The Pixel Panda

Somewhere along the line, the Pixel Panda earned something of a bad reputation in Lawrence. Maybe it was the panda masks, or perhaps the over-the-top sassy banter of the singers. Either way, people typically fail to mention the music, which isn't bad at all. On the Panda's 2004 full-length, The Nation of Symmetry, the tradeoff vocals of screamer Do Yun Kim and singer Nicholas Seider, though initially overwhelming, fall into a strangely cohesive wall of scrambling, intricate notes and beats that send the brain pleasantly reeling. The jarring tunes, live or recorded, rarely make it to the three-minute mark, which, at the very least, prevents further hearing loss. Even the biggest cartoon-core haters gotta give the band props for sticking it out and continuing to surprise locals and critics with its dedication to the music -- and for always wearing those weird-ass Ling-Ling masks. Audience members, as a group, should expect to be called "bitches." Many, many times.