When you get compared, in the same breath, to everything from Daniel Johnson to the Talking Heads, you know you have a sound that's hard to pin down. Since their formation during the particularly chilly winter of 2006, the members of Hot Panda (Maghan Campbell, Keith Olsen, Chris Connelly, and Heath Parsons) have yet to sit down and have the discussion that goes: "So, what should we sound like?". The result is a swath of tunes that sound like anything and everything. Brit pop, gypsy swing, opera solos, Robert Pollard style lo-fi jangles, glammy Roxy Music keyboards, and "melodies that will be impossible to dislodge from your temporal cortex" (ChartAttack), all find their home in the music of Hot Panda...sometimes all in the same song!
After the recording of their 2007 EP "Whale Headed Girl," Hot Panda took to the road, and I guess you could say the road took to them!
The band hasn't looked back since, ever wheeling over Canada in a questionable 1977 ambulance, taking their rambunctiously theatrical live
show to "kids who like to dance" all over North America (including stints at festivals such as SXSW, CMJ, and Pop Montreal!), and now Europe too, having just completed a big ol' European tour with Detroit's the Von Bondies! In February 2008, Hot Panda took the time to travel to Winnipeg and record their first full length record, Volcano...Bloody Volcano!, with Ryan McVeigh at Mid Ocean Studios, which came out on Mint Records one year later, on February 10, 2009!
If you are reading this, which you are, you might be listening to some songs from our shiny new album, Volcano...Bloody Volcano! which debuted at 1 on Earshot! college charts in Canada, and at 21 on CMJ College charts in the US! If you like our tunes, you can buy it in a store near you, or if you are so inclined, on iTunes, and Zunior.com! We also have a little 7", the Cold Hands/Chapped Lips single, that you can buy at www.maplemusic.com and at shows only- sweet limited edition shiz!!
Look for hot Panda this summer at Sled Island in Calgary, and NXNE in Toronto, and who knows, maybe some shows around this great nation!
Also, we welcome new friends...even if it is in the superficial myspace way! If we don't know you just send us a little note and let us know why you want to be our friend!
For Booking/Management/Band Info contact Chris at [email protected]
View Hot Panda's EPK
Ta for now
HOT PANDA
