Hey oooooooooohhhhhhhhh! Osaka friends and visitors alike, our new 7-inch on Post Recrods is now available at Panda Panda Records in Ame-Mura. It's a great little store with a ton of good shit. I will be going down to spend some money there on my next paycheck. They've got vinyl, CDs, new and used. It's a crate-digger's delight.
With the purchase of our record, you'll get a free sticker! So hurry on down and check it ouuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwwt!!
xo
Kebin, No Panda
Remember only 500 of these available. Once they're gone, they're gone forever!
Long time, no see!! I haven't updated this blog in a long time. It's not because we're not busy. Maybe TOO BUSY to blog!!! Here's some things that have been happening:
»New 7-inch is out now! We teamed up with Post Records in Florida and have put out the new Panda, No Panda vs The Butterfly Battle (our side project with 8Bit Bandit) 7-inch. It looks really cool! Art was done by the unflappable, unstoppable, unbelievable Mr Kevin Barrios, and might I say, it's a masterpiece of design. It comes on thick pink and black splatter vinyl that is quite a treat for the eye--especially when it spins round and round on the turntable...trippy, brah!!!! It has three songs (including "He Died With the Novel Half Done" with Kyoka lending her voice to the track, a baka baka baka AHO cover of "The Heat is On" and one The Butterfly Battle song "Baby Box") and one skit, which was inspired by a (very) drunken night at a small bar in the Misono building in Namba listening to Cheech and Chong skits on 7-inch. All in all, we're really happy with the release. Limited edition of 500 records. No reprints! I'll post up a buy link soon. Please pick it up soon!!
» Working on the new record We're taking forever on this new record but it's coming along pretty. Last weekend we recorded a really cool new song with Kyoka of the Groopies that almost sounds like something out on '80s pop radio. Almost... More will be put on tape soon. Just depends when Shingo can get time away from his new salaryman lifestyle. If all goes well, we'll have a new CD by summer tour. At the very least I will get around to releasing a tour/mail order-only limited edition Pandaland CD of twee covers and other such escapist delights.
»Speaking of Summer Tour... we're not sure where exactly we'll be yet, but we will be somewhere. We're hoping Singapore comes through, and it would be likely Kyoka would DJ for us at those gigs. If not, plenty more up the sleeve if that falls through. But we really want Singapore for a number of reasons. Singapore has good fans!
»Fashion Show Comp Our song "Yancha na Neko" has been featured on a comp put out by clothing and accessory company Hollywood Mirror. It will be distributed at fashion trade shows, like this one on the immediate horizon. Hopefully we'll have some models happily bopping to a song about my cat's tendency to pee all over the house.
»Upcoming show Our next gig will be this fun event at the club under the train tracks. Get out your paper glasses, cuz it's time to rock out with The -N-! Let us know if you want tickets, and we'll get you in cheap.
»Any other fun stuff? If I ever figure out this new recording software I got, we will be recording our collabo with the My T Hi. It's a song about us (kinda, but kinda not once I got through with the lyrical rewrites), sung by us and good ol' Moray. Hmm, what else.... Should be back to Tokyo before long... We're talking about setting up a super all night event with the Big Jugs lads... Been getting in some DJ licks from time to time and that's fun... new toys in our set and more to buy soon... My novel came out in the states!
»Some Kudos is Due! Thanks to everyone who helped or attempted to help with our US tour, gave us some food and/or a place to stay, hooked us up with free weed, bought us beers and made our gigs up the West Coast delightful. We had some last minute cancellations, but thanks to a lot of cool people, all our dates were filled in. We drove through crazy blizzards. We saw beautiful trees. We listened to a lot of satellite radio, from film soundtracks to '80s hits, but mostly metal... and no thanks to the Bone Yard for ignorning our 24 hours of requests for AC/DC's horrible song "Hail Ceasar." We were listening, boneheads. We heard every AC/DC song in the catalog BUT our song.... boooooo! Everybody else... thank you SOOOO MUCH! We'll be back...
Guess that'll do'r for now! Keep indie music alive. Buy the merch. Go to the shows. It's the only way we bands can keep on keepin' on!
Last night we had a great time at our gig at The Cellar! A lot of fun people came out (and thank you if you are one of those people)! The bands were cool. Royal Inserts sounding more aggro than ever. The N destroying the place. It was awesome.
For our set we took the stage as soon as The Inserts finished their slot. Before they even finished unplugging their instruments, before Dabey even finished ordering his show beer, we went right into Kinky Potato. And from there it was a party all night. The start was so hasty (all in the name of entertainment, folks), I hadn't even finished plugging in all my toys. When it came to the part in our new Butterfly Battle project song "Baby Box," I was still grappling with cords and effect pedals to get to the heavy metal theremin in time. Just barely made it.
We brought back some old faves, including a shortened version of Karaoke King with lyrics altered in the name of My T High's Moray, our cover of the Misfits' "Last Carress," and the return of our farewell song "Big Panda Hug." All in all, it was not too bad a set. Crowd was great. More people than ever participated in the jumping portion of "No-Pan Parade," though we've yet to have anybody throw their panties on the stage as was the original intent of the song. It's a NO PANTS PARADE, after all! Maybe we can get some underwear throwers on the Cali tour, we'll see.
We had some sloppy bits of course, but overall perhaps it didn't matter as long as people applauded for a guy they didn't know named Nori Kozen, loveable emotional roller coaster that he is. I brought my video camera to this gig but was so busy DJing between bands that I forgot to take it out. Inserts Gavin the New Zealand has promised to send me some pics "when he gets around to it," and so when and if that happens, I shall post them right chyeahhh!!
Until the next gig... JYA!
Kebin, No Panda/ Kebin ButtBatt
Thank you, Gavs.... and Grant totally laid a tamago
Lest you the faithful think we remaining Pandas are resting on our laurels, we must say to ye, au contrair mon frair. Not only do we have a bunch of fresh Shingo tracks we are working with and getting ready to record for a new album, we've also started collaborating with our friend 8-Bit Bandit for a new side project we shall call BUTTERFLY BATTLE!! We will be recording all new songs and releasing a limited-edition, numbered 7-inch called "Panda, No Panda vs. Butterfly Battle" for Jerk-Off Records. One side will have music by Shingo, the other by 8-bit. Both will have Dabey and me on vocals and noise toys.
This new project will be in a similar vein to Panda, but a little more insane in the membrane. More noises, more aggro, more lyrics from the nether-regions of my graying brain. It's gonna be fun, and the songs are more geared to bring the party live than stuff we've done before. We'll play both band's music live and to be honest, most people might not even know we've switched masks mid-set. Who cares as long as we're all having a good time, right!?
In other Panda news, hey kids, we're coming to California! We'll be touring up and down the coast for a little over a week and bringing the fun to wherever we go. Looks like 8-Bit's going to do the DJing honors, and we haven't talked to him in a while about it but possibly also our pal 9-10-Do. More details on the caravan of crazy later.
Well, as most of you know (and for those who don't I'm telling you now), Shingo, No Panda has retired from the live circuit, leaving Dabey and I to go it alone for now. We are still recording our next album with Shingo as Mr. Producer, but for purposes of live performance, between donning his new Mr. Husband cap and zipping up the official Mr. Salaryman Mitsubishi jumpsuit, he simply could no longer commit to gigs. At first we were in a bit of a panic, desperately seeking musicians, DJs and/or buttoned-down bespectacled librarians, but once we got into a studio to work out some of the tracks, we realized what we really needed was a third vocalist. Someday we'd like to have that Motley Crue-like budget where we can hire ten backup biker chick vocalists, which is what the true production of our sound would require to duplicate all the parts we do in the studio, but for now, one nutball with harmonizing skills would do.
For now, Dabey and I are in the continued process of working out the songs in the sound of two, and with the new tracks we've got about 45 minutes worth of show. This will surely increase with time. By the winter tour we should have a couple hours ready to go.
Anyway, our first two sans Shingo shows last weekend went pretty well altogether. I've posted some pics below. For more extended coverage, check out my LiveJournal entry about it, and do leave me a comment to let me know what you think!
He Died With the Novel Half Done (Kyoka's Gomi Remix)
Here's an early sneak preview from our upcoming album, Wrestling With Some Issues. Well, kinda. Kyoka from the Groopies got ahold of the track (she's also guesting on the album track) and remixed the shit out of it. That's why I say kind of a preview. When you hear the album version of the track you might not recognize it from this remix. We Pandas love remixes, and especially this one. Kyoka is forever our girl. She's hot and talented. She's even gonna be our future baito DJ when we have the chance to tour together. Please enjoy.
Yancha na Neko
This is a late response to a request from the OJF guys to post this track. It's about my cat Kilimanjaro. When I wrote it, he was about the size of my foot. And it's ironic, because he really enjoyed peeing on my shoes. And everything else in my house for that matter. Fast forward a couple years, and my yancha na neko is still cute as a button... and he still uses the No-Pan apartment as his personal pisser. yada!!
Kinky Potato
This track is a tribute to one of my favorite cult spy parodies For Your Height Only. It stars filipino midget actor Weng Wang. It is chock-full of amazing lines which are all dubbed in the most ridiculous film-noir gangster voices you've ever heard. Some of those lines wind up as samples on this track. When we do this song live, we've got some fancy synchronized dance moves that are sweeping the nation. Perhaps we will teach them to you some day, so you too can be Kinky Potato chic!
The Trooper
Yet another fan request repost. We covered Iron Maiden's Trooper first for our appearance on Baybeats in Singapore. We later recorded it for a Halloween show last year here in Osaka, which we gave out on a one-night-only Halloween CDEP. Available now for your downloading pleasure. Get it now before I decide to switch up the songs yet again. New album coming after all. Soon we're gonna have a bunch of new tracks and remixes we'll want to preview for you. Limited time only.
Hey, any DJs with skills in the Kansai area? We could use you. If you are interested in DJing for Panda, No Panda send us an email. Must have flexibility to play lots of gigs and to tour. Expect to have crazy fun. It's all about the rock 'n' roll.
Working hard on our next album and things are slowly coming together. We have a couple guests I'm excited about. My friend Yuko has given us some great artwork. Mr. Kevin B is hard at work on the text aspect. I'm fine honing the thematics and am gonna kick something that mean somefin. Shingo is reworking his tracks. We've got a new label in Florida that we're really excited about. We've been a bit out of the spotlight in terms of gigging, but once this thing is off the ground, expect a No-Pan resurrection!!! We will be back, a bit different than you might remember us, but most definitely stronger, ready to blast some gas, and on the road a lot more.
Well, it took me a while but I finally got the valuable prize package out to our 3,939th friend Masashi! He is the official Panda, No Panda Thank You Thank You Friend! In case you are wondering why 3939 is such a lucky number, it's because when you read the numbers 3 and 9 together in Japanese it's pronounced san-kyu. Sounds just like thank you, if you read it correctly. Now lest you think me a clever soul, just know that this is a commonly used marketing tool in Japan. I've merely stolen it and used it for my own. Anyway, most of the time when it's used there are no valuable cash prizes like our friend Masashi will be receiving. So, Masashi... Yoroshiku and Sankyu Very Much!!
Now... please meet our friend!
Name: Masashi Age: 23 Where do you live: Tokyo Japanda^^ How did you find us: Supernatural power!! sorry(^^;) Maybe link from "Master Chef"'s page Favorite song/band: Of course you and your songs!, underworld, daft punk, Various classical music... Favorite food: Natto, Toppo(you know?),Soybean milk... Favorite superhero: Antonio-Inoki, Mohamedo-Ali, and ICHIRO Hobbies: Playing piano, "GO" and boxing!
We found our thank you thank you friend! Or, he found us, should I say? Anyway either or, it matters not. We've contacted him and will tell you more soon.
In other (non) news, last night I had a dream we played on a hotel rooftop and I had to balance myself on a wall and look down to see the crowd on the ground below. That dream gave me vertigo!
cheerful
), sung by us and good ol' Moray. Hmm, what else.... Should be back to Tokyo before long... We're talking about setting up a super all night event with the Big Jugs lads... Been getting in some DJ licks from time to time and that's fun... new toys in our set and more to buy soon... My novel came out in the states!
energetic
