A House on a Street in a Town I'm From

A House On A Street In A Town I'm From
Studio album by The Panics
Released	4 August 2003
Recorded	August–September 2002
Length	54:55
Label	LittleBIGMAN Records
Producer	Steve Bond and The Panics
The Panics chronology
The Panics (EP 2) (2002) A House On A Street In A Town I'm From (2003) Crack in the Wall (2004)

A House on a Street in a Town I'm From is the debut full-length album from The Panics, released on August 4, 2003, by LittleBIGMAN Records.^[1]

A number of the songs on this album appeared on the two previous EPs although most appear as alternate versions. Some of the songs on the album were recorded in Manchester,^[2]and co-produced by Gaz Whelan (Happy Mondays), which Laffer describes was more about the songs than the sounds.

"Well the studio we were in most of the time was this old bunker under a block of terraced houses and it was really old and dusty and we squeezed in and just tried our best to rock out. I thought back to the studios we’d bummed around in Perth and how people are always talking about the gear and how they want to upgrade to an international standard and they’ve got these pristine clean places. They’re great I guess if you’re making TV commercials but if you’re capturing a song it’s about standing around and playing it and getting that one take which is fantastic and you can’t do that in those environments. That’s why most of the record we did here we rented a house and just stood in the bedrooms and plugged in and we can’t do it any other way. When you sing it’s kind of easier if you’ve got a beer and if you want to have a cigarette while you’re doing it, you don’t want to be in some hospital atmosphere with the dollar signs clicking over in your head. That’s one thing I hate about commercial studios but people get different results different ways. Ours has been to take our time and do it with friends a lot of the time in our own space. It’s worked for us." - Laffer^[3]

The majority of the album was however co-produced with Steve Bond and recorded in Australia, with the album mixed by Jeremy Allom (The La's, Massive Attack).

The artwork came mainly from the Wootton brother’s father, Fabe Wootton, and the woman who features on the album cover is lead singer Jae Laffer's grandmother.

"We just had a cool photo and we thought one day we’d just like to make that into a record cover. We just wanted to have some continuity in the visual aspect of the band as well. I think it’s worked. People will talk about our 'sun drenched sound' and you know they’ve been looking at the covers which is fine but most importantly we wanted to have that really cool Australiana-type feel to it and be proud of that." - Laffer^[3]

The album was hailed as 'album of the year' by several Triple J presenters and generated critical acclaim around Australia and internationally.^[4] UK based music webzine, Drowned in Sound, in May 2003 stated "Jae Laffer sounds like a teenage Marc Bolan/ David Bowie and guitarist Drew Wootton a deserved successor to John Square", whilst UK Teletext stated The Panics were a "classical take on West Coast sunshine pop ala Byrds via Simon and Garfunkel and The Doves".

Track listing

All tracks by Paul Otway, Jae Laffer, Myles Wootton, Drew Wootton and Julian Grigor.^[5]

1. "This Day Last Year" – 5:17
2. "Don't Be Kind" – 3:56
3. "How's It Feel" – 3:25
4. "Out Like a Light" – 5:20
5. "Kid You're a Dreamer" – 3:20
6. "Monkeys in the Hallway" – 1:56
7. "More Than You Wanted to Know" – 3:38
8. "My Brilliant Career" – 4:16
9. "(Happy Ending)" – 3:15
10. "Silence on the Street" – 3:56
11. "Give Me Some Good Luck" – 3:48
12. "Only a Thought" – 3:53
13. "Fire on the Hill" – 4:44
14. "I Give In" – 3:37

References