Panda Riot

Chicago's wonderful, though oddly named, Panda Riot!

I've seen Panda Riot around on the interwebs for quite some time now, but to be quite honest, I'd never checked them out until just recently because, well, their name doesn't exactly scream really beautiful shoegaze pop. But another lesson learned about judging a book by it's cover, because I'm now completely obsessed with Panda Riot's new-ish record She Dares All Things. Panda Riot takes all the best things I love about MBV's Loveless and Slowdive's Souvlaki and molds and shapes those particular things into dreamy and dancey, yet occasionally roaring, pop songs. A large portion of She Dares All Things sounds like a buffet of varied interpretations of the Loveless closer "Soon" and, being that that song makes me brilliantly happy everytime I hear it, I think that's why I love this record so much. The particularly "Soon"-ish song "She Dares All Things" is probably my favorite right now, but I'm also pretty in love with "Like Flowers At Night." The whole record is pretty outstanding though, definitely best shoegaze I've heard since, oh, well, I don't know I guess. I walked around the city all day today with this on and I can now guarantee that it is very good music for walking around on a slightly snowy and VERY cold day. It's also a good thing to remember that banks and libraries are not open on Martin Luther King Day before you walk two miles to get to them...

[MP3]: Panda Riot :: She Dares All Things (Very Berry Recommended!)
[MP3]: Panda Riot :: Like Flowers At Night (Very Cherry Recommended!)

You can buy the album from them, here!
Panda Riot on MySpace!

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