,” Urie summarizes. “It’s an amazing feeling to do something like this for as long as we have and still have people out there who are excited to hear it and want to support us. We couldn’t ask for anything more.”

2008 – Pretty. Odd.

For a second, forget everything you already know about Panic At The Disco. That means forgetting that the band’s 2005 debut A Fever You Can’t Sold Out has sold over 2.2 million copies to date; that their video for “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” became a #1 hit on MTV and snagged one of the network’s video music awards for best video in 2006; and, finally, erasing from your mind all of the sold-out clubs the band have played over the past three years and the ubiquity of Panic At The Disco’s music-and mugs-on radio stations, television programs and magazine covers all over the world.

These days, a sensation like Panic At The Disco is something extremely rare and impossible to invent and for those two reasons alone, most bands in their position would stick to the same signature sound for their second disc. However, Panic At The Disco aren’t most bands. Instead, the band-guitarist Ryan Ross, drummer Spencer Smith, vocalist Brendon Urie and bassist Jon Walker-decided to make the album they wanted to make for their sophomore release. While the album is equally as catchy and infectious as their debut, Pretty. Odd. sees the band digging through their parents’ record crates to craft an expansive pop album that channels the ghosts of Brian Wilson and the Beatles as well as lesser-known pop sensations like the Zombies. However, for a while even the band weren’t sure if Pretty. Odd. would ever come to fruition.

Panic At The Disco began writing the album a year ago, but after they’d written a solid batch of concept-driven songs, they stopped to reevaluate what they were doing and ended up deciding they were over thinking the process. “Instead of really throwing anything away, we decided to just move it to the side and approach the second record the same way we did the first record,” Ross explains. “We tried to approach the songs individually and write songs that didn’t sound like anything else we’ve written,” he continues. “Now we’re finally at the point where we can sit down and listen to the finished record and I know we’re happy with it, so I think it was a really good decision-especially since we hope that we’re going to have multiple opportunities to fully realize what our first idea was in the future.”

That’s not too say Pretty. Odd. isn’t dripping with ambition-in fact, if anything, the opposite is true. From the bouncy and psychedelic first single (and accompanying video) “Nine In The Afternoon” to the spaghetti-western shuffle of the horn-driven “Pas De Cheval” and the straight-ahead pop genius of “Northern Downpour,” Pretty. Odd. sees the band stepping outside their comfort zone to prove how much they’ve grown up since their debut, which was written when the members were just seventeen years old. “It wasn’t a conscious decision to have older influences show through on this record, it just seemed like around the beginning of the sixties there were less subgenres, so it wasn’t weird for songs to have a trombone part or violin part,” Smith explains, adding that in some ways, his parents’ dusty old records helped sonically liberate the band. “I think that will probably something that will stick with us after this record.”

Another huge difference between these two albums is the fact that Pretty. Odd.‘s basic instrumentation was recorded at the Palms Hotel in the band’s hometown of Las Vegas, while the strings and mixing was done at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London with the help of their producer, Grammy and Emmy Award winning arranger/composer Rob Mathes. “It was an amazing experience,” Smith says, adding that recording the strings in studio two of Abbey Road was a pretty surreal experience for a band who had to call their label’s owner John Janick to approve three hundred dollars to hire a trumpet player to play on their debut. “We’re really happy with how the orchestration turned out on this record and that’s probably the biggest change from the last album,” Spencer confirms.

In the spirit of acts like the David Bowie and Pink Floyd, Panic At The Disco plan on continuing their tradition of elaborate stage shows and performances for the subsequent touring. However this time around they’re finally confident in having their music speak for itself, which is an achievement the band have looked forward to since their inception. “I just hope that if anything people are open to the idea that Pretty. Odd. may not sound exactly like the first record,” Ross explains. “All we can ask for is that people give it a chance because there are a lot of songs that sound very different, but I think it’s more creative and more musically interesting than most of what is at the top of the charts right now.”

We couldn’t agree more-and we’re sure you’ll feel the same.

2005 – A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out

Some bands spend their whole careers just hoping to produce an album as complex, cohesive and creative as A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. Not Panic! At The Disco: They managed to get it right on the first try.

Before you grab a cold washcloth, let’s diagnose what caused A Fever.

It all started in the suburbs of Las Vegas when 12-year-old Ryan Ross asked his parents for a guitar for Christmas. Not to be outdone, neighborhood pal Spencer Smith begged his parents for a drum set so the duo could start jamming. “Really, from that first year [playing instruments], all we really did was cover Blink 182 songs,” remembers Spencer, laughing. The band eventually matured, moved on from all the small things and recruited classmates Brent Wilson and Brendon Urie on bass and vocals, respectively.

With the final lineup now in place, the newly christened Panic! At The Disco (from a line in the Name Taken song “Panic”) started practicing in Spencer’s grandmother’s living room and began crafting the songs that would eventually make their way onto A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. With their flair for experimental instrumentation and intimately observant lyrics, it wasn’t long before the band sparked the interest of Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, who brought the band to Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen, a label with a green thumb for new talent. “We really clicked with [Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen] and they understood what we wanted to do as a band,” Ryan explains. “They gave us a lot of freedom to do what would make us happy with our music.”

Soon after signing, things got serious and started moving forward at a rapid pace. Spencer and Brent finished high school through distance education; Brendon was taking classes during the day, practicing at night and barely scraping by his senior year; and Ryan decided to leave college at the end of his freshman year, causing a huge rift between him and his family. “When I told my dad I wanted to drop out and write music, he definitely flipped out. It was a battle between me being happy and doing what would make him happy.” So minus the blessing of one father, the four friends packed up, left home for the first time and headed east to College Park, Maryland, to record their debut album with famed producer Matt Squire (Thrice, Northstar, The Receiving End Of Sirens).

“We didn’t want to write a record that had 11 of the same songs on it,” explains Ryan. In order to make sure that didn’t happen, the band came up with the concept to divide the album in two halves: the first being futuristic, complete with drum machines and synthesizers, and the second being nostalgic, complete with Vaudevillian piano and accordion. “It was too extremes of influence being put next to each other: the most electronic music we have on the record and the most old, out-of-style music we have on the record.” The band took pointers from some of their biggest — although not overt — influences: Third Eye Blind’s melodic song structures (on “But It’s Better If You Do”), Queen’s theatric instrumentation (on “Build God, Then We’ll Talk”) and Counting Crows’ vivid and narrative lyrics (on “There’s A Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven’t Thought Of It Yet”). “You wouldn’t hear our record and say, ‘Hmmm, these guys are influenced by Fleetwood Mac or Counting Crows, ‘but those are our favorite bands,” insists Spencer.

It’s this split-brain approach to songwriting that has resonated with listeners young and old. The band has scored big with PureVolume (continually being on the site’s Top 10 Signed Bands chart) and MySpace (reaching #1 on the indie charts), and when they returned to Las Vegas after recording, they played a hometown show (actually, the band’s first live concert ever) and over two hundred people showed up. The boys’ parents, especially Ryan’s father, realized the band was more than just a fleeting hobby and eventually became card-carrying members of Panic! At The Disco’s fan club.
Warning: Panic! At The Disco is not a trend. Prepare accordingly.

Taken from fueledbyramen.com.