Brendon Urie: Vocals, guitar, keyboard
Ryan Ross: Guitar, keyboard, backing vocals
Spencer Smith: drums
Jon Walker: bass, keyboards

The Panic At The Disco story is now the stuff of pop legends as their Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen debut, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, broke through the Internet and propelled the band to platinum status with more than 1.6 million in sales.

“The Internet’s been great for us. Without it, we wouldn’t have gotten noticed,” acknowledges band founder and chief songwriter/lyricist Ryan Ross, who signed to Pete Wentz’ Decaydance imprint on influential indie label Fueled by Ramen for the album’s release in 2005. The rest is pop history on a global scale.

With songs like the Top 10 single, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” and nonstop touring, first with bands like Fall Out Boy, then on their own as headliners, Panic At The Disco saw A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out land in the Top 15 of the sales charts. The colorful video for the clip, featuring San Francisco’s Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque, quickly became number one on MTV and was awarded top honors with “Video of the Year” at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2006. “It’s been so unbelievable, so much has happened,” marvels drummer Spencer Smith, who started the band with childhood pal Ross in the Las Vegas suburbs.

“Most of that first record is based on what I was going through in my life at the time,” says Ryan. “I was trying to figure out what I believed in, the kind of relationships I wanted to have, those types of things.” This time around, Ross, who prefers to be out of the spotlight as he composes words for frontman Brendon Urie, has a better idea of what he wants to express.

“For our first album, we started writing not having a good idea of what we wanted the whole album to sound like,” says Smith. “We kind of went in a completely different direction halfway through. Now we’ve had the time to think it through a little more.”

For their second album, they have taken a completely different approach in recording. Instead of relying on computer software, the band is writing on acoustic guitars, recording the album live in the studio and also incorporating horn and string orchestral arrangements. Their influences have also shifted gears on this record, looking to albums their parents listened to for inspiration: the Beach Boys, the Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles.

“We want to make music like that, simple and timeless. We’re working on bettering ourselves as musicians,” concludes Ross. “We want to continue to improve. I admire a band like The Beatles, who came onto the scene as a pop act, but turned out to be one of the greatest musical entities ever.”

Those are some lofty ambitions, but after this past year, who’s going to tell Panic At The Disco dreams don’t come true?

Visit the official PATD Web site.

Minneapolis pop-rockers Motion City Soundtrack are supporting their critically acclaimed third full-length CD – Even If It Kills Me (Epitaph). Produced in parts by the legendary Ric Ocasek as well as the duo of Fountain of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger and Girls vs Boys’ Eli Janney, Even If It Kills Me is the follow-up to the band’s incredibly well-received sophomore release Commit This To Memory, which has sold more than 270,000 copies to date. SPIN called the new record “…near perfect pop.” It is contagiously clever, buoyantly catchy, and features the instantly memorable “This Is For Real”, “It Had To Be You”, and “Last Night.” Even If It Kills Me debuted at number 16 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart and has sold in excess of 100,000 copies since release this past fall. This tour follows killer performances at last year’s Lollapalooza and Japan's legendary Fuji Rock Festival, a sold-out 40-City tour of the U.S. including a set at Voodoo Music Fest, and shows in Mexico, Hawaii, Japan and Australia.

For more information, visit www.motioncitysoundtrack.com

Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen band The Hush Sound will release Goodbye Blues, their follow up to 2006's Like Vines, on March 18. Produced by Kevin Augunas (Cold War Kids), the album is the Chicago-based band's most ambitious work to date, a mature and masterful album which displays its distinctive gift for melding emotional depth, intellectual vigor, and catchy pop buoyancy. Goodbye Blues will first be available for pre-orders on the band's Web site, www.thehushsound.com, beginning January 29th. Fans who pre-order the album will receive an exclusive digital download of the album's first single, "Honey." In addition, Fueled By Ramen Web store customers who pre-order Panic At The Disco's upcoming album, Pretty. Odd. will receive a limited $2 discount applicable to the purchase of Goodbye Blues.

"I can't wait to get back on the road with Panic again," said Greta Salpeter of The Hush Sound. "The 2006 tour with them was my favorite tour we've done and this Honda Civic Tour is looking to be even better. We are all psyched to start playing new songs from Goodbye Blues. We'll see YOU there!"

For more information, visit www.thehushsound.com

Los Angeles-based band Phantom Planet has joined the Fueled By Ramen family for their fourth full-length collection. Produced by Tony Berg (Aimee Mann, Pete Yorn, X), their exhilarating label debut, "RAISE THE DEAD," is set for release on April 15. Phantom Planet's genre-defying sound is informed by the various incarnations of rock music from the 60's, 70's, 80's and beyond. The band has earned a reputation as a hard-touring live act, traveling the globe as both headline act and as support to such artists as Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Guided By Voices, Travis, Pete Yorn, the Vines, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Donnas, Incubus, and Rilo Kiley. A four-song digital EP—previously only available as a physical CD on their recent tour with longtime friends Maroon 5 and, later, the Fueled By Ramen Web store until all copies sold out in a matter of weeks—is now widely available. The band can also be found on tastemaker DJ/producer Mark Ronson's latest single, "Just" (featuring Phantom Planet) - a brilliant reconfiguration of the Radiohead classic. For more information about Phantom Planet, visit their MySpace page at www.myspace.com/phantomplanet.

Phantom Planet members are Alex Greenwald (lead vocals, guitar), Sam Farrar (bass, background vocals), Darren Robinson (guitar, background vocals) and Jeff Conrad (drums)

(Photo by: Mike Myerberg)