to be treated like gold is a very rare thing indeed.

Well, my mind just got blown.

Last night in Zurich we experienced something we have very very rarely experienced before. The most incredible hospitality known to man? Possibly! So we arrive at the club- called Viadukt, to give credit where credit is due. Waiting for us with a local cheese platter and another one covered in mouth watering meats and fig bread and pickles, and some local beer are the two loveliest hosts we've encountered in our many years on the road, Suzan and Stefan. They actually help us load into the club, and tut tut me trying to carry the heavy stuff. They've arranged and paid for gorgeous spotless hotel for us, and they feed us...they feed a three course meal- the juiciest, most succulent lamb I have ever had covered in fresh thyme, roasted asparagus and polenta cakes....gahhhh.... and oh they've made sure we have all the organic beer and wine and fruit and juice and whatever we want and and and...... The show was great, there was a fire pit outside and the kids nearly bought us out of all the merch we brought. then, they stayed and chatted with us for hours, making sure we had road pops to walk home with. THEN they invited us back for a free lunch today! I ate fried chicken extraordinaire...and this amazing salad well... anyway. I could go on forever about this food, cooked by stefan himself, but...I don't have time! There's this girl playing sax on stage right now at this venue we're at....and I want to go watch.

But first, quickly, holy crap. It's so nice to be treated with respect, and to be welcomed with such incredible hospitality. It's hard to think about going home and touring in North America again after our last three shows in Europe, all three of which have been just fricken great. I mean. I can see why all those jazz musicians back in the day kept coming over here to tour, again and again.

More soon!

XOpandas

EUROPE ONCE MORE

Oh hello, here we are! Blogging again! We're in Europe! Once more!

Landed two days ago via some very convoluted cheapoair routes...Seattle, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Frankfurt, Brussels...all of these were hit by at least one panda on our way here. It took us from Friday till sunday afternoon but we finally made it to our friend jasper's house in Amsterdam. it happened to be Queen's night in Holland that night...which basically meant all the british tourists wore orange and got loud and drunk. Change the colours around and remove the cobblestones and canals and you might as well have been on Granville street during the playoffs. After not sleeping for three nights and then emerging from the airplane into that...well it was VERY surreal...seeing jasper and eating at our favourite falafel joint and wandering around was great but didn't real feel real. Actually nothing felt real until I finally slept...then I realized...I am gone!! I don't have to work again for a month! I'm in the middle of fricken idyllic canal-spotted holland which is chalk full of herons and lambs and tulips and windmills...and I don't have to go home for a month!! YES!

Last night we played in Freiburg for a lovely and very forgiving audience (first show in europe= all the gear is broken and you have to work out all the electrical kinks) who made us do two encores despite all the sound blops that kept happening. The hotel last night had heated towel racks, and we got fed schnitzel and snickers bars- so I say we're doing ok, for a start!

Take care all ye friends and fans! Zurich HO!

xThe Pandas

OMG

Hi guys!! Ok we are in Innsbruck! Austria!! About to drive to Paris!! AIIEEE! I don't have much time- but I will say this: Reeperbahn was insane, Innsbruck took it to the next level....let's see what the future brings!! We have a ton of videos and photos to post, but no time to post them now. But I will, I will. You just have to trust me!

In the mean time- there are some changes. Unfortunately, due to a bizarre series of events, our paris show has been cancelled. SUCKS! On the pluss side- we added another London show- Oct 4th at Barfly! Yesss!  Also, our Northampton show has now moved to London- it's now an early show at the Bowery. I know, I know. Very confusing yes? But when you're a touring band, you have to fly by the seat of your chinny chin chin, or we won't let you in. Make sense?

Ok- onwards to Paris! I mean, we might as well check out the Louvre while we can right?

And we get to drive through LICHENSTEIN!!!!

Maghan

We Are Going To Europe! And Doing Some Other Stuff Too!

Hey everyone. Oh, I know. I know. We are, once again the worst. I seem to only remember to update this thing when we're on tour, you know, when we have wild tales to tell and we're running on no sleep!

But. Here I am, sitting at home in my own room, writing a blog! What??

Well, it's cause we have some news! Yes! WE ARE GOING TO EUROPE!! Wooooo!! It's our first time in two years and we are wildly excited about it! Wildly! We were invited to play the Canada Blast stage at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany. This will take place September 24th, at Kukuun, in Hamburg. Oh yeah. Details on the festival here: http://www.reeperbahnfestival.com/

And we're gonna play some other shows around too, just coz ya know...we can! So there's going to be some UK dates, some france dates, some more Germany dates...and likely one in Amsterdam too, just for funsies! So- I will update this as soon as everything is better organized and stuff, but YAY! EUROPE! Hot Panda miss Europe. Hot Panda can't wait to get by on fresh bread and beer again! woot! ta for now!

THE BAND

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.