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Cow-punk lives

Hotshot's Boy
Hotshot's Boy
By The Panderers

Snack Bar Records: 2008

Buy it digitally now from Amazon.com


This review first appeared in Turbula in May 2008.

A minimalist roots band from the Midwest with a Left Coast art-rock attitude, The Panderers sound a bit like the Fabulous Thunderbirds meet Cake. Their debut EP, "Hotshot's Boy," has five songs – "Shane" is the most interesting of the bunch. A plaintive lead vocal dripping '90s grunge and alt-rock angst plays atop a quietly comping organ and country/blues shuffle by the rhythm section. The CD opens more conventionally with a cow-punk song, "Come On," followed by the dirge-like "Dig." It's on "Shane," though, that their disparate influences are most completely combined.