Having spent 2010 filling the ranks of more famous bands on booze-fuelled jaunts around the world, Auckland’s Panther and the Zoo have finally made their first album, and it’s “quite good”. While Graham Panther groped his way around unfamiliar buttons, knobs and pads as a touring member of the Ruby Suns, main zoo collaborator Hayden Eastmond-Mein developed multiple tambourine inflicted injuries in Lawrence Arabia’s band.

Periodically throughout the year, dreadfully hung over and jet-lagged, Panther and Eastmond-Mein made the long journey back home across the pacific to chip away at Panther and the Zoo’s long awaited debut album; left safely in a New Lynn warehouse under the watchful ears of Bob Frisbee
(Street Chant, Shaft, Surf City). Along the way, friends like Goldenhorse’s Geoff Maddock, The Brunettes’ John Parker, Ruby Suns’ Alistair Deverick and The Finance Company’s Tono would drop by with a bag of chips and ginger beer before adding their own musical touches. The album is more of a full band affair than earlier Zoo recordings, capturing for the first time the full energy of their live show and expanded line-up.