The Silversun Pickups Insist Romney Stops Using Panic Switch
The Silversun Pickups want Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign to immediately stop the use of the rock group’s song “Panic Switch.” And the Romney campaign has no problem with that.
The Los Angeles-based band’s attorney sent a cease and desist letter to the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign on Wednesday. A news release says neither the band nor its representatives were contacted for permission to use the 2009 alternative rock hit and the group “has no intention of endorsing the Romney campaign.”
“We don’t like people going behind our backs, using our music without asking, and we don’t like the Romney campaign,” Silversun Pickups lead singer Brian Aubert said in the 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.”
Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an email that the song was inadvertently played during the setup for one event before Romney arrived. The band learned about it in a tweet from Romney’s North Carolina stopover.
“As anyone who attends Gov. Romney’s events knows, this is not a song we would have played intentionally,” she wrote. “That said, it was covered under the campaign’s regular blanket license, but we will not play it again.”