Panic! Is Now Panic (Minus the !)!!!

January 11th, 2008

brendanurie.jpg

Brendan Urie of Panic At The Disco reacts to the news

Let us take a pause cafe from Britney nonsense (Breaking: “Brit’s Boy has Bruises and Bitemarks!“) (Also Breaking: “Kids Sometimes Roughhouse“), to focus on pop cult matters that bear great weight. The kind that are truly momentous, instances of history being made, the stuff that is so significant it will top year end lists of top news stories, even though such lists are 11 months away.

Drum roll please, the HUGE[!] news awaits: Las Vegas quartet, Panic! At The Disco is no longer. The boys have not broken up. Rather, they have become Panic At The Disco. Panic (not Panic!) have pared down their punctuation.

No good reason for the change, though conspiracy theorists might deduct that it was for - GASP! - publicity. It was also announced yesterday that the guys will be headlining the 45-city Honda Civic Tour which kicks off April 10 in San Francisco (no word on other dates yet). And, oh yeah, they have an album, Pretty.Odd, out March 25.

Giving up cynicism was one of my New Year’s Resolutions though, so let’s give them a little credit. Maybe they had genuine reasons for the change. They felt they had outgrown it: As the guys from the land of slot machines increase their global presence, mayhaps the symbol was a little too local. In terms of punctuation, the exclamation point just screams “VEGAS” [!!!!!!!] It’s so flashy, so shameless and attention-grabbing. You can’t get more Nevadan. They may as well have had a picture of a slot machine appearing after Panic or some reference to 99 cent AYCE buffets. Maybe they thought that the point was too quaint, something that prevented them from meeting international potential?

Or maybe it’s an excuse for them to reissue their music on albums featuring the shiny new logo. Whoop! There I go…

OK. So let’s talk about how major this is. In terms of significance, I would rank it something like this on the Identity Crisis Scale:
1. Prince becomes [insert symbol here]
2. Panic is the new Panic!
3. [Insert symbol here] reverts to Prince
4. Robot/actor Tom Cruise refers to “Katie Holmes” as “Kate” in interviews, as “My malleable pretend wife” behind closed doors
5. The week where Mischa Barton was into girls on The O.C. - what you’re looking for is at 1:40) tied with the episode of Full House where Michelle forgot who she was and then had the out of body experience (and then was fine).

What do y’all think? Will you miss the exclamation point? How do you predict it will affect the guys from the land o’ glitz…or will it? Is it like when Kevin Richardson (who?) left the Backstreet Boys and no one really noticed?

And are you gonna check out the tour?

Photograph Courtesy Getty Images

Posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 1:37 pm by Sabrina Jalees and is filed under Celebrities & Pop Culture.

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13 Responses to “Panic! Is Now Panic (Minus the !)!!!”

  1. I actually like the exclamation. It might seem kinda gimmicky or something like that, but I liked it. It was different.

    But really this is all a publicity stunt. They’re just reminded people they’re still around, ’cause i’m sure alot of people have forgotten about them by now. I know I have.

    By !!!!!!!!!!!!1 on January 11, 2008 at 2:47 pm |

  2. I’m starting a petition to bring back the “!”

    By dan on January 11, 2008 at 5:21 pm |

  3. Haha, xD I actually liked the exclamtion mark, because it just made saying the name better, like saying PANIC! at the Disco, xD Like there really was a panic at the disco xD Lmfao,

    By Christina on January 12, 2008 at 9:34 am |

  4. I am NOT impressed with Panic! right now…. thats right. i still write it that way and you know what? here are a few extra !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol but i AM excited for the new album :):)

    By Christine on January 12, 2008 at 11:45 am |

  5. oh yeah, and i like the pic at the top :P hes like “ABUUH”

    By Christine on January 12, 2008 at 11:46 am |

  6. They spelled Brendon’s name wrong. =0

    Anyways, about the exclamation mark..

    Exclamation mark or no exclamation mark, they are still unique, and that is what I love about them. They are amazing, and I’m pretty sure that if fans actually like them for their music they wouldn’t care about a little punctuation. I for one, know that they could have the worst name in the world and I would still love them!

    By Hannah on January 12, 2008 at 12:42 pm |

  7. But why get rid of it? There are many! <– see?

    And now look what happened - Panic drops the [!] and now Powerspace has it!

    Now they’re Pow! erspace. If you haven’t heard of them I suggest you go to MySpace and add them, ’cause they are the ones who are keeping the [!] held hostage.

    By Kayla on January 12, 2008 at 1:02 pm |

  8. who cares whether or not they have an exclamation mark in their name it should not interfere with the fact that they make great original music.

    By hi on January 12, 2008 at 9:58 pm |

  9. i wear socks WITH sandals.

    By $$$$$ on January 12, 2008 at 10:00 pm |

  10. Brendan? Brendan?

    what the hell? and you people call yourself ‘Much Music’ tsk tsk tsk.

    by the way, it’s B-R-E-N-D-[O]-N.

    By Lyn on January 12, 2008 at 10:16 pm |

  11. THANKS LYN!

    I took the spelling straight off of Getty Images…WHOOPS. Fixed now.

    P.S.: It’s MuchMusic…not Much Music. Tsk tsk ;)

    By kat on January 13, 2008 at 12:56 am |

  12. I like to chew on socks

    By Senester on January 14, 2008 at 1:19 am |

  13. Well, they’ll always be Panic! At The Disco to me.

    By Lauren on January 14, 2008 at 5:27 pm |

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