Rolling Stone reports that the Los Angeles rock group, the Silversun Pickup, issues a cease-and-desist order to Mitt Romney and his campaign, to stop playing their hit song, Panic Button.
Silversun Pickups have told Mitt Romney to stop using their song "Panic Switch" at campaign events, sending a cease-and-desist order to the Republican presidential hopeful. "We don't like people going behind our backs, using our music without asking, and we don't like the Romney campaign," singer and guitarist Brian Aubert said in a statement. "We're nice, approachable people. We won't bite. Unless you're Mitt Romney! We were very close to just letting this go because the irony was too good. While he is inadvertently playing a song that describes his whole campaign, we doubt that 'Panic Switch' really sends the message he intends."
WNYC.org reports the same story, but adds a quote from the lead guitar player revealing the band considered "just letting this go because the irony was too good."
I like “Panic Switch”; the song has an appealingly twitchy, unsettled quality, and an extremely catchy chorus, which is what I’m sure drew Romney’s folks to it. But did they bother to listen to the words? That chorus is full of anxiety and paranoia:
When you see yourself in a crowded room
Do your fingers itch, are you pistol-whipped
Will you step in line or release the glitch
Can you fall asleep with a panic switch
... In fact, the band apparently thought, briefly, of allowing the Romney campaign to continue using the song. Lead singer/guitarist Brian Aubert said in the press release "We were very close to just letting this go because the irony was too good. While he is inadvertently playing a song that describes his whole campaign, we doubt that 'Panic Switch' really sends the message he intends."
The Romney campaign has obtained the rights to play "Born Free," but I agree with Brian Aubert, that "Panic Switch" seems a more apt theme for the campaign we've seen from, Romney, so far.