Hot Panda Hawk Hot Sauce at Canadian Music Week

Posted on Mar 9th 2011 4:30PM by Jill Langlois
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Robert Fougere

With their love of spicy food common knowledge after the launch of their very own hot sauce, it isn't a surprise that Edmonton's Hot Panda are big fans of Mexican food.

"When we go down to South by Southwest and into that part of the United States, it's all about Mexican food," Chris Connelly, the band's singer and guitarist, tells Spinner. "And what's great is if you stop in any little town in Texas, or in that area, any town will have a little family-run Mexican restaurant, and it'll be really really good -- stopping in a town of a few hundred people, and going to some local Mexican restaurant there, is the way to go."

And their love of heat doesn't stop there. Hot Panda's first hot sauce sold so well at their shows that they now have a second variation with their name on it.

"It's kind of ridiculous. We have one for the first record and one for the second record. So not only do we have hot sauce, we have selection, if you want to get some at the show," says Connelly. "One is super hot, like really, really hot. And the other is a fruity habanero."

And if they had to come up with another piece of merchandise? Well, they'd keep Hot Panda fans warm in another, very different, way.

"I'd like to get a nice toque made. I think that'd be kind of nice. I have this old-school toque that I got from CBC Radio3 when I was in Vancouver, and I love it," he says. "It's always good to have interesting merch ideas. I find that I like when I go see a band and there's something that isn't just a record, a CD or a t-shirt. Nothing else food-related, though; that stuff will go bad in the van."

Watch Hot Panda Perform 'Shoot Your Horse'
Another new venture on Hot Panda's horizon is their very first video, which will be for the song 'Shoot Your Horse.'

"We're shooting some of it in an indoor area in Toronto, and then we're getting all the exteriors in Texas," Connelly says. "I think it's supposed to be a party at a really old, decrepit, decaying church."

If you want to keep an eye out for it, the video will hopefully be finished sometime in April. In the meantime, you can always start your own party with a bottle of Hot Panda hot sauce, word has it the band will have both varieties on hand at their Canadian Music Week gigs this week in Toronto.