the best dream i ever had (or “making a hi-fi video in LA”)

March 8th, 2010

“yea, and their raiment shall be of the aeroplane, and their image shall be like unto their name,
evoking escape and travel to exotic places, and by the repetition of images shall their fame
become known among the Kingdoms of man”

-ghost panda

Come, look with me into panda-vision…….I see a panda plane filled with the beautiful people. I see a brooding man with a red camera (snap. it doesn’t look red). I see hair and make-up girls. They are touching me. . Dressing me with tubes and creams. I’m wearing looong fuck me boots and a mom scarf. And BIG HAIR. My god it’s big! I see puppies! (there are puppies even in panda land, yay!).
I had a dream we made a video in LA and this is what I saw:

The airplane that had an unsuccessful visit to the plastic surgeon-

Beautiful people enjoying panda transport

Look! thierry is finally happily occupied!

These girls had a lot of work to do!

The director was not wearing a lab coat, but had a gigantic collection of band t-shirts. He would punch the producer everytime she offered him a girl scout cookie.

In the future, some people will communicate only through their screeens. And dress up like an air hostess.

the beautiful photographer called nikko mizuno

And there was panda everything! Panda headphones, panda food:

At one point, I thought the plane was going down. But instead of panicking I decided to utilize my strengths and sing a song about it, and how we should not miscalculate the strength of our souls, our inner strengths. I’m such a goober I know.

thierry took time to put a screen on his head too and write a song about how it made him feel.

Look! pUUUUuppeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEE!!!!

I won’t blind your eyes with the expression of glee we had when we found out that it was the LOST plane. Kate sawyer jack desmond. Their energy was here.here.

Nice dream right?

What we really want to do now is send out a huge word of thanks to everyone who helped make dreams come true. The cast and the crew, you are welcome to get in touch and we’d be happy to send you a cd. We want to hear from you! We’d love to mention every name but if we forgot a single one, we’d feel awful. So know, that we so appreciated everything that you made and did.

We’d also like to thank amy and james for the visit into wonderland. Derek for possessing more energy than any other single human being in the galaxy (and he likes us! Thank you derek!) to casey and garret for taking over the front of their lovely house. To melanie who inspired the song “saint’s revel” and her on set support. Mike K. who gave thierry’s head a rest with his flawless french accent and cozy bed. we owe you one monsieur. actually i think we owe alot of people many things for all the amusement we endured. justin.

The video for Saint’s Revel should be ready for viewing in a couple of months. Make sure you check back on the site and one day it will just be there looking so much better than even a dream!

Panda transport music

March 4th, 2010

Available on I-tunes click below!!!

Pantrans á L.A.*(en francais dans le texte)

March 4th, 2010

Voilá, juste de retour de Los Angeles…10 jours trés intenses.

D’abord merci á Derek qui nous a accueilli chez lui, ainsi que Michaël et Emy…Derek a qui on doit en grande partie notre passage dans Grey’s nous a d’abord invité á Disney world(roller coaster=estomac á l’envers en ce qui me concerne)..ou j’ai pu photographier le …Monorail. Evidemment on s’est tapé la totale des “drives”comme des gamins :-))

Le but du voyage, 2 concerts et une video…mais d’abord changement de climat, environ 20 degré. C’était une premiére pour moi, Kathy connait déjá. Au départ, j’ai pensé que je passerai la semaine le cul dans la voiture de location parce que c’est le seul moyen de locomotion possible, donc pas terrible et quand plus les embouteillages sont monstrueux. Aprés tout est différent de l’Est du pays, hormis le climat, les palmiers et les cactus. J’ai vraiment eu le sentiment que tout est tourné vers l’industrie du cinéma et de la musique, cliché peut-être parce que nous étions dans l’envers du décors..aussi l’impression que tout peut arriver pour l’aspirant á une “carriére”, le pire comme le meilleur, mais c’est lá ou tout se passe.Pas mal de stress et de tension dans l’air, réussir ou mourir, m’enfin c’est le lot des habitants des grandes villes.

Toujours le syndrome du petit touriste francais, á chercher les endroits que j’ai déjá vu dans les films et ca ne manque pas!!!( Bon une adresse que j’ai bien aimé, c’est le bar le Prado, vin et biére, musique sympa, punk 80’s pour quadra nostalgiques, sur Sunset. Le quartier d’Echo Park également, surement trés cher, mais cool et typique..Pour les filles évidemment Melrose, shopping, shopping..

Nous sommes allé á Laguna beach et pour l’anecdote, la plage était super clean et sur les rochers des moules énormes…évidemment comme tout frenchy qui se respecte, j’ai démarré une dégustation avant de m’apercevoir que c’était évidemment interdit.

Sinon, cool la visite en VIP de Prospect Studio ou Grey’s Anatomy est filmé, on a assisté au tournage d’une scéne et oui les filles!!! Patrick Dempsey est encore mieux en vrai!!!  quelqu’un de trés sympa..en tout cas avec nous.

Pour la video, Justin Chinn le réalisateur nous a mis dans un avion(ca nous change :-)))) á Air Hollywood …le notre était celui qui a servi pour “Y a t’il un pilote dans l’avion”, celui d’á côté LOST…également Kill Bill etc..le studio existe depuis les années 40.

Le tournage trés pro avec une équipe de 40 personnes(la plupart travaille sur Grey’s) super sympas et compétents..on attend le résultat final normalement mai-juin..Ca devrait être classe!!!!

Bref et pour finir, une semaine de rêve, le retour sur terre á Lyon, la pluie, le froid pas facile.!!!Même chose pour Kathy, C-ville pas le même climat..

PS:

Petit guide non illustré pour devenir californien: porter des T-shirts toute l’année, parler lentement, avoir un chien qui fait moins de un kilo(si, si ca existe, on dirait un peu des gros rats), boire du vin californien(logique), faire semblant de cuisiner bio, avoir l’air jeune, des dents impeccables, connaitre au moins une star et conduire une Toyota Prius…et critiquer les gens derriére leur dos(comme en France quoi!!!) et au final avoir fait au moins une vingtaine de fois(minimum) Space Mountain á Disney.

Dark Horse in Tranquility du jour podcast/blog.

February 24th, 2010

http://www.kimberlywilson.com/blog/2010/02/tranquility-du-jour-173-tranquilista.html

Ublf Podcast!!!!

February 12th, 2010

Up The Disco in Ublf podcast!

http://ublf.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=581462

Interview in Higher Plain Music

February 12th, 2010

The interview can be read on the site…click on the link below.

higherplainmusic.com

Monorail review in HigherPlainMusic

January 31st, 2010

Panda Transport – “Monorail” Review

Monorail is the new 6 track EP from Panda Transport and I can confirm that it is rather fantastic. The duo fuse alternative pop electronica with random extras to create a fun.

Opening with the title track, is a groovy cloud-infused piece of dream-pop that you’d be quite happy riding to work via country lanes on your bicycle to, smiling and tipping your hat to all whom pass you. It’s just delightfully upbeat and fun. I could see it opening a Japanese Animation actually.

“Saint Revel” is the song currently gaining exposure via Grey’s Anatomy and is a little more laid back and chilled out with some fantastic vocal layering and sweet electric piano with a Sitar section! How can you lose? Panda Transport’s ability to carry off placing random instruments into a relatively standard track to make it stand completely out from the crowd is one of their key assets.

“Up The Disco” is a more a lighter-swinging track as its more subdued despite its percussive bangs and while its less immediately gratifying than the previous tracks the chorus riff will stick around in your head after a few listens.

“Freak Show” is cute. From the xylophone to warping electric noises to the mariba-esque percussion, it tippy-toes about with children’s movie overtones and then bursts into a lounge jazz piece like something from the Katamari games. I actually really like the way how the whole song shifts into a more slinky mood and it certainly stands out.

“Cicadas in Stereo” see’s Kathy step down from vocals and Ti step up for a French song full of cuteness that verges on Pikmin style music. Think Jazz gone to the circus with a gallon of icing on top. The closer is “Dark Horse” is as close to a downbeat ballad as you’re going to get. Quite minimal and vocal fronted, it works really well with solomn church bells and low hummings setting the mood and is a welcome change from the other very uptempo numbers.

Monorail is a great introduction to a duo that are prepared to take a chance by going for a different approach everytime and merging things together you wouldn’t nessacarily sit together and making it work. I expect to hear of more great things from Panda Transport in the years to come as the alt-electro-pop genre continues to gather strength and popularity.

Pantrans will play at Methodfest Film Festival and The Talking Stick, Venice

January 28th, 2010

Wed. 25 Feb 2010 - Pierce College Performing Arts Center, 6201 Winnetka Avenue, Woodland Hills, CA - Private Party - Methodfest Film Festival 2010 - Invitation Only - Announcement of Films Screening and Film Industry Honorees.  Methodfest Film Festival is scheduled to run from March 25-April 1, 2010.  Panda Transport is tonight’s featured performers. 7:00pm - 8:00pm Red Carpet Music. www.methodfest.com <http://www.methodfest.com> for further film festival details.

Also we will play @The Talking Stick, Venice (CA) feb 22!!!

Panda in higherplainmusic.com

January 28th, 2010

See, it pays to contact me with new artists that I may be interested in! Some wonderful lady contacted me and said, if you like so-and-so, you might like this little duo… oh yes I did! Welcome to Panda Transport, a French-American duo who are recently getting recognition due to one of their songs appearing on the drama of drama’s Grey’s Anatomy. A video for that is due to be made, but for now I wanted to share this video gem for the song “Painting By Numbers” and long live home made animals!!! Hopefully, if all goes to plan we’ll have an interview with them in the near future.

Simon Smith

a real promoter- jeremy koteles

January 26th, 2010

we met jeremy in summer of 2007. he calls himself the kid with the hair in his face. he’s humble and passionate about music. our kind of bloke. he is relentless in the pursuit of turning people on to music. the kind of person every musician ought to cherish. we do and we wanted to share our love for him with you- so check out jeremy’s up to on his ms-
www.myspace.com/starvationarmyzine

thanks for all you do jeremy!

xo, kat and ti