Panic! At The Disco

Panic! At the Disco is currently a two-piece pop rock band hailing from Las Vegas, Nevada. The current members are vocalist Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith. Their debut album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out has sold over 2.2 million copies worldwide, 1.5 million of which were in the United States alone. This shot them into the international spotlight. Their sophomore album Pretty. Odd. debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200. Although the band officially formed as Panic! At the Disco in 2004, the first incarnation of the band was formed in 2002 under the name "Pet Salamander", with Ryan Ross, Spencer Smith, Brent Wilson, and Trevor Howell. It was during this time that Ryan Ross wrote "Time To Dance" and "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", so some consider the band to have formed as of 2002. In 2005, Panic! At the Disco, which at the time included Urie, Smith, guitarist/lyricist Ryan Ross, and bassist Brent Wilson, was discovered by Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, who, after hearing demos the band uploaded to PureVolume went to Las Vegas to hear the band play in their garage. He immediately signed them to his Fueled By Ramen label imprint Decaydance. After their debut A Fever You Can't Sweat Out was released, bassist Brent Wilson left the band. Although he claims he was fired, the other members deny this. The success of their first two singles helped catapult their debut album to the top of the Billboard Independent chart and to #13 on the Billboard 200 in July 2006. With Jon Walker filling in as temporary bassist, the band embarked on their first headlining tour through Europe. All of the dates sold out within hours. Immediately after returning, they did the same in North America. On July 3, Jon Walker became the permanent bassist of Panic! At the Disco. In early 2007, Panic! At the Disco began writing their follow up album but, after months of work, decided to rewrite the entire album from scratch in July 2007. While speaking to MTV, Ryan Ross explained that, before the decision to start over was made, the album had lacked a band set up and that it "sounded like a film score." He also explained that the new songs have "a more positive outlook to them." On January 9, the exclamation point (!) in the band's name was dropped. They defended the decision to drop the exclamation point during an interview with MTV: "It was never part of the name to us. (...) When we started doing new promo stuff for this album, we just told everyone not to use it anymore." Panic (sans "!") later confirmed that the second album was titled Pretty. Odd. with a release date of March 25, 2008. On July 6th, 2009, an announcement was put up on the band's official website and myspace page, stating that Ryan Ross and Jon Walker would be leaving the band to pursue their own musical interests. They have since formed the band The Young Veins. Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith, however, will stay and continue playing as Panic! At the Disco, with the exclamation point re-added. Fans can hear a snippet of Panic!'s demo entitled "Oh Glory" on the band's official website. Since the split, Panic! At the Disco joined Fall Out Boy, blink-182, and Chester French on the first half of blink-182's summer tour in 2009. They brought along Ian Crawford formerly of The Cab and Dallon Weekes of The Brobecks to temporarily replace Ross and Walker. The band also released a single titled New Perspective which was featured on the Jennifer's Body Soundtrack in August 2009.