Quicky

Hello all!

just a quicky.

playing in Las Vegas with American cities and Thee Oh Sees was....pretty fucking incredible. never played in Vegas before, there couldn't possibly have been a better way to dive in. So many goood people. Damn.

and tonight, in san francisco. sooo good! we're staying right now in this awesome house with a chihuahua named dynamite. we ate fresh fruit and garlic pistachios from a farm stand. there were peacocks, goats, sheep, and rolling hills today. and the most delicious falafel i've ever had. good day!

will post some photos soon!

take care,

Hot Panda

We should all be a lot more like homing pigeons!

Hello everyone!

Nice to touch base, it's been a while!

I'll tell you where we are right now: Tucson, Arizona. I'll tell you where we were at 4 am today: Austin, TX. Yep...if you're in the know about your miles, we drove for 18 HOURS today.....good lord. We escaped alive and with our collective sanities barely intact....barely. Barelllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Oats and beans and barley grows....eeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Ummmmm, so. We after we drove across the country the other way (NY to Austin), we did that SXSW festival thingy. You know, the one with thousands of bands and as much free booze and tacos as you can (or can't) handle! Yeah it was pretty swell. Us Pandas clocked in with 4 pretty sweet shows, and a weekend of galivanting and doing and seeing crazy things. there are just two many things that happened this weekend, and with our brains scrambled as they are...i'm gonna just give some brief highlights!

.. Abbie and Jeff (see blog about kiddie show in Olympia) showing up in Austin (still on the SAME trip in their camper that they were on last tour when we ran into them). Dear Abbie and Jeff, we will miss your company, your enabling, and your overwhelming charm, and your ability to sneak us and yourselves into anything! Best of luck making it back to Edmonton with your wallets and truck intact!!

world's most charming couple.

.. Tune-yards in a church. So incredibly dear! And incredibly incredible. Incredible!!

t-t-t-t-UNE YARDS!

.. Free Six-shooter brunch in a dream Mansion from the 30's. The fixtures in the bathroom were awesome enough, but the brie and asparagus quiche, and the lox bagels really took us There. And the traditional Minty dinner too....mmmm....salad rolls!!!

Andrew WK and Nardwuar and TIKI GODS!!

.. Our Mint/Olio party at Headhunters. Playing in a ram packed tiki bar with Andrew WK, Narwuar, Grimes, and Humans was PRETTY awesome. And really steamy hot. And there was free ice cream- and not just ANY ice cream!! I finally got to try Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream. I have arrived.

...Wicked vicious sunburns for 3/4 of the pandas on about 3/4 of their body parts. we should be called Hot Lobster. HA. HA.





...And SOoooooo much bbq. SO MUCH. oh god.

meatttttttt

Well! Then, at 4 am this morning, a false fire alarm went off in our hotel. We were gONNA get up like 4 hours later, but none of us could get back to sleep after all the bros from bands were flocking about in the hallway looking confused. So we packed up and left. We arrived at 8 pm, and that's with time going back 2 hours, making it a good 18 hour drive. sigh. We also wrecked a tire in there somewhere, and got it changed by a nice christian man at the side of the road. And ate some really good mexican food, with spoons. Happy birthday me!

Heath, don't get caught by the po!

weeee!!!

Night!!

LES LOBSTER PANDAS

Hot Panda: Laziest band ever.

Hi guys! yeah it's been a weekish....sorry i (we) am (are) so lazy. So, here's the what what. After the break-in in Winnipeg, we missed our Minneapolis show, after all. We had to get the glass replaced, because it was minus 30 celsius, and we couldn't just cardboard that shit up. Oh well.... The window costed 400 bucks to replace, but on the PLUS side, while we were waiting for the window to be fixed, we found the BEST german bakery randomly situated on the outskirts of Winnipeg. Here's me enjoying the Coconut macaroon that would change my life forever. I'm pretty much reaching enlightenment at this exact moment...

oh macaroon....

I never would have found that macaroon (or enlightenment) if it wasn't for those thieves. See, every cloud DOES have a silver lining! It's like that time I had a roommate who stole all the rent money one month, and had a prostitute in his room AND let my friend's cat who I was catsitting for escape to be lost for a few very stressful days. And having to evict him on my own and deal with the police and clean up several bottles full of urine from his room. See the girl who moved in to replace him and help us recoup some of the costs, she ended up being awesome and we went to costa rica together. Right? Costa Rica and Macaroons are clear proof of this 'silver lining' theory. Yeah.

But we did make it to chicago, and made 5 whole american dollars AND ate some deep dish. Then we drove some more and made it to Toronto. We played a sweaty-ass sold out show for CMF(W), saw some friends, made some new ones, showered, found lost kitties on the street, and created some general mayhem. Oh yeah, we made a music video too, for shoot your horse. It started out all innocent, but turned into a full on band brawl with a nightmareish dancing horse head scenario...kinda amazing. You'll see soon!! And how could I forget....some friends drove all the way up from sudburry with some Panda Cupcakes that they made!! I wish I had a photo but essentially they were angel food cupcakes with hotlips, chocolate eyeballs, and oreo ears. Precious!!

horse head of your nightmares...

Now we're in new york. It's late, I'm kinda drunk, and we've gotta make it to tennessee tommorrow so that we can go to Graceland on our way to austin.

ride your horse. don't shoot it.

Hurrah! Sunshine soon!!

with love,

Pandas.

go to wisconsin dells. they have the white house, but upside down.

Dear Avalances, Blizzards, Sub Arctic Temperatures, Heartache, and BURGLARS, eff you!!!! WE WINNNNNN!!!

Oh, hello.

And you say we don't believe in rock and roll?? We've put our lives on the line for rock! We've faced the evil forces of nature, the evil forces of human nature....and come out victorious!!! The spirit of rock and roll compels us!!!

lord shreddy's giant balls! inappropriate?

So, first day on the road...we drive from Vancouver to Calgary. Lucky for us we give ourselves an extra day, or we never woulda made it. We sat for hours on the highway in the mountains due to avalanches, accidents, whiteout blizzards, and just general sketchiness. But 23 hours later.....VICTORY!! we made it to Calgary! 23 hours. And the news said the crossing could not be done. Yes guys, we peed in the snow by the side of the road a couple of times while stuck, our legs were stiff, and our moms and dads and record labels probably thought we were dead for a while there...but it was a small price to pay for making it alive!!

And when we got to calgary, there was a kitten with oversized balls (Lord Shready) ready to pounce on us in the night, and friends waiting to shot gun beers! Ah. Alberta.

frozen arctic hell

Next night we made it home to Edmonton...the frigid arctic hell that I've missed so much since moving to Vancouver (I'm actually serious...I never thought this was possible, but there you go!). Our friend was kind enough to lend us his about-to-be-demolished-Mansion for the night, and us and our Edmonton cronies Bonspiel played a very Rock and Roll party with some very Rock and Roll kids, complete with dancing, old friends, and broken hearts. Ah, homecomings! We got drunk and fell on the ice a lot, too.

Saskatoon, always wonderful!

And Winnipeg.....at first, you were awesome. Until one of your burglars BROKE INTO OUR VAN. Now, here's the best part. You smashed our window, and all you took was an ipod. That window costs WAY MORE than that ipod. Gahhhhhh. Couldn't you have taken the butloads of cash that were in my bag? or my fancy camera?? or howbout those guitar pedals??? That would have made smashing the window a lot more punk rock. But no......miss all the valuable stuff. Take our tiny ipod. Sure. Whatever. ha!! I still say we won in this situation. Have to get a window fixed, but at least we still have all the band money!! And we'll still probably make it to the Minneapolis show. So suck on that!!!!!

YEAH!!

Over and out.

Hot Panda: Winners.

A good time in shorts. The playhouse, Edmonton.