Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch

Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch.mp3 (download)

I used to think the vocalist of Silversun Pickups was a girl. My mind was blown when I found out the truth. True story. Anyway…this track is from the band’s forthcoming second album, Swoon, which is set to be released in April. “Panic Switch” was produced by Dave Cooley, who also produced the Pickups’ debut album, Carnavas. That’s probably why they still sound like Smashing Pumpkins. Fronted by a chick.

Here’s what Brian Aubert (the singer) told MTV about “Panic Switch”: “For some reason, when we were mixing it, we kept playing around with this visual thesaurus that had a computer voice, and [bassist] Nikki [Monninger] and I kept typing up weird words, trying to find the dirtiest ones we could. So every time I listen to that song now, I just keep hearing this computer voice saying all these dirty words. … Anyway, it’s our dance song. We wrote it later on in the process — really close to the end, because we were seeing how the album was shaping up. I remember coming into the rehearsal space and just told everybody, ‘OK, we’re locking it down,’ because we had a lot of songs to work with. And then the next day, I came back like, ‘Hey, hey, wait, there’s one more song to fit in.’ And it’s a very bizarre song. There were no verses in it. … Hopefully it conveys a theme on the album, which is basically a nervous breakdown. It’s pretty chaotic, and of all the songs on the record, that one represents that [theme] the best.”

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