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 & have the discussion that goes: “So, what should we sound like?”. The result is a swath of tunes that sound like anything & everything. Brit pop, gypsy swing, opera solos, Robert Pollard style lo-fi jangles, glammy Roxy Music keyboards, & “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 the nation. In February 2008, Hot Panda took the time to travel to Winnipeg & 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, last Tuesday.

The debut is out now on iTunes & it is a must! They also have a little 7″, the Cold Hands/Chapped Lips single, that you can buy at shows only (dates below)- sweet limited edition shiz! Keep your eyes open for Hot Panda at SXSW this March, as well as Canadian Music Week in Toronto, also in March. And if you live in Edmonton, Hot Panda willll be having a CD release party on Valentine’s Day at the Pawn Shop!

“Cold Hands, Chapped Lips” | download

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“Chinatown Bus” | download

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Current Schedule:

02.14 Pawn Shop Edmonton, AB
03.13 CMW @ The horseshoe Toronto, ON
03.17 Rubber Gloves Denton, TX
03.18 Beauty Bar SXSW Austin, TX
03.19 Headhunters (SXSW) Austin, TX
03.19 Room 710 SXSW Austin, TX
03.21 Habanna Calle 6 SXSW Austin, TX
03.22 SXSW Austin, TX
03.23 Atomic Cantina Albuquerque, NM
03.26 Silverlake Lounge Los Angeles, CA
03.31 Le Voyeur Olympia, WA
04.01 Commet Tavern Seattle, WA
04.03 Logan’s Victoria, BC
04.04 Media Club Vancouver, BC
04.07 Drake Inn Canmore, AB
04.08 The Exchange Regina, SK
04.12 Vaudville Mews Des Moines. IA
04.13 Off Broadway St. Louis, MO
04.15 Dark Room Bar Chicago, IL
04.18 Smiling Moose Pittsburgh, PA
04.19 Velvet Lounge Washington DC
04.20 Black Betty Brooklyn, NY
04.21 Piano’s New York, NY
04.22 Manhattan Room Philadelphia, PA
04.24 Gus’s Pub Halifax, NS
04.26 L’Agitee Quebec City, QC
04.28 Le Divan Orange Montreal, QC
04.29 Zaphod Beeblebrox Ottawa, ON

Hot Panda | Myspace | Tour Dates | Buy