The Panics - My Best Mistake

What do you get when you cross the sounds of Perth and Manchester? And Liverpool and L.A.?

The Panics.

I can't remember the first time I heard My Best Mistake, but I knew I had discovered my New Favourite Band.

It was just like hearing the Stone Roses for the first time (in fact, the Panics take their sound and give it an Australian accent, sort of like the Strine Roses).




This song captures the sound of summer.

It's the sort of song that defines a period of your life, what you were doing, who you were doing it with, all of your memories and all of the consequences.

Its guitars lift you up and fly you over the clouds. They sear and soar and inspire like George Harrison at his best.

The drums propel you along with a nice touch of American Indian beats. And the vocals confide in you like only your lover could late on the night you first met.

If there's anything that makes me slightly hesitant about the song, its a hint of the band America's Sister Golden Hair in the slide guitar. But hey I guess there's not many distinctive ways you can play slide.

I don't know what it is they drink in Perth, but it inspires some classic pop rock music that builds on the traditions of the Beatles and the countrified sounds of the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Crosby Stills Nash and Young.

It's a timeless urban and western sound.

Perhaps, it has something to do with the fact that, like L.A. and Liverpool, they're on the western side of the country and they watch the sun go down into the ocean.

Whatever it is, I hope they keep doing it.