Panda Kid’s “Scary Monster Juice” still worth a look


Always always always open e-mails from bands that are in poorly-translated English. Any time a subject line is in all caps and features what might be described as an excessive number of exclamation marks, you’re off to a good start. If you have to scroll through the message to get past whatever language (in this case, Italian) it might be in to find the English portion, so much the better.

cover-panda-kidPanda Kid‘s Scary Monster Juice was released earlier this year on cassette by Already Dead Tapes, and according to the label, it is “long gone.” You can still get the album via download or streaming through the Ugly Dog Records Bandcamp, so I figure it’s worth pointing a few people at, despite the fact that it’s been out a while.

What does it sound like? One-man band weirdness. There’s a monotonic stomp behind all the track that makes Scary Monster Juice a hynoptic listen. Cranking the reverb up to almost intolerable levels increases the sense of disconnect, rendering any intake via headphones an experiment in hallucinatory audio.

Then, you get “A Long Long Summer,” which alternates between bright and fuzzy, and perfectly renders that feeling you get when you’re just a little too hot and dehydrated at the beach. Everything swims and gets a little strange. You might pass out and fall down. After that, it continues on, working a strange path through garage, blues, and surf. It’s off-kilter, but pleasant. I suggest a little too much caffeine, counterbalanced with prescription pain medication, for the full effect.