Trash Panda Go Kart Wants to Spread the Joy by Rocking Your Face Off

"If you can draw on something that makes you happy, that gives you strength and energy to keep going despite all of this, then that's important. That's part of what we want to do with our music."

With an epic name and equally epic music, Trash Panda Go Kart embodies partying through the bullshit. With their unique self-dubbed mix of "power twee lesbian raccoon rock from the island of misfit toys," Selena Kane and Zinnia Su are spreading joy to the masses—or at least the Pacific Northwest, and hopefully the entire West Coast. With recent appearances at Anacortes' AmpFest, Tacoma Porchfest and PorchFest Edmonds, and Olympia's Capitol City Pride, and their own festival, Forbidden Feline, TPGK is bringing the evolved, louder and faster version of their band to new audiences. They even have a new album in the works...

Also describing themselves as animists, the duo spread the gospel of raccoons long before real-life trash pandas got their viral moment this summer. Keen on metaphors, Zinnia and Selena see raccoons as the ultimate metaphor for misfits.

I spoke with Trash Panda Go Kart in mid-September, ahead of their appearance at Hollow Earth Radio's annual Magma Fest, which will be held on Halloween this year. We discussed the origins of their name, how they feel about the current music scene in the Pacific Northwest, some of their other favorite acts, and more.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Adriana Gomez-Weston: You describe yourselves as "power twee lesbian raccoon rock from the Island of Misfit Toys." How did that come about?

Selena Kane: The name sort of describes how we move through the world.
It just seemed to fit when we were starting the band; it just seemed to fit with the energy that we bring to everything.

Zinnia Su: It's a little careening, there's a little bit of chaos, but it's fun. We're definitely nocturnal. I'm nocturnal for sure. We're both fairly nocturnal... just the whole vibe of critters.

SK: ...Raccoons plummeting down a hill on a raggedy built little machine. The Island of Misfit Toy thing, so when we moved to the island where we live, one of our neighbors was Van Connor, the bass player from The Screaming Trees. He was such a really sweet neighbor. He referred to, I think, his whole life as "The Island of Misfit Toys."

ZS: And specifically because we were living on an island.

SK: We just kinda ran with it. So it's partly, yes, we all live on The Island of Misfit Toys. We're all Rock & Roll misfits; that is correct. Also, thank you, Van, for being a good neighbor.

AGW: How did you decide to start a band? What prompted you to get into music?

SK: I have been playing music my whole life, and bands come and go. That's sort of the nature of the thing. I like to be singing in a band as well as playing bass. I used to always have a bunch of bands going. I was just between everything, and I said (to Zinnia), "Well, we know that you have a fantastic time. Maybe we should get you a drum set and just find out how that goes," and it went really well.

I didn't have a band to lead, not that I "lead."

ZS: You didn't have a band to sing in, really. We went and got an electronic drum kit. We just started kind of jamming, her on guitar and me on the electronic drum kit.

SK: We wrote songs so fast.

ZS: It was really easy because we've been together for a long time. We've been a couple for a while. Me playing was kind of new. I had piano lessons when I was younger, but I never really played. I love it. I feel like I'm spoiled because this is my first band ever. I've worked with bands. I've booked bands and helped them, but I've never been in one myself

We started playing together and making songs right away, and then we eventually got to the point where we had a handful of songs, and I was booking a weekly residency for a month for Beyond Captain Orca!

SK: That is an all-improv band that I play bass in with Jack Endino on guitar. It's a pretty wonderful project. We've made forty live albums.

ZS: I was booking the opening bands for Beyond Captain Orca! The first week, I just couldn't find someone to open. And I was like, "I don't have an opener, don't have an opener." She turned to me, and she goes, "We could be the opener!"

So that was our first show. I didn't even have an actual drum kit yet. We borrowed from Patrick, who is the drummer for Beyond Captain Orca! I said, "Hey Patrick, can I use your drums to play our show?"

He said, "Yeah, no problem."

SK: That was pre-COVID. So, we played for a little while, and then COVID happened. Basically, the band restarted in 2023.

ZS: We played at home, but we didn't think that we would play out again because things were shut down for so long; venues closed. It wasn't really at the forefront of our mind to make sure we were playing out as a band. Then, someone asked us to play in 2023, and we hit the ro ground running and haven't stopped. We feel like 2023 is really when we got going.

AGW: I've seen you've been playing everywhere! You did Olympia Pride, and Porch Fest in Tacoma and Edmonds. How's it been feeling to go to different parts of the state and Puget Sound area?

SK: I love it. We don't live in Seattle. We live out in the sticks. When we finally moved out of Seattle, we said, "Now we get to be a Pacific Northwest band!

ZS: Not just a Seattle band.

SK: Every show's an away show, and we get to drive to amazing places. We just played a little festival in Anacortes, a beautiful town. We like it up there anyway. It's right by the water, amazing people. We get to go to all these fantastic, cool places, meet fantastic, cool people, rock their faces off for a few minutes, and then they get to rock our faces off. It's great. We love Olympia. We love Tacoma.

ZS: We love Edmonds! It's actually really cool. Anacortes was so welcoming, and Everett Pride was amazing.

SK: We're gonna have our first show in Portland soon. You know, it's just really cool. I love the Pacific Northwest. I'm not from here. I've lived here at this point probably more than anywhere else. Yeah. I love that I get to drive around all the little bits of it.

ZS: Yeah, same. I grew up in California until I was sixteen, but Seattle and the Pacific Northwest are our home. The first time I ever came up here, it just felt right. It's the place that we've lived the longest over time. Well, I've lived here four times. I keep moving back. I'll go somewhere else, and then I'll move back. I'll go somewhere else and move back. We've been here again for a long time now, but it's home, and it's so beautiful everywhere you drive around, right? All up and down Washington, and as a band, this will be our first time in Portland. We love Portland. It's a fun place to go.

Because I grew up in California, and we lived in California for a while, we really want to tour the whole West Coast. That's one of our goals. So one day, hopefully not too long from now.

AGW: You have a new single out. What made you revisit it or your single "Maybe Don't?" since it was recorded before?

SK: That was one of the first two or three songs that we wrote when the band started, which was a while ago. Trash Panda Go Kart 1.0 was 2018-2019, and then like everyone else, we stayed home for three years pretty much. Didn't do anything.

ZS: So, it's TPGK 2.0!

SK: There was rediscovering how to be a live band; all the songs evolved. "Diamonds" is another one that we've rerecorded since we first wrote it. It's just because we're different people.

We made a live album last year. That was from a night we played at Baba Yaga, with Devilwood and Dish Pit. We knew Devilwood a little. We didn't know Dish Pit at all, and they floored us. I was jumping up and down to their whole set, and we sort of looked at each other and were like, "We need to acknowledge this," and everything just started getting louder and faster.

The live album is from that night, and since then, it's just been louder and faster, louder and faster, louder and faster. The new version of "Maybe Don't" is the studio take on the louder and faster version. What's really funny is that now we just started playing it very slowly. We'll have to record it again eventually.

ZS: We turned it all around, actually, because there have been a couple of shows this summer that we played, you know, outdoors, a little chiller vibe. We love "Maybe Don't," but it's kind of a punk rock tune, and maybe in this environment it's not the right thing. So, we slowed it way down.

SK: It's a little psych here, a little roots here, but not every show.

ZS: Every once in a while we've done that. What's interesting is that the people who know the song, they're stoked. They're really into it because they're very used to the punky fast version. Now in this other version, it gets like a little trippy. You can really hear the words, and there's space in it. It's a different experience.

SK: There are tempo changes. We'll have to record that next year. That'll be the fourth recorded version of "Maybe Don't."

ZS: I think we re-record things when it feels like we're capturing something different that's going on with the band.

SK: There are lots of new tunes too. Our last couple singles have been two covers and a re-recorded older song, which is great because they're all great recordings, and it's also kinda too bad because we have all these songs and we're mixing those with Jack Endino right now. It's just been a slow process for no really good reason. It's always a slow process.

Right now, I'm doing more guitar overdubs. Jacks is down in southern Washington, so he'll send me mixes back, and eventually we'll have eleven new original tunes out on a CD called Racqueens of Noise.

ZS: We already know the title.

SK: The artwork's pretty much done; the thing's together. Eventually, the mixes will be ready, and it'll be out. I really want it to be because it's far more representative of the songs we've been writing and what you'll hear when you come to see us than anything else that we have out, except maybe the live album.

ZS: I feel like the live album represents us pretty well.

AGW: How do you feel about coming to Seattle to play, since you mentioned earlier it's different when you live and play in Seattle as opposed to visiting Seattle?

ZS: We love Seattle. It's still our city, you know?

SK: We were there three times this week for unrelated things. We take our car there because Repair Revolution is awesome. We're frequently back and forth to Seattle. Everyone who knows us thinks we're crazy because it's a ninety-minute drive.

ZS: We love playing there. We were super excited when Dylan (DJ Deedub) reached out to book us for Magma Fest.

SK: And we love Hollow Earth Radio. One of the houses that we lived in when we moved back to Seattle was actually the house where Hollow Earth started. It was amazing to realize, because we already knew about Hollow Earth.

ZS: It was so cool to find that out, and to live in the house where a little piece of Seattle music history started was really kinda cool.

AGW: Next year is the twentieth anniversary, so we have some cool stuff we're trying to plan. That's so exciting that you're unintentionally part of that legacy!

ZS: Yeah, it's really awesome. Was it Peg that played?

SK: I played bass for Sheridan Riley's band Peg at Hollow Earth maybe 2017 or something.

AGW: Are there any other musicians in the scene that you look up to that you would love to talk about?

SK: Both of us have put together our own festival called Forbidden Feline Festival, and we have booked eight bands, including us, and a lot of them are just our favorite people. We adore Student Nurse. Student Nurse is so good, and they should be on murals all over the city.

We've got SkullKat from Tacoma. They're just incredible people and incredible musicians.

ZS: Star Matriarch, also from Tacoma. If you haven't seen her and her band, she's got such a powerhouse voice, and she can play drums, and she plays guitar. She's incredible. And The Lichen Hearts, they're a duo as well. They're in Seattle. They came out of Rain City Rock Camp. They met at one of the rock camps.

SK: They're also a guitar and drums duo, but they approach it so differently than we do, which is wonderful. Here's a whole different riff on these two instruments. They've got great melodies, and they've got intricate song structures.

There's Negative Passengers, who are kinda punk metal. They're wonderful. They have a song called "Everybody's Happy on the Internet."

ZS: They're very, very good. 2023 was their first show. And it was their first show. We've been friends since then, like band friends. It's really funny when you're band friends because everybody's playing gigs, so it's sometimes hard to see your band friends because you're all playing shows at the same time. So, the way to see them is to plan a show with them.

SK: And then also there are other bands... Absenter is amazing. So heavy, so strange. They do push-ups if they screw up a song. After a song, you'll just see one of them drop to the floor and start doing push-ups.

ZS: As far as Forbidden Feline, who didn't we mention? Faunix, I think.

SK: Faunix is incredible. I met Faunix's leader Ash when we were both playing musical improv accompaniment to an improvised dance piece. We just connected musically. I said, "Do you have a band? We should do shows!"

AGW: How are you feeling about all the raccoon rage? You've had this name beforehand. Since all the Jimothy craze, I see raccoon stuff in posters and gigs everywhere right now. Has that impacted you any?

ZS: We'll definitely take it. The more people that think of us because of the raccoon stuff, great.

SK: We like critters. It's a witch band. We're animists, and we think all the critters are people. We happened to land on raccoons, and I kinda take that as a message. Sure, yeah, we're the raccoon band.

ZS: It's funny because a bunch of people who already knew us were sending us the Jimothy things, and one of our fans actually put our song "Raccoon Gods" to a reel that he made with a Jimothy video.

SK: We get the raccoon news before anybody. Our inbox fills up with it. "Hey, did you hear about the raccoon that got drunk?" I'm hearing about it now. This is great.

ZS: Some of our songs are about real raccoons, and we were doing that even before Jimothy.

I feel like someone was telling me about how there was a film director who was being interviewed, and they asked him, "How did you know what the Zeitgeist would be?" and he said, "I didn't know. I'm doing my thing like this. The Zeitgeist is doing this. Sometimes it crosses my path, right?"

I feel like we were already doing Trash Panda Go Kart. And then now the zeitgeist is like, raccoon!

SK: But I love that people have turned on to raccoons because raccoons are awesome.

ZS: Raccoons are awesome, and we can definitely take them as a metaphor. They're really smart. They're the ultimate outsider.

SK: They've got the mask on, creeping around your porch.

ZS: Anyway, I feel like almost anything can be a metaphor, but it's a good metaphor, and we enjoy leaning into that.

AGW: How are you feeling about the overall direction of the music scene, either in Seattle or the PNW? Do you think it's gotten better from the years past, or do you think it's like stayed the same?

SK: It always comes and goes in waves, like the Zeitgeist. We came back from Southern California in about 2015, and there was a really nice bunch of things happening. Then, it seems like it kinda dipped and then it kinda came back. The fact that we have so many bands we want to do a single show with tells me there are good things. It seems like every show we meet a couple of bands that we love. That's not always been true. I think there's a really nice crop of creativity going right now.

I don't necessarily always think it's recognized by the city. I think you have to make a certain amount of noise before the creativity reaches a level that gets observed. I think a lot of the stuff that I see and really appreciate isn't necessarily being acknowledged yet, which is another reason we put all these bands on a bill.

It's like, hello Seattle! Here are some great bands that you might not be aware you have within you. It's a good scene, but it's not necessarily being perceived as such just yet. That's what I'm seeing, but I could be wrong.

ZS: There's so much music, right? There are so many bands, so it's also impossible to keep up with everything that's out there. I'm sure there are lots of bands that we don't know that are amazing that we would think are really cool and wanna play shows with them and see them play.

SK: An old friend of ours was playing through town, and we went to see him, and Absenter opened the bill. We were like, "Oh my god, you're amazing!"

You can throw a rock and hit an amazing band.

ZS: I think that there is a lot of creativity going on right now in Seattle, in the Pacific Northwest.

SK: Trans Panic out of Portland! There are some great bands in Portland.

ZS: We're just starting to scratch the surface.

SK: There's a lot of strange stuff down there in the best way. I think there's just an incredible amount of creativity that, for the most part, I don't see being recognized as well.

ZS: Obviously, knowing Jack Endino and talking to people that were there at the time that Nirvana was blowing up and Soundgarden was blowing up and all of that, it's not the same atmosphere. The whole music industry has changed. The whole world is different. I think we have the fertility and creativity that was happening then, in a different way, obviously, but we don't have the way to elevate everyone.

SK: Or even just to appreciate it while it's happening. Those bands weren't necessarily hell-bent on being institutions. They were going out and having a party every few weeks, and some weeks this bunch was playing, and everyone else was in the audience, and some weeks that bunch was playing and everyone else was in the audience. It's not like there were that many bands. It's almost a problem of scale. There's so much creativity, what do you even do? How's everyone supposed to live? We need universal basic income.

ZS: Well, and that's the thing. Like we talked about, sometimes it's really hard to see your friends unless you're playing a show with them. Then, never mind all the other things about the world and life. It's expensive to even leave your house! So never mind going to a show or trying to get across town. It's different now, but as far as creativity, it's all still there.

AGW: I moved here about three years ago, so I haven't been here that long. It has been incredible to see the amount of talent that is here. As someone who, of course, knew the general bands- Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains- it is crazy to see all these other people who contributed to the scene in such a big way, but they don't get their flowers or the financial restitution that they deserve. You see that way more than you should. And for the World Cup, there was a lot of praise of Nirvana and the city's music legacy, despite the state of things.

SK: During the time that Nirvana was coming up, they still had the Teen Dance Ordinance, which is basically Footloose, but in Seattle. There was no dancing if you were underage, and you couldn't go to the clubs.

ZS: That's why Student Nurse still being around and playing shows...

SK: It's a miracle! They started in 1978, then they broke up, and they ran the record store that Carrie Brownstein and Mark Arm would buy records from when they were teenagers.

ZS: They were influential. They were influential to the people who the city now touts as mascots in a way.

SK: The fact that you can hear, bless his heart, Duff McKagan on the airport PA is such a trip because Guns N' Roses was the enemy, right? All this stuff is silly, like no one should be the enemy.

ZS: It is very interesting. I'm gonna get a little, I don't know, radical, I guess. Because of the way capitalism works, the city is like, "We birthed Grunge, and that's why people know about us."

In reality, the policies of the city don't support artists. Even when those artists were coming up, they didn't support those artists. They were trying to squash the all-ages shows and venues.

SK: Then they drove everybody out with tech. We're gonna raise your rent. I paid, I think, $350 for an apartment in Ballard in 2007.

ZS: The building's still there, but I'm sure the rent is ten times that. They're still driving people out with tech and yet saying Seattle is a music city.

SK: You have to make it possible for musicians to live there and function. Whether that means service jobs. I mean, live music hasn't been a steady income for the majority of musicians really ever. It's a nice thing to shoot for, but there's gotta at least be like rent and places you can eat.

AGW: It's a big thing for all the artists here, not just in Seattle, but across the region. I'm noticing more that we have a lot of interesting artists coming from outside of Seattle. Last year, we had The Rat Utopia Experiment, another critter band that exploded online. They're really young, and they're from Tacoma.

It's not that nothing is going on in Seattle anymore, but a lot of stuff is happening outside of Seattle now too, which I think more people should realize.

ZS: Do you know who Steve Fisk is? He is also an engineer and producer. Steve lives in Tacoma now, still working, but he lives in Tacoma because he couldn't afford Seattle anymore.

Jack Endino lives in South Washington because Seattle got insane to live in. He still goes and records at the soundhouse where he used to live and work. Steve used to live around the corner from the soundhouse, and they were both essentially house engineers there. Now, they live elsewhere because the city, economically, just that kind of pressure has pushed people out.

SK: So you're gonna brag about all the legends that your city supposedly gave birth to while driving out the people who made those legends possible, who are legends themselves.

We've spent just a s very small amount of time in Austin. Now that's a music city.

ZS: Well, at least it was at the time.

SK: Maybe less so now because even the last time we passed through, there were noise complaints from the new condo towers next to the venues. Austin is a city that designed its whole governmental structure around live music, and the venues there were starting to have to close because of noise problems.

ZS: It's bizarre. We definitely talk about this all the time because we are artists, but it's also a part of what we're doing with our music.

If you listen to it, we make an effort for it to be positive, and if you hear it, you wanna dance, and you wanna smile. You're smiling before you even realize you're smiling.

SK: The queer tradition of partying through the bullshit.

ZS: We want to be a source of energy and inspiration to resist all these other things. If you can draw on something that makes you happy, that gives you strength and energy to keep going despite all of this, then that's important. That's part of what we want to do with our music.

We like the feedback that we get from people after we play a show. I feel like it's working, and that makes us feel really good and keeps us going in terms of wanting to get out there and keep playing for people.

SK: Neil Young says, "just singing a song won't change the world," but I don't believe him.

For more information about Trash Panda Go Kart, visit trashpandagokart.com.

Trash Panda Go Kart will be part of the lineup of Hollow Earth Radio's annual Magma Fest on October 31st (Halloween), at The Black Lodge in Seattle. To see TPGK and other awesome bands, tickets are available HERE.