When did Phantom Planet turn into Razorlight? Since celebrity drummer Jason “Hollywood” Schwartzman jumped ship to start his own Coconut Records, Phantom Planet V2 extracted the “California” sound out of their past life, and now they’re hitting their stride with a bit of Brit rock strut. Which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s unexpected from a band most associated with the long national pop culture addiction that was The O.C., which has since been replaced by Gossip Girl. (Appropriately enough, by the way, “Do the Panic” was featured on an episode of Gossip Girl. Josh Schwartz, you done did it again!)

For their new video, “Do the Panic,” off their brand-new album, Raise the Dead,
they’ve traded in the fuzzy freewheeling and gone for a the darker environs of a house that could easily double as the Addams Family’s upstate retreat. And just like the Addams Family, it’s all about spooky dichotomy: disembodied limbs, gloom and doom, sturm und drang, but the song is actually pretty damned upbeat. Meet contradiction, reanimated appendages, and darker, not-quite-so-sunny pop.

+ Relevant video involving disembodied limbs and loss of control: Albert Hammond, Jr., ‘101′