Trash Panda Go Kart is a name that creates a funny mental image of a couple of raccoons piloting a go-kart, one with its paws on the steering wheel while the other pushes the gas and brake pedals. For Zinnia Su and Selena Kane, the name perfectly captures their band’s silly and whimsical nature.
TPGK is a Lesbian-rock duo consisting of Zinnia on drums and Selena on guitar; both are also on vocals. Their music is reminiscent of late ‘60s and early ‘70s pop-rock bands such as Fleetwood Mac, The Who, or The Police, while still having a bit of an early progressive-rock sound similar to Yes, King Crimson, and Rush.
Unlike many modern ‘70s-inspired bands and musicians, like Tame Impala or Cindy Lee, TPGK doesn’t take itself that seriously, as most of its songs and general aesthetic is themed around raccoons and other woodland creatures. One would almost assume the women make music for raccoons, with songs that explore what it means to be one in modern society.
Recently, the band finished hosting its own music festival in South Seattle, titled Forbidden Feline Fest, with mainline acts including Student Nurse, The Lichen Hearts, Negative Passengers, and Skull Cat.
Background
Kane met Su at a house party in Ballard hosted by Kane’s former band; Su’s best friend at the time was dating the band’s electric banjo player. Ten years later, all the bands Kane was in had disbanded, and she didn’t have the energy to find a bunch of people to form another, but she knew Su had perfect tempo, so she floated the idea of getting her drums and seeing if she could play them.
At first, they got a set of electronic drums to test the waters, started jamming. “I had no clue we were going to be forming a band, and then it became one pretty quickly, because we wrote songs so easily together,” Su explained.
TPGK performed their first show while Su was booking one of Kane’s other bands for a weekly residency but could not find an opener for the first night. Kane suggested that the two of them open that show as TPGK; at this point, they had enough songs to perform a six-song set. The performance was received well, and the duo decided to do more shows.
Dynamics
TPGK is a guitar and drum musical duo, a type of dynamic that creates a minimalist instrumental sound in rock music, with the more famous examples of this type of band being The White Stripes and The Black Keys. But unlike those bands, TPGK is a more upbeat, pop-rock duo (The White Stripes are alternative rock and The Black Keys are blues rock).
“It’s sort of an accident and a coincidence; we’re a couple, so there’s two of us, so that’s what the band is,” Kane revealed when asked how this dynamic plays into their creative process. “I don’t know why. That’s a form I end up working in sometimes, so it didn’t occur to me to think, ‘Oh, we have to find a bass player’... I think you put any two people together and get us deep into our chemistry, and you’ll get something every bit as unique and wonderful, or maybe more so, than a group of four people.”
TPGK has their own mythology around woodland creatures, especially raccoons, which came about through Kane’s having grown up in a forested area around various types of fauna, giving her an appreciation for the natural world.
In terms of favorite musicians, the pair listed several local acts, including Grizzly, The Lichen Hearts, Team Dresch, Carly Ann Colbero, and Skullcat. They also listed some nonlocal acts, including The Breeders and Faith NYC. Kane added, “I put on a Joan Jett record to get me through coffee.”
According to Su, her favorite songs to perform are “La La Meow” and “Diamonds.” Kane enjoys playing a grungecore cover of “Girls Want to Have Fun” and “Raccoon Gods,” simply for how anthemic it is, with crowds singing along and making up dances to the track.
TPGK will play at MagmaFest for Hollow Earth Radio this Halloween and are currently mixing their next album, titled RacQueens of Noise.
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