Panic! At the Disco

Panic! At the Disco's teenage members sport anachronistic '60s-squire haircuts, an apt look for a group that generates Beatlemania-caliber frenzies. But while the Fab Four spent years playing R&B covers at unheralded gigs, Panic emerged fully formed, like an adult Athena springing from the head of Zeus. A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, the Las Vegas quartet's debut disc, opens with seven electro-beat-driven emo tunes destined to inspire Napoleon Dynamite-style nerd-dance parties, then finishes with five piano-pop numbers. Panic's pleading hooks and verbose song titles recall its label-boss Pete Wentz's band Fall Out Boy, but the group's members insist Third Eye Blind and Fleetwood Mac are its primary influences — and that's not the type of claim musicians make to look cool.