Panthers

Formed in September 2000 in Brooklyn, New York, the Panthers operate as a five-piece ensemble whose members each bring prior experience from prominent bands. Jayson Green, Geoff Garlock, and Jeff Salane previously performed in the hardcore group Orchid, Kip Uhlhorn contributed to the Red Scare, and Justin Chearno earned credits on Unrest's Isabel Bishop album while maintaining his role in the instrumental Turing Machine. Drawing on these backgrounds, the Panthers fuse punk sensibilities with political convictions in the vein of the visceral Nation of Ulysses on Discord during the late '80s and early '90s, while their lyrics remain rhetorical, inflammatory, and subversive.

January 2002 brought the release of their Are You Down?? album on Troubleman Unlimited, a work that references avant-garde art movements such as Fluxus and honors figures like Jean Genet and Carol Queen for their pioneering advocacy of alternative sexual lifestyles. Their sweaty live show further incorporates tambourine shaking, handclaps, and danceable rhythms, and they have shared stages with other New York acts including Black Dice, the Rapture, Liars, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Spring 2002 saw them undertake a West Coast tour alongside labelmates Erase Errata. Additional albums followed in subsequent years, with Things Are Strange appearing in 2004 and The Trick arriving in 2007. During this span the band's early politically charged punk shifted toward an arena-tinged indie rock approach comparable to that of Wolfmother and Sword.