Today's Pick

Panic! at the Disco get racy and sexy in their new clip in homage to D'Angelo for synth-poppy hit, "Girls/Girls/Boys," the third single from Las Vegas emo band's just-released new fourth studio album, "Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!." The D'Angelo's legendary "Untitled (How Does it Feel?)" video is one of the most iconic music visuals of a generation, a clip, premiered in 2000, where it received widespread attention for its risqué shots of D'Angelo's nude, muscular body that redefined and eventually derailed the career of a soul prodigy.
"Girls/Girls/Boys," is a bizarre song about Panic! at the Disco ectomorphic frontman Brendon Urie coming between a bisexual girl and her girlfriend, at one point spouting It Gets Better platitudes ("Love is not a choice") and others both luring the subject ("Push another girl aside and just give in") and acknowledging her struggle ("You gotta save your reputation / They're close to finding out about your girlfriend"). Urie's electro-punk tune is diametrically opposed to D'Angelo's slow-jam croon and he certainly makes a committed go of re-creating it.
There is a surface-level display here of understanding the often complicated nature of queer relationships, but in a statement about the "Girls/Girls/Boys" video Urie comes off more like a fetishist than anything. Describing the video's very real homage to D'Angelo's "Untitled," Urie unveiled the inspiration behind "Girls/Girls/Boys" to Alternative Press: "'Girls/Girls/Boys' is such a racy song that it immediately made me think of one of the sexiest videos of all time, which also happens to be one of my favorites. Doing an homage to D'Angelo's classic 'Untitled (How Does It Feel)' video seemed like a perfect fit."
Directed by DJay Brawner, Panic! at the Disco's version is nearly an exact replica and stayed true to the classic D'Angelo video shot-for-shot as Urie kicks things off with a Miley Cyrus-in-"Wrecking Ball" close-up, standing on a pedestal in an all-black room, wearing just his birthday suit, the camera lingering down his ripped torso until the exact point when it must go back up - minus the undeniable frisson that made the original D'Angelo video so monumental. Urie smirks and gazes suggestively into the camera while softly singing the guitar-heavy pop song.

Panic! At The Disco released an official music video for alternative rock band duo's second single "Ready To Go (Get Me Out Of My Mind)" on the Fueled By Ramen's YouTube page. The boys can't stop playing dress up. After the retro circus chic in "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" and the steampunk styling of "Ballad Of Mona Lisa," Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith are jamming in a 50's-inspired set among other vintage-themed scenes for "Ready To Go," which showcases the boys dancing ability and fits the songs fun and upbeat mood.
"Ready to Go" is the follow-up to the massively popular "Ballad of Mona Lisa," lifted from the duo's latest third studio album "Vices & Virtues," a little musical gem out on March. It is also their first as a duo and will be released on June 6th. The departure of singer Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker left a hole in the Panic! The experience became the catalyst for Urie finding his own voice and the confidence to take over as the band's principal songsmith. As he wrote, Urie started noticing trends in his lyrics. "They dealt with self-deprecation, pride, subversion, manipulation, but some good stuff too: self-expression, honesty," he told Spin magazine.
Panic At the Disco once again worked with director Shane Drake for the new video. "Shane is just so awesome to work with, he is unlike any director we've known. He really pushes us to come up with some crazy ideas and try to work it in with whatever budget we have," Urie once said of reuniting with their longtime collaborator.
Urie time travels to the past with Smith, rocking pompadour hairstyle in this Shane Drake-directed video. Urie notices a glowing music note in the wall and magically pushes open a hidden door which allows the duo to blast back to the past for a neato time in the 50's, before morphing into chimney sweeps leads the boys into a rockabilly type era complete with back-up dancers that should almost certainly audition for the next round of America's Best Dance Crew. Urie back flips into another scene in which he is now crawling into a cannon. With the help of Smith lighting the cannon, Urie gets shot out into cartoon land before landing with an umbrella in the final scene.

American rock band Panic! At the Disco are back in all their hyper-dramatic emo-pop glory and picks up steam yesterday with the debut of its "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" across all of MTV's platforms. Written by lead singer Brendon Urie, the mid-tempo rocker in lieu of a ballad, "The Ballad of Mona Lisa," is the first single composed for the Grammy-nominated group's third album, "Vices & Virtues," It proved to be an inspiration for the production of "Vices & Virtues." Urie wrote the song dealing with his own personal convictions and struggles. The track is a typical cheeky, up-tempo pop/punk anthem, but the video shows a darker side.
The song also marked the debut of Panic's new two-man lineup after the exit of Ryan Ross and Jon Walker, leaving as the remaining duo singer/multi-instrumentalist Urie and drummer Spencer Smith. "On the surface it can seem like just the story of drama between a guy and a girl," explains Urie. "But it's really about what I've been going through, an inner-struggle within myself, and fighting the dualities of my personality -- the side that fucks everything up and destroys everything and the other side that tries to pick up the slack. It's all growing pains." The song was also inspired by Urie's move from Las Vegas, Nevada, where he's lived his entire life, to Santa Monica, California with Panic! Smith. Urie notes that the move was "a huge part of growing up."
Featuring a top hat, pews, and a church setting to Urie's costume and various camera shots, the steampunk-themed video for song was directed by Shane Drake and produced by Brandon Bonfiligo. The video documents the steps for preparing and displaying a body before burial in the Victorian era, from shutting the windows and covering up mirrors to laying the body out in white so loved ones could mourn. A young woman is also present, mourning the recently deceased. The body is finally show to be Urie's, whose ghost has been wandering around at his own wake. He finally makes contact with a young child and directs her to a note in his corpse's pocket, naming his murderer as the young woman. The woman tries to escape, only to be caught by the crowd and taken away while Urie's ghost watches and is pleased. The League of STEAM's full ensemble cast appear in key roles in the video.
Musically, the song is similar to those produced for the band's 2005 debut album, "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out," however, Urie explained in a recent interview that the song represented more of a new beginning. Urie said "It was a new start when Spencer and I started writing, so it was gonna end up sounding different, sonically." The track has received positive reviews upon its release, has described it as "an anthemic power-rock ballad with dark and personal undertones," and Panic! swung the song's sinister faux-cabaret verses into an absolutely towering chorus. The the song's sound as "bringing fans back to the sound they were introduced to when the band first broke onto the scene. Old school Panic! rocks! Enjoy.