I’d never listened to Panic! before. At the advice of Peter, we checked ‘em out. Characters straight out of Moulin Rouge danced circles around the emo-pop band. The kids ate it up. And there are only kids here at Lollapalooza. I haven’t seen anyone (other than band members) pushing forty. (So much scene.) Brendan Urie’s got chops too. Covers of “Karma Police” and “Tonight, Tonight” were unexpectedly tight. I’ll have some of their Radiohead audio for ya later. In the meantime … “Time To Dance” at youtube.com/user/stereogum.
Other highlights: Eels covering Tom Waits’ “Jesus Gonna Be Here,” Editors’ “Bullets,” and Ryan Adams’ Dead-spin “He’s Gone” at the Playstation Stage. Plus we’ve been blessed with spectacular weather.
Some sad news, however: the screen on my brand new Macbook Pro is all dark. I can barely make out the desktop, so it’s “working,” but not usable. Yes it was fully charged and I’ve played with the brightness and whatnot. Do Macs secretly suck? I was so happy with it … until today.
Fortunately there’s a public HP I’m using right now. So, I’ll check in after Violent Femmes/Sleater-Kinney/MMJ/Ween. Met MTV/Rolling Stone‘s future reality star interns who are following Lizzie around. Though that gawker stalk was swiftly trumped by a walkby from Jack White. And the PFork boys say hi.
Stream all the fun at blueroom.att.com.
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MACs do not suck. promise. hopefully it is just a minor malfunction. also…can someone please shoot panic at the fucking shit disco…how dare they even think to cover THOM YORKE. seriously? why does anyone like them?!
Call Apple 800-275-2273 right away – maybe they can give you a replacement in Chicago if its not a quick fix over the phone.
“how dare they even think to cover THOM YORKE”
what a fucking douchebag.
i guess they have been doing those covers the whole tour…..yes, i am an indie hipster, and yes, i saw P!ATD as the kids say. (took the neice but secretly, like the record)
Check the brightness controls in the System Preferences>Displays – don’t just rely on the keyboard controls. Alternately, you might want to look at making sure your monitor calibration setting in System Preferences>Displays>Color is correct, or recalibrate it using the ‘Calibrate…’ button.
when you change the lyric from “hitler hairdo” to “emo hairdo” you deserve to be set aflame. I’m not even upholding the original lyric as sacred…just the sheer audacity to change the lyric to something such as “emo hairdo” to appeal to your audiences love for everything involving their scene is appalling
not to mention these guys trudge out the song and take all of the intricacies out of it and sound so unrehearsed, no respect for the original, they’re just covering the song to make themselves seem hip to 13-year-olds who think “oMGDZORZ they can cover radiohead, that’s talent!!!”. it saddens me to hear people say this version is better than the original. and yes, i’ve heard it been said.
Another mac tragedy…At least there was a HP to rely on.
good lookin out with the blueroom link. raconteurs at 6:30! work just got bearable for rest of the day.
as far as the macbook brightness goes you might try to check:
system prefrences; display; turn off “auto adjust brightness”. especially if you are using it outdoors.
or
change your keyboard prefs to allow use of fn keys without pressing fn. then you can adjust with F1/F2
hope it helps… my macbook rawks
i think Panic At the Disco is the worst group i’ve heard since Creed broke up…
Once again, at least you weren’t on an exploding Dell.
And since I don’t enjoy PATD’s original songs, I can’t imagine enjoying them covering artists that are league’s above them.
enjoying The Secret Machines at Blueroom right, and like they said work just became bearable.
i know it’s not a popular opinion here but i do enjoy a few of those p!atd songs (although they relatively sound the same after many listens) but covering radiohead and smashing pumpkins? that’s almost blasphemy. why don’t they go with something that’s really within their league? like fob perhaps?
Hey Boys and Girls,
Ryan Adams here, my macbook has irked me so much in the last 2 days that I’ve written six albums about it, all to be released in the next fortnight.
Don’t be hating just cos I’m talent.
Peace out,
Ry! At The Disco
Yeah, I dunno — Panic! sounded pretty rough and the singer off-key on the Blue Room broadcast. I couldn’t imagine someone singing Tonight, Tonight worse than Billy Corgan — but, this dude definitely did.
Cool flickr photostream of Lolla photos coming through on my site however, btw…
after seeing the Raconteurs live i suppose they aren’t such a bad band after all.
your macbook backlight burned out or is temporarily failing. Thats a pretty major hardware malfunction, youll need it professionaly serviced.
Run, do not walk to the Apple store on Michigan, and they should give you a replacement macbook on the spot. They have pretty good warranties for the first year, but beyond that, you gotta pay.
A nothing band by the name of Panic! At the Disco decides they’re going to try to sound EXACTLY like Fall Out Boy. They’re successful. And because of their dedication to complete unoriginality, a few song posts on a Fall Out Boy forum, and the fact that record companies want and are looking for bands that will sell well and FOB is selling very well they go from absolute nothingness to major record deal. Then they get the Dresden Dolls (Who have been recording and touring for years) to open for THEM. They are not artists they are product.
From a professional AV geek’s POV, anytime you pit an LCD screen against the sun, the sun’s gonna win. If it still looks shitty indoors, then get a new computer.
“your macbook backlight burned out or is temporarily failing. Thats a pretty major hardware malfunction, youll need it professionaly serviced.”
I was just about to say the same thing… I’ve had it happen on two laptops. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty major repair. Hopefully they’ll just trade you a new one.
Bring it to the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue it’s like a 2 minute walk from grant park. Hopefully you have everything backed up.
Maybe they covered the Pumpkins because the event is in Chicago…
I think Panic’s album is amazing in its mediocrity.
“Maybe they covered the Pumpkins because the event is in Chicago…”
they’ve been doing both these covers, unsuccessfully, well before lolla, so i don’t see the theory in that.
hopefully someone will shake the kids approving this and they will start listening to bands with true heart like the pumpkins and more importantly radiohead, and drop this mediocre “emo” labelled bullshit
i hate labels, mostly the emo label. that has taken on a culture of its own that is dwindling into a path of nothingness and depression. These kids are being emotionally moved by music that is manufactured as a bastardization of real music that has been labelled “emo” so they can say they understand the true emotion of an artist. Real music is about the emotion of an artist being poured into his or her work to vent/rejoice/fight back and record companies are sucking the lifeblood of it and spitting out stuff that they think kids will buy into, the aftermath is a souless capital tool. yet the kids are given music presented as having real, raw emotion. DON’T BUY INTO IT. most of what i’ve heard on the radio is purely for fun and to scream out in a repetitive drunken stupor at parties. nothing to truly connect with. c’mon kids…..listen to some real music, this is nothing but a corporate tool with a face that confronts you with the illusion of real emotion.
the music industry needs to be taken down like the coroporations in fight club. i know this is a bad example but it’s the best i’ve got. take it all down, and rebuild it with the artists behind it. despite it being easy to find good music on the internet blogs and in local clubs, we are in a sad state right now in the music industry…where do we go people? where??
“hopefully someone will shake the kids approving this…”
You should never, EVER shake a baby.
i wouldn’t go so far as to say i LIKE panic, but i respect what they?re doing enough to defend them.
not all good music comes from an artist bursting at the seams with emotion. The relationship between beauty/emotion and “design” or “craft” has been debated for centuries across all forms of art. Sufjan himself has been quoted saying that his music is more about craft than emotion. any songwriter (with the exception of… maybe tori amos) can tell you that songwriting isn’t always about letting your emotions take control and capturing everything that spews out. It?s also about craft and ?intelligent design,? if you will.
that being said, panic! at the disco’s album is undeniably crafty, regardless of whether or not anyone can listen to the whole thing without getting a migraine. especially for being… what? 18 at the time it was recorded? younger than that when it was being written for sure. Yes, it is rather over-produced and almost laughably busy, but the arrangements are clever, the lyrics are kind of self-consciously cocky-clever, the melodies are decent and the playing isn’t bad. they can’t help it if kids identify with their music emotionally. all bands want to connect with their audience on some level. people, young’ns or adults, identify with some stupid shit. I identify with the emotion in Nick Drake’s music, but i could listen to someone call him a mopey pussy and understand completely. it’s all relative.
Anyway, it’s not their fault if Pete Wentz discovered them and thought people should hear their music and some dudes from a record company decided they could make money. well, i guess it is because they posted songs on his blog or whatever, but it’s not their fault if pete wentz liked their music. Fuck the machine!! yeah!!! record labels suck!!! they’re probably just doing what any band you see in your local club is trying to do – writing songs they like and finding an audience that identifies with those songs. Their audience just happens to be rather large and lame.
What kinda credibility mine is Ryan Adams trying to plunder now by covering the Dead’s “He’s Gone”? Does the whole crowd join in for the “…steal your face right off your head!” verse?
panic! isn’t really emo. they’re another genre entirely, really, just the way head automatica is. another band which has unintentionally brought themselves to the attention of the scene. ironically, much to the stupidity of the scene kids, p!adt constantly makes fun of the scene.
anyways…they’re not emo. emo is more appleseed cast and this beautiful mess.
it’s more like wannabe dance punk. alternative dance. or something.
either way, it’s all downhill from here.
Check out my review of yesterday at the link above, or copy/paste the URL below. We definitely saw different bands…
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=5366769&blogID=152383661&MyToken=8d2d5d0e-91b4-4546-afbb-8c075df0cffd
I think it’s a bit more complicated than Panic simply writing songs and being discovered. Their entire existence is premised upon the exploitation of a pre-established “movement” and its signifiers- long song titles, specific haircuts and fashions, a particular vocal approach, etc. They are bottom-feeders, co-opting the most superficial elements of something called “emo” and taking them to the bank. It’s not just that a record company figured out they can make money; the only purpose of the band is to make money. People hate them for the same reasons they hated Menswear (“brit-pop”) and Candlebox (“grunge”)before them. They are the cynical vultures who suddenly appear at the tail-end of a cultural movement looking to feast on its remains.
couldn’t and didn’t say it better myself, jason
I completely agree with Brian.
“I Write Sins Not Tragedies” is the first song that’s ever made me understand the concept of a guilty pleasure.
As for the computer, I have an iBook and when I use it outside you can hardly see the screen. As far as I know, that’s just how it goes. Like someone else said, in a fight between an LCD screen and the sun, always put your money on the sun. Try it inside, and if you still can’t see anything, and you’ve tried adjusting the brightness, only then take it to the Apple store. It’s probably nothing at all.
if you have to use your ‘pooter but the screen is too dark to really see anything, try hitting control-option-command-8. it reverses the blacks and the whites and really makes things pop when the screen is dim (this is also really useful when you’re running out of battery power but gotta finish typing or doing something before everything dies – saves a ton on battery power). okay, i’m done geeking out for the day now.
i can’t tell you how horrible it is to see stereogum REP this ridiculous, pile of shit, excuse for a band
don’t forget that stereogum also repped Morningwood a few months ago…they are not infalliable
“repped”? does someone need a dictionary? when you say “rep” do you mean “wrote a paragraph about”? i don’t get it.
i don’t understand how anyone with half a brain can defend panic at the disco.
they are the best example of the digression of today’s music industry.
i wonder what radiohead and smashing pumpkins think of a band that didn’t have to work for a record deal at all beyond posting a song on their famous friend’s blog.
i’m sure they figured out exactly what record companies are looking for right now, which isn’t that hard to see, and threw a song together that would appeal to that audience. i hope they don’t think they’re going to last because i can see this trend of music ending soon and people will forget who they are in a year.
they leave me with the impression that they wanted a record label to use them as puppets to make money. what person would play that music and go out in public looking like that unless they were getting paid lots of money?
but i really just intended to post what other people have about how ridiculous it is that they cover two bands who either don’t know who they are or dismissed them as soon as they hit it big. i just went off on a rant because i was surprised to see people defending them. but i’d assume anyone who defends them is 15 years old and a huge fan, or just has no grasp of what good music is. defend a band who has more credibility because there’s no way this band will ever have any.
a band from my hometown who have played locally for years went from rap metal, to nu metal, to ‘screamo,’ to whatever the hell panic at the disco and fall out boy are labeled as because they changed as the trends did so they would make it on mtv (which they did) and i think it’s pathetic. ever heard of ‘we are the fury?’ well, i’m sure you will for about 5 minutes before they become nobodies again due to this genre of music having zero potential of lasting. then all us toledoans can say i told you so when they move back in with their parents in sylvania.
alright, i went off on this one, sorry. didn’t intend to make it this long.
“i’d assume anyone who defends them is 15 years old and a huge fan, or just has no grasp of what good music is.”
if you didn’t read my post, you might be surpised to learn that i don’t fall into any of these categories. i’m not a fan of p!atd and i’ve never even listened to any of the other “bands that sound like fallout boy.” (they call them “lifestyle bands” in the industry because they immediately know how to market them and who to market them to).
have you ever listened to the album? i simply gave the band a chance and found that the record has a lot of strengths. maybe i just haven’t listened to fallout boy or other bands in the genre and don’t know how much they’re ripping them off, but at the worst Panic! has made vast improvements on a shitty formula.
pete wentz was not their friend when they posted on his blog. they were a bunch of high school kids from a suburb of las vegas. even if they are merely capitalizing on a trend, they’re just kids! i’d give them credit just for being that smart. it’s not like there’s a limited amount of space for good music in today’s market. when bands like fallout boy and panic! at the disco are on the radio it doesn’t make great music disappear from the internet and the small clubs that are better for live music than large venues anyway.
sure, good musicians rarely make as much money or get enough credit as they deserve, but the fact is that most people have shitty taste. yes, that is pretentious, but aren’t we on an indie music blog? take nickelback. there’s a band that no stereogum reader in their right mind would or could defend. how many records have they sold? i’m not sure, but i’m positive the statistic is terrifying.
anyway, i guess i’m trying to back up stereogum for REPping panic! at the disco, or whatever that means. they may not be the most original and sincere musicians, but they definitely aren’t the worst and they are most certainly relevant.
i didn’t mean to offend you, i see where you’re coming from now. i just can’t respect them because of how they came about, which only required them posting on a popular band’s blog. a friend of mine in a band said that it really bothers him that they got signed with barely any effort, when so many bands, including his, have to play the crappy shows and work their way up, and actually have real talent and aren’t just marketing themselves based on what’s a money maker at the moment.
i have not listened to the album, honestly. the first thing i heard about the band is how they got signed which immediately turned me off from them, besides that i don’t like that genre of music. i just can’t imagine that the entire record had much of their own efforts put into it. i’ll give ‘em that they’re smart because they knew exactly how to get noticed. oh well, i don’t think they’ll be around much longer anyway and in 10 years they can say “my band played lollapalooza back in the day..” so atleast they have that.
The post mentioned the Eels covering Tom Waits and I just saw them in Milwaukee @ The Pabst Theater. Check out my review of the show and some pictures/videos if you’re interested.
Here’s a direct link: http://mirrworld.blogspot.com/2006/08/eels-pabst-theater.html
‘Jesus Gonna Be Here’, the whole of bonemachine. love, dearly.
Just to say…all the people pushing forty are saving their energy for Touch and Go’s 25th anniversary block party.
Man! The PATD album is great…if you like listening to a band who has absolutely no talent whatsoever. I’m serious, guys. This is exactly what the music industry has become. Image. It’s all image. There isn’t a single REAL musician in the band. Just some teeny boppers with a shiny new guitar or a dazzling new 4-peice drum set. It’s been done already. Evanescence has ALREADY master the AUTOTUNE feature for vocals. The Panic! album only sports two good things: a great vocal pitch correction program, and a good producer to at least cut out the shit they play live, because it is just so hideously shitty. Way to go, producer guy. You just made a catchy pop tune. I could do that by myself with a single program. A retarded monkey could fill in for Panic! at one of their live shows. But like I said…image is the name of the game. If you suck, it’s okay! Dress up like the Smashing Pumpkins in the “Tonight, Tonight” video. Better yet, let’s take that fantastic song AND TOTALLY DESTROY IT! If that doesn’t get you signed, I don’t know what will!
You realise that if you were so great and had the right to judge people on the music they create maybe you would be famous but geuss what your not and that’s why your probably a loser.
Hii you all suck
PANIC! AT THE DISCO IS THE CUTEST AND GREATEST BAND EVER!!!!!!! WHAT CRACK ARE YOU GUYS SMOKING THATS UNBELIEVABLE THEY’RE SOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!
it’s so nice to see a place people are talking about this – who actually know something about music. the p!atd thing, that is.
thank god for people over the age of 15; who have an ear for music and know the difference between talent and mind control.
panic! symbolize all the wrong with the media, the music industry, and the u.s.
How dare those cunts dirty the name of our lord Thom York. Makes me wish we were all dead!
“thank god for people over the age of 15; who have an ear for music and know the difference between talent and mind control” made me laugh. I’m not over the age of 15, but Panic at the Disco really does make me want to put sharp things in my ears. I know a few people who really like them and it makes me sick. But covering Radiohead?! That’s just too much. Most of the people I know who like Panic at the Disco don’t even know who Radiohead is or piece together enough information the few hours after they heard this stupid band cover their song to make pretend they know who they are. “We want to be the new Radiohed” said the members of Panic at the Disco. Good Luck. Good freakin’ luck.
Ummm. I’m over 15 and I love Panic. There old album was OK, but I agree that it was a bit repetitive musically. Pretty Odd was amazing in that it could make you smile just listening to it. They don’t sound one bit like FOB (okay maybe a *small* bit), and their music is pretty tight (no punish type thing inteded).
Panic Rules Build god best song ever plus it’s not fair that just because you don’t like them the whole world shouldn’t SELFISH MUCH!