Source;patdonline
"Three significant and, to cite Panic at the Disco’s latest album title, pretty odd events led the band to release one of the year’s most pleasantly surprising albums. (Quick backstory: the group’s 2005 debut followed the Pete Wentz–sanctioned emo guidelines with slick production, swollen song titles and breathless, turn-of-phrase lyricism delivered in a piercing falsetto. ‘Tween boys and girls ate it up like candy bracelets; critics scoffed.)
1. A bloated concept album was delivered to Atlantic Records and flatly rejected.
2. After scrapping the synth-heavy material, the band banged out a new collection of songs at a studio within the hedonistic Palms Casino in Las Vegas.
3. The fresh material subbed cheesy keyboards and drum machines for real instruments: Wurlitzer, sax, trumpets, rusty lap steel and string arrangements.
As an album, “Pretty.Odd” is far less odd and much more pretty, a mature collection of songs streaked with notes of dad favorites Tom Petty, Queen and, no joke, Ricky Skaggs. PATD singer Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith explained the band’s hyper-evolution and why eating fan-made baked goods is a terrible, terrible idea.
Maxim magazine recently reviewed a couple albums without actually listening to them. How would you review “Pretty. Odd.” without having heard it?
Brendon Urie: First off, that would suck!
Yeah, poor Black Crowes…
Brendon Urie: No, to be a music journalist on deadline having to write about our new album without a listen! I guess the safest thing would be to reference the album title. It’s pretty odd and a huge departure from the first record.
Why nix the synths?
Spencer Smith: On the first record we had a lot of synths and electronic drums, and we really don’t have that on the new one—it’s organic sounding and played by real people. We take that approach for our live show and have learned to actually play all the old songs, without tracks or samples.
When you were writing this album, what albums were you listening to?
Spencer Smith: Everything from the Zombies and the Doors to Tom Petty. My dad was really into Pink Floyd, so I listened to that growing up. You read comparisons of us to the Beatles and Beach Boys, but a lot of people our age don’t really know the material that well. It’s like in our song “Nine in the Afternoon”—we have a trumpet in the chorus and instantly people will compare it to “Penny Lane.” I mean, it is similar, but it’s also because there hasn’t been that many lead trumpet lines over the past 40 years.
Imagine you are playing second on a three-act bill. Who would play before and after you? And dead bands count.
Spencer Smith: I would have Queen close the show simply because Freddie Mercury is my favorite frontman of all time. Opening the show would probably be Bright Eyes. We’ve only seen them play once and it was really great. They have 12 musicians on stage, including two drummers and a harp player. It’s really a phenomenal way to hear those songs performed. It made us realize that we needed to step up our musicianship.
How do fans show their appreciation for Panic at the Disco?
Spencer Smith: Back when we were still touring in a van, we received a Tupperware container filled with cookies, and somewhere in the middle of Texas, Brendon and our merch guy decided to eat a couple and in the process found a couple hairs. After further investigation and breaking open six more, they found that all of them were packed with hair clippings. We pulled over at a gas station and Brendon drop-kicked the container into a field.
Where they short hairs?
Brendon Urie: Thank god they were not short and curly. The fan looked totally normal too!"
Gosh, that hair thing was just disgusting eek . Why would you give
them hair cookies. :XP:
Well at least Brendon drop kicked them out to a field
[Though this reminds me of an episode of Family Guy,
when Meg gives Brian a pie and when he eats it
she tells him her hair is in the pie and she was like
"I'm inside you now Brian" Whoaaa!]
"Three significant and, to cite Panic at the Disco’s latest album title, pretty odd events led the band to release one of the year’s most pleasantly surprising albums. (Quick backstory: the group’s 2005 debut followed the Pete Wentz–sanctioned emo guidelines with slick production, swollen song titles and breathless, turn-of-phrase lyricism delivered in a piercing falsetto. ‘Tween boys and girls ate it up like candy bracelets; critics scoffed.)
1. A bloated concept album was delivered to Atlantic Records and flatly rejected.
2. After scrapping the synth-heavy material, the band banged out a new collection of songs at a studio within the hedonistic Palms Casino in Las Vegas.
3. The fresh material subbed cheesy keyboards and drum machines for real instruments: Wurlitzer, sax, trumpets, rusty lap steel and string arrangements.
As an album, “Pretty.Odd” is far less odd and much more pretty, a mature collection of songs streaked with notes of dad favorites Tom Petty, Queen and, no joke, Ricky Skaggs. PATD singer Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith explained the band’s hyper-evolution and why eating fan-made baked goods is a terrible, terrible idea.
Maxim magazine recently reviewed a couple albums without actually listening to them. How would you review “Pretty. Odd.” without having heard it?
Brendon Urie: First off, that would suck!
Yeah, poor Black Crowes…
Brendon Urie: No, to be a music journalist on deadline having to write about our new album without a listen! I guess the safest thing would be to reference the album title. It’s pretty odd and a huge departure from the first record.
Why nix the synths?
Spencer Smith: On the first record we had a lot of synths and electronic drums, and we really don’t have that on the new one—it’s organic sounding and played by real people. We take that approach for our live show and have learned to actually play all the old songs, without tracks or samples.
When you were writing this album, what albums were you listening to?
Spencer Smith: Everything from the Zombies and the Doors to Tom Petty. My dad was really into Pink Floyd, so I listened to that growing up. You read comparisons of us to the Beatles and Beach Boys, but a lot of people our age don’t really know the material that well. It’s like in our song “Nine in the Afternoon”—we have a trumpet in the chorus and instantly people will compare it to “Penny Lane.” I mean, it is similar, but it’s also because there hasn’t been that many lead trumpet lines over the past 40 years.
Imagine you are playing second on a three-act bill. Who would play before and after you? And dead bands count.
Spencer Smith: I would have Queen close the show simply because Freddie Mercury is my favorite frontman of all time. Opening the show would probably be Bright Eyes. We’ve only seen them play once and it was really great. They have 12 musicians on stage, including two drummers and a harp player. It’s really a phenomenal way to hear those songs performed. It made us realize that we needed to step up our musicianship.
How do fans show their appreciation for Panic at the Disco?
Spencer Smith: Back when we were still touring in a van, we received a Tupperware container filled with cookies, and somewhere in the middle of Texas, Brendon and our merch guy decided to eat a couple and in the process found a couple hairs. After further investigation and breaking open six more, they found that all of them were packed with hair clippings. We pulled over at a gas station and Brendon drop-kicked the container into a field.
Where they short hairs?
Brendon Urie: Thank god they were not short and curly. The fan looked totally normal too!"
Gosh, that hair thing was just disgusting eek . Why would you give
them hair cookies. :XP:
Well at least Brendon drop kicked them out to a field
[Though this reminds me of an episode of Family Guy,
when Meg gives Brian a pie and when he eats it
she tells him her hair is in the pie and she was like
"I'm inside you now Brian" Whoaaa!]
