Rock Hard Times: Panic at the Disco - The new album doesn't suck.

Today In Rock History

April 25th . . . 1918 - Legendary jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald is born in Newport News, VA . . . 1923 - Blues guitarist Albert King is born . . . 1933 - Jerry Leiber is born in Baltimore. With Mike Stoller, he’s written witty rock hits like “Yakety Yak” and “Jailhouse Rock” . . . 1945 - Bjorn Ulvaeus of Abba is born in Gothenburg, Sweden . . . 1945 - Stu Cook (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is born this day . . . 1950 - Steve Ferrone, drummer with the Average White Band and Eric Clapton, is born in Brighton, England . . . 1956 - Elvis Presley reaches top of US chart with Heartbreak Hotel, his first No. 1 . . . 1961 - Elvis Presley makes his last stage appearance for nearly eight years at Bloch Arena in Hawaii . . . 1964 - The Beatles have an amazing 14 singles on the American chart . . . 1967 - The Beatles perform “All You Need Is Love” during a global satellite broadcast . . . 1974 - Jim Morrison’s widow, Pam, dies in Hollywood at the age of 27. Police suspect heroin use may have played a part in her death . . . 1977 - Elvis Presley makes his last-known recordings during a live concert at the Saginaw (Mich.) Civic Center . . . 1981 - Wings break up after Denny Laine leaves the band. Paul McCartney says he will carry on as a solo artist . . . 1987 - Crowded House had their biggest U.S. hit when “Don’t Dream It’s Over” peaked at #2; U2 replace Beastie Boys at top of US LP chart with The Joshua Tree . . . 1990 - The Fender Stratocaster on which Jimi Hendrix played “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock sells at a London auction for $295,000 . . . 1994 - The Eagles played the first of two shows where they recorded their ‘Hell Freezes Over’ album . . . 1994 - A judge sentences Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz to 200 hours’ community service after he beats up a TV cameraman during River Phoenix’s funeral . . . 1994 - A judge determines that Michael Bolton’s “Love Is a Wonderful Thing” sounds a little too similar to the Isley Brothers’ “Love Is a Wonderful Thing.” Ya think? . . . 1997 - Warren Haynes and Allen Woody quit the Allman Brothers Band to tend to their careers as Gov’t Mule . . . 1999 - Funk star Roger Troutman, 47, dies in a hospital in Dayton, Ohio, after being shot several times . . . 2000 - Eric Clapton is reunited on a TV stage in London with his former Derek & the Dominos keyboard player Bobby Whitlock, for their first performance together in 29 years . . . 2002 - Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, the effervescent, sometimes volatile rapping member of the Grammy-winning R&B trio TLC, is killed in a car crash in Honduras . . . 2003 - The late jazz great Nina Simone is laid to rest in Carry-Le-Rouet, France . . . 2004 - Piano man Billy Joel drives his car into a house in Long Island. Nobody is seriously injured. It’s his third car crash in two years . . . 2007 - American singer Bobby “Boris” Pickett died of leukemia at the age of 69. He scored the Halloween anthem ‘The Monster Mash’ in 1962 . . .

Friday, April 11, 2008

Panic at the Disco - The new album doesn't suck.

In fact, it's quite good. It's nothing like their last one, and it's so Beatlesque it's frightening. This, from Spin Magazine:

Pretty. Odd. is a big-budget Beatles love letter right down to its Abbey Road orchestra playing as loudly as the band over nearly every lysergic lyric. The results could've been embarrassing, but Ross and crew have stepped up their songwriting skills to such an extent that they begin the album with a reassurance that they're "still the same band"—though the evidence is utterly to the contrary. Centerpiece "When the Day Met the Night" volleys a sunshine pop sing-along that's as blindingly bright as most screamo/metalcore bands are dark, but the 14 other cuts are nearly as dazzling.

So there you go. I had to give it a listen and I must say I was quite pleased. That's rare since I usually skewer any band who dares try and emulate my heroes. Highly recommended.