Panic! at the Disco formed in the suburban area of Summerlin, Las Vegas, by childhood friends Ryan Ross on guitar and Spencer Smith on drums.

 

Since the age of thirteen, the two played blink-182 covers in bands of different formations, but finally recruited Brent Wilson on bass and Brendon Urie on vocals and guitar. Before acquiring Urie on vocals, the band went by the title "Summer League," possibly a reference to the town in which they lived, Summerlin. Once Urie was officially with the band, they settled on the name Panic! at the Disco. The band has stated that the name "Panic! at the Disco" comes from the song "Panic" by The Smiths, which includes the line "burn down the disco", as told on their DVD box set, as well as in several interviews. Another theory, as well as the most popular, is that it originated from a song written by Name Taken titled "Panic", which includes the line "panic at the disco". In order to promote their music, the band contacted Fall Out Boy bassist Peter Wentz, through LiveJournal, and sent him a link to their PureVolume site. Wentz was so impressed that he took a trip to Las Vegas to meet the band in person. After seeing them play in their garage, he asked if they would sign with his Fueled by Ramen imprint label Decaydance.

 

The band officially announced the departure of their bassist, Brent Wilson, with a message on the band's website on May 17, 2006. No official reason was given for Wilson's departure, although later Wilson claimed he had been kicked out. The announcement stated that a long-time friend of the band, Jon Walker, would be filling in for the summer tour as a temporary bassist while a permanent replacement was sought. On July 3rd of that year, the band's MySpace profile was edited to list Walker as bassist/vocals. Walker is now a permanent member of Panic! at the Disco.

 

MTV News reported the band, and Wilson has now engaged in a war of words. Wilson stated in an interview with Spin Magazine that he was fired without warning, as opposed to the band's official statement that his departure was a decision reached by the entire band. In response, the band alleged that Wilson did not write the bass parts on their début album or even play bass on the recording. Wilson is currently demanding a cut of royalties from the band's debut album based on his work. If an agreement cannot be reached, he has threatened to take his former band-mates to court. Panic! at the Disco were featured on MTV's Total Request Live on January 17, 2006, where they premiered their music video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies". Urie has since stated that the group feels both the song and video are overplayed, saying ""I Write Sins Not Tragedies" isn't the only song we've written".

 

The video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", featuring Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque and an eerie circus wedding theme, débuted at #10 on the TRL countdown, catapulting the album to the top of the Billboard Independent chart and to #13 on the Billboard 200 in July 2006. The video has been streamed more than 5 million times on YouTube, and is also the most requested song on New York City radio station Z-100. Both "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" and "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage" have been on The Interactive Nine at Nine with Romeo at the same time.

 

Their second music video, for the single "But It's Better If You Do", has a storyline involving the band playing in a speakeasy in 1930s America. Urie commented, "Our new video is meant to show the fans the dark and secluded style of Panic. The single was released on May 1st in the UK and debuted (and peaked) at #23. That month the band completed their first headlining shows in Europe. All of the dates were sold out, with some (notably the show in Manchester) selling out in hours. Afterward, the band embarked on a two-month North American headlining tour with supporting acts The Hush Sound, OK Go, The Dresden Dolls, and Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque.

 

In July they released their third music video, "Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off". The video features people with fish tank helmets walking the streets of what appears to be a studio back lot. The video only shows the band in one shot, reportedly because they felt that their looks were distracting from their music. A remixed version of their song "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage" can be found on the official soundtrack to the movie Snakes on a Plane. The song, which reached #5 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks, is planned to be the next single for pop stations.

 

In early August 2006, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out went platinum, having sold over one million albums. During P!atD's opening song on August 25, 2006 at the Carling Weekend: Reading Festival, an unknown audience member threw a bottle at the stage, which struck and temporarily knocked out Brendon Urie, forcing the band to stop playing. After some minutes, he got back up and shouted to the crowd, "You can't take me out! Let's see how well you guys do with my left side," and continued with the same song.

 

At the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, the video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" won the Video of the Year award, beating out artists such as Christina Aguilera, Shakira, Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. While heading on stage to accept the award, Panic! was interrupted by a man named Six, who promoted himself for about five seconds before he was pulled off stage by security.

 

The camera then zoomed back to the band. Walker jokingly said, "That was totally planned," and the band accepted their award with Urie commenting, "He's trying to throw off our thunder." Panic! also performed "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" during the award show. The band embarked on a world tour in the later part of 2006. It included dates in Australia, New Zealand, and continental Europe. On November 7th, 2006, they kicked off their first-ever stadium tour with Bloc Party (who shortly dropped out because of drummer Matt Tong suffering a collapsed lung) and Jack's Mannequin.

 

The Plain White T's were added to the next few weeks of The Nothing Rymes With Circus Tour. They opened up the shows beginning in New York through November 26th in Iowa. After that, Cobra Starship were on the tour through December 9th in San Diego. The band appeared along with Fall Out Boy, Marilyn Manson, and other bands on the special edition soundtrack of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas covering "This is Halloween", which was re-released in 3D on October 20th. The video for "Build God, Then We'll Talk" recently made its début in the UK. Scuzz TV debuted the video on Saturday evening on the March 10th, 2007 and MTV 2 followed this by débuting the video the following day. According to Rolling Stone, the band has started working on their second album, due to be completed in mid-2007.