Saturday, June 14, 2025

The Panic Attacks

ORIGINS: Sydney, NSW
GENRE: Hardcore / Powerviolence
YEARS ACTIVE: 2001-2003
 
MEMBERS:
RELEASES:

  • Self-Titled (2003) - Download Here.
    • 1. Dead on the Inside
    • 2. Time
    • 3. Morphine and the Box
    • 4. Quiet City
SUMMARY: Initially beginning as 'ADD Thrash', the band consisted of Micko and the Mernagh brothers and only played one show as a three-piece before the lineup began to change. The band briefly became known as just 'ADD' and by 2002, with Micko the only remaining member, the band changed its name to The Panic Attacks.
 
SHOWS: 

ORAL HISTORY:
MICKO: Luke Shirker and I were going to join this dumb ska band but on our way to our first practice we found out it had been cancelled. So I contacted BxE and Buttahz from Deadstare and we had a jam seeing as we'd already paid for the space. I had only started playing drums a few months earlier and I'm not sure why I was up for ska riddims but that day I realised how much I wanted to drum in a hardcore band. Luke and I mused on the fact that adding thrash to a style of music was always mad, as I had been experimenting with playing thrash drums along to King Tubby dubs. So we made it a thing, got his brother Paul to do vocals and called it ADD Thrash. Neither of us really listened to 'thrash' but it's what we called the fastcore/power violence of the time.
Micko Lemur (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
LUKE: We were just all best mates and hung out all the time at the house Micko and Troy were living in on Trafalgar Street, Stanmore. After a gig at Hornsby I was left without anywhere to stay and I'd never talked to Micko but had seen him around. He ended up offering me a place to stay for the night. He said "Melbourne" were staying there that night, which was his Micko-way of explaining that some members of the Oiskas were staying there already. Since that night I would go there to escape the 'burbs and family and would unofficially live there on the couch on weekends throughout the end of high school. They became my best mates and still are to this day. I stayed there and at other houses they later rented, right up until I was at uni after high school had finished. At that point, they gave me my own room and forced me to start paying rent! We started jamming in the house when we were bored and wrote ridiculous lyrics and riffs based on killing cockroaches (all the houses we shared were absolutely infested), old people watching television in the nursing home next to the local basketball courts where we shoot hoops, etc. I was always a pop punk kid and they were really into ska and grind so it made for a weird mix. All my favourite hardcore stuff was early '80s DC and we all had that in common. Our sound ended up being a weird mix of crusty grind hardcore with some melody snuck in.
Luke Mernagh (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 

MICKO: There was only one ADD Thrash show. It was at Hornsby PCYC and I barely remember it because I was really nervous about playing drums live for the first time. Other bands included Not An Option and Televised Schoolyard Massacre. The whole thing was a blur but I do remember Jordan (RIP) from Ghetto Blasterz pretending to play bass for us. We did a cover of 'Egg Raid on Mojo' by the Beastie Boys. At the time most people in the hardcore scene were going through their emo phase so they were all at the Green Square watching the band Grade that night.
Micko Lemur (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
LUKE: I had played in hardcore bands before but always youth crew and early DC stuff, so this whole inner city crusty grind shit was a bit unknown to me. But it was fun just being a brat and writing songs about anything at all.  
Luke Mernagh (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
KNIBBSY: Micko, Troy and I were in Melbourne at the end of 2001 doing some shows with our respective separate bands at the time. I spent a fair bit of time hanging out with Micko and Troy and thought they were down to earth guys who liked NRL and cricket and sport in general - just as much as I did. We like similar (but not identical) music. The reason we were hanging out was because we were the only three people out of the four Sydney bands on tour in Melbourne at that time (Dot Dot Dot, Cheapshot, Staying at Home, Worse Off) who dodged the Arthouse's legendarily 'rustic' backpacker accommodation. I didn't know much about ADD Thrash other than that they already had some songs and had practiced with a couple of lineups with Micko and the Mernagh brothers as the core members. I think Luke and Paul Mernagh had both left by that point and the momentum had stopped. So Micko had a band name, some songs, and was probably keen to keep drumming in a band. I hadn't played bass yet at that point but soon after we got back from Melbourne, I somehow ended up at ADD's practice with a bass. This was a bold call on Micko's behalf because I very much had L plates firmly on - a bass player with a whole month's experience. I'd been teaching myself to play along to the first Ramones record and the Joy Division Substance compilation, and then added some Screeching Weasels songs because they were much faster than Ramones and Joy Division, which is a good option if you need to keep up with thrashy hardcore songs. 
Luke Knibbs (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025 

MICKO: ADD Thrash and The Panic Attacks can be considered the same band. We only recorded as 'The Panic Attacks' but the EP has Paul on two songs and he'd left the band by the time it was The Panic Attacks. Luke wrote two of the songs on that EP too so it's not really a separate entity. There was a changeover gig where both Luke and Paul played as well as Jonny and Knibbsy at the squatted behemoth that is the Midnight Star Social Centre in Homebush. This was under the name 'ADD'. I put on this gig and was crazy anxious about drumming so also remember very little, except for the cops not showing up and it went well. Other bands for this show included Conation, Headless Horsemen, and The Stockholm Syndrome. I was very annoyed at my performance so I left for the bottle shop without packing up the kit. We also threw in a bit of One Dollar Short's awful well-known song into one of ours because Troy got headbutted by one of those jerks. 
Micko Lemur (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


PAUL: To me, ADD Thrash is basically just pre-ROFL and the border is hazy in my mind. When Luke left that was when the new name started I guess, but it was the same adventure. ADD Thrash was more raw enthusiasm than a real band I guess.
Paul Mernagh (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

MICKO: To find new members I went through my phone and asked anyone who was already in a band if they wanted to join. Everyone played in 25 bands at that time so there was never trouble putting together bands. Nothing was a problem back then.
Micko Lemur (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

KNIBBSY: We practiced as a three piece - me, Micko, and Luke - like, a few times at Micko and Troy's place in Annandale. They showed me a couple of songs they already had. One was 'Quiet City', which I said was similar to 'High Hopes' by Gorilla Biscuits, which they took diplomatically by not responding, haha. Micko had a full drumkit in his bedroom but there was no aircon or fan. It was summer, and brutally hot. I played through a tiny guitar practice amp that cut out all the bass, but it didn't matter because it was completely drowned out by the drums. Luke was just there to show me the songs but we understood at the time that he wouldn't be staying.
Luke Knibbs (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

WADE: Micko and Troy lived directly across the road from Zen Studios in St Peters in a share house with Matt from Syndicate and maybe Luke from The Shirkers lived there for a while too. Their hallway was chock-full of gear from local bands who couldn't afford storage, hahaha. We would always go there to kick on after shows at the Green Square. I was younger than the crew who lived and hung out there but I loved it because it was like having 20 big brothers and sisters and they all knew so much about underground music. All different kinds of punk, hardcore, powerviolence, avant garde noise shit... just different stuff to the mainstream hardcore that my other friends liked. Micko and Troy asked if I was keen to play guitar in a band with two singers, both with heaps different screaming styles. We had a few rehearsals across the street and then we played a bunch of shows before I left. 
Wade Keighran (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


KNIBBSY: The first show I played was in the winter of 2002 at the Midnight Star Social Centre, which was a squat that had recently started in Homebush. They'd just started having shows there but, as it turned out, this didn't continue much longer so we were lucky to play there. It had an amazing interior and originally was some kind of theatre. I remember a lot of massive dark velvet curtains and, even in its rundown state, it had that 'no expense spared' look from the early 20th century. It must have been pretty opulent in its day. I think Luke played guitar for this gig as a favour, alongside Tyler. We did a cover of 'Egg Raid on Mojo' by the Beastie Boys - it must've been mandatory for every new hardcore band to cover that particular song. Being a squat, there wasn't a lot of lighting or the usual PA setup - maybe just a vocal PA. I realised immediately that gig how I was very reliant on seeing the fret markngs at that stage of my bass playing. I barely looked up during the 15 minutes we played for - I was really that flat out just trying to see and hear what I was doing.
Luke Knibbs (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

MICKO: Knibbsy joined and played the one show as ADD before we became The Panic Attacks. Jonny was involved with The Panic Attacks but never played any shows, just recorded. We realised there was another ADD in Sydney, plus none of us had ADD, so we changed the name. I experienced panic attacks at the time and thought the music suited the anxiety I felt.
Micko Lemur (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

JONNY: I was playing in The Optionals and possibly still Worse Off at the time. The early-ish 2000s were hazy and ridiculously fun. It was only natural that I would eventually meet Micko and Troy as they were a crucial part of the extended Sydney hardcore conglomerate. I had already met Knibbsy (also crucial) through the Gordon/St Ives crew and was extremely impressed with his enthusiasm and musical taste. Many bucket bongs were inhaled and the St Peters parties at Micko and Troy's were next level. I was the daggy long-haired guy that had one foot in the indie camp and the other in the punk camp. I had two to three jams with The Panic Attacks and came to the realisation that I had no time to commit to a third band (which is weird because I am eternally in three to four bands). So I never played a show with The Panic Attacks. I did, however, jump up for a guest vocal thingy at the Midnight Star (best venue ever). 
Jonny Turcinskis (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 
MICKO: Troy and I lived across the road from Zen Studios, so it was the easiest place to record. We jammed there and a lot of bands would record with Geoff Lee - so why not us? I'm not sure why we never released it. For some reason after the recordings were done in bands I was in, nobody really cared enough about it being a product and it never got to the art stage. Artwork is finally being done now in 2024 for a release on the illustrious Noise Levels net label. Back then, we burnt copies for our friends so it got around. One song was also on a Snapshot Records compilation. For some reason I've always liked the idea of sitting on old records and then releasing them decades later. Most probably though, it's just sheer laziness.
Micko Lemur (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

KNIBBSY: The recording was done quickly - maybe four hours or less. It was done at Zen with veteran in-house engineer Geoff "I'm barely tolerating your terrible band and you'll know because it's written on my face" Lee. In fairness to Geoff, he was super competent, knew every part of the studio, knew inherently how to set up a band, and in a class of his own in his ability to get decent sound within minutes. And because of all that, he was efficient with how he used the time the band is ultimately paying for (which, remember, was about as cheap as studios got back in the era when studios were the only option for recording). So the constant bad poker face didn't matter at all to us or the on the other times I recorded there. There was a deadline for the recording because we needed one track to give to Jay Snapshot for a compilation. It was a CD giveaway he was doing for each payer at a big show he'd organised around the Easter Long Weekend in 2003 - because of that deadline we'd ended up recording without either of our guitarists at the time - Wade had maybe already left by then and Tyler was overseas or out of town. So we hit up my old mate Jonny Optional as super-sub to do the guitar.
Luke Knibbs (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025


JONNY: The Panic Attacks had a recording session booked with Geoff Lee at Zen and Wade, their guitarist at the time, couldn't make it so I stepped in at the last minute to record four songs. We pretty much had to rehearse the songs for an hour before Geoff hit 'record'. I'm pretty sure it was the best day of Geoff's life. I was completely stoked that I was asked to do it and my main aim was to Dag Nasty the shit out of the songs. Also a massive bonus was having Paul Shirker doing ridiculously great screaming on the track 'Quiet City'. Listening back, it holds up pretty well! I adore those times.  
Jonny Turcinskis (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

KNIBBSY: Jonny played both guitar parts as they were written but added his trademark x-factor precision, which tightened up the songs more than they deserved, haha. For example, I really like the solo he added to the end of 'Time', which he improved on the first take. He wasn't entirely happy with the solo and wanted to do another take and I intervened and said something like, "No mate, that's perfect - it's better than it was", and he accepted this like the all-round good bloke and top tier shredder that he is. We recorded two early ADD Thrash songs ('Quiet City' and 'Morphine and the Box'), a newer song ('Dead on the Inside') that I think Tyler did the music for, and one that I did the music for ('Time'). Paul Mernagh came to the studio, which was cool f him. He certainly added something extra to the two ADD Thrash songs that he might have written or co-written. I remember that he really went for it in the guest vocalist/cameo tradition, did each in one or two takes and left nothing behind. Probably couldn't speak properly for days. Those songs sounded better for his effort, and Troy brought plenty to it also and was right there with Paul on both tracks. Paul did a couple of live appearances too, which was awesome.
Luke Knibbs (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DANO: I joined at the tail end and rode it to the death. I took over from Wade as we were good mates back then so it was a nice transition. I knew the other guys from the Bombshellzine online messageboard and from various visits to Sydney before I moved there, so it felt like it all just fell into place! It was a fun band to be in for sure, and helped forge the strong bond I have with Troy and Micko. I joined at the experimental stage where Tyler was getting a lot more technical than a lot of the back catalogue and it was fun to contribute to a more quirky and mathy version of thrash hardcore/powerviolence. It was also cool to get to know Knibbsy and to just generally be in a band in Sydney! I'd never had anything resembling a band while I was living in Forster before this.
Daniel 'Dano' Ryan (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


KNIBBSY: A show that was memorable for being comedically awful was my last one with the band. It was Dano's first gig and I'd told the band I was leaving. I'd been in two bands at the same time for a couple of years by this point and I was suddenly running out of space to fit it all in around uni. Anyway, the show was a poorly advertised, poorly attended Wednesday or Thursday show at that weird Candy's Apartment venue in King's Cross. I never had a decent show there with any band I'd been in. The load-in was a complete backbreaker, it was a shitshow upstairs, and you'd have to double-park on Bayswater Road out front. And it was just pouring rain - or maybe just in my head, just to lift the spirits. And then a revelation as I was driving home, "I'm looking at this wrong - it's all upside! I'm never going to have to repeat that indignity" and then I stopped and thought, "Fuck, I'm still in another band". 
Luke Knibbs (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DANO: One gig that stood out was playing Fuck... I'm Dead. I remember feeling so inferior, hahaha - they had a smoke machine that was constantly going off to the point where you couldn't see fuck all aside from an occasional flash of light or a near miss from a studded wrist band. It was hectic and I was stoked to be on that bill!
Daniel 'Dano' Ryan (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

KNIBBSY: I hung around in the band a bit longer because there were some shows we needed to do. By this time they'd tee'd up Dano for the second guitar. I really liked Dano just from already chatting to him at shows. In Dano they'd unearthed another high calibre guitarist who, despite being a bit younger than Wade, really had his shit together - more than some people I knew in their 30s. He'd been working for a while and had recently moved to Sydney. Like Wade, he was the right amount of serious, which was impressive for an 18 year-old, and without drama too. Also like Wade, he also managed to balance this by remembering to have fun and keep calm and not overreact. He also owned a quality, proper guitar and full size amp and cab. I had neither of those things when I'd joined. He also had his driver's licence, which almost made me stay in the band as I'd previously been the sole 'driver by elimination' for long periods in The Panic Attacks. 
Luke Knibbs (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

MICKO: It took Knibbsy ages to quit even though we knew he wanted to. When he eventually did we tried out Nathan (Encryptor) on bass for one practice and then the band was done. That was when we started ROFL.
Micko Lemur (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

KNIBBSY: Another big factor to me leaving was that I wasn't the right guy to do justice to the direction the songs were going in - more intricate, complicated, and much more unique/interesting. I wasn't my cup of tea in terms of what I listened to but even I could see how interesting it was. I told them to go hard down the path of what they were doing, thinking they'd maybe land as an unhinged hybrid spawn of No Means No, Spazz, and Mogwai, or something like that. I was a guy who'd taught himself to play with the first Ramones album so I said; I'll bail out here and leave you guys to it with only my best wishes. There was no weirdness or animosity and everyone stayed friends. Micko's only surprise was that he'd expected me to quit sooner!
Luke Knibbs (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
 
DANO: I think the end was brought on by Knibbsy leaving. We did carry on sans-bass for a little while, which is where we tried to get a lot more technical and I think it was just starting to not feel as Panic Attack-y, so it sadly just fizzled out. I was kinda bummed but it didn't take long for ROFL to form from the ashes and fill the void again.
Daniel 'Dano' Ryan (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
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