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"Hots dogs are cool" makes the Lawrence.com top records of the year list for 2008.
"The New Franklin Panthers confirm what many rock musicians already suspect: a singer and bass player are virtually extraneous when the guitar and drums are this good."
-John Niccum
Lawrence Journal World
"Remember when rock music was fun? You do?
Put this record on, then, and prepare yourself for an all-out sonic assault that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, make you pump your fist in the air and play air guitar until your arm hurts, then press play and do it again. There's no posing here, no gimmicks, no polite introductions. The feedback that begins the first track is less of an invitation than it is the beginning of a full-on auditory ass-kicking.
This is rock and roll stripped to its base ingredients -- the bones, the blood, the muscle, the teeth -- down to where you can feel it, down to the raw essence of the thing.
The blistering, propulsive grooves are woven into a series of melodic movements, each haunted by melancholy and varied in volume and meter, but lashed together by sheer mayhem.
Fitch's guitars scream and roar while Jones stokes the furnace with relentless, air-tight pounding. But this record is about more than just the rocking out, there is real artistry here, real melody, real emotion, and real feeling. You can hear the craft in the chaos, and it sets this effort apart. These songs have lives, and they've grown up, as you know if you've heard them as they evolved in the venues in and around Lawrence, Kansas, where the band is located.
For me, it comes down to this: three movements, two players, one purpose: tearing the roof completely off with interesting, engaging music.
Which they do, with joyous abandon. And didn't I mention fun? These guys are having fun: you can hear it in every track, and the feeling is contagious."
- George McCoy KANU Radio
"new franklin panthers are lawrence's only powerhouse duoripping
riffs are backed up by (as well as led by) razor sharp rythm in
compositionally-comlex but- not- over- processed aural massacre. bring
a towel for your pants, you will need it."
- chaungo from the replay
lounge & jackpot music hall - Lawrence,Ks
"New Franklin Panthers are a dramatically well-orchestrated assault on the most refined hard rock tendencies in all of us. This duo is connected at the hip with power, ability and just hint of the metal blade of American Rock profundity.One of the best bands at North vs. South two years running."
-Mike McCoy
legendary punkrockcountry Austin via KCMO musical icon
"As far as recent local releases go, I’m not sure I have heard anything that more qualifies as an “ode to rock” album as this one by the local guitar-and-drum duo New Franklin Panthers. Hot Dogs Are Cool unearths once again for me that historical conundrum of rock and roll: On one hand, much of the best rock-‘n’-roll ever written sounds the most nonchalant and effortless, while on the other hand there is nothing worse than a rock band that doesn’t take its music serious enough and ends up just posing. The best rock bands straddle this line by finding a way to simultaneously “let go” while still holding on. New Franklin Panthers are on track with this release. It is a humble record with righteous aspirations.
Over the course of the three completely instrumental movements (totaling nearly an hour of both live and tracked material), this album basically samples stylistically every rock genre of the last 15 to 20 years into a non-stop onslaught of interwoven parts that use feedback and ambient segues as the link between the compositions. What that means for you is that if you like rock music, there is probably something on this record for you. On Hot Dogs…veteran hard rock guitarist Grant Fitch and drummer Jason Jones gregariously channel the works of bands like STP, Husker Du, AC/DC, Pennywise, Soundgarden, Led Zeppelin, Dinosaur Jr., late works by Sunny Day Real Estate and dare I say, even a bit of Fugazi. The sheer relentlessness of this record could be off-putting to some, but don’t try to wrap your brain too tightly around this music. It’s just good rock-‘n’-roll and it needs some breathing room."
- Wade Kelly
The Lawrencian
"New Franklin Panthers are to the pop vernacular as Stravinsky is to the classical music continuum."
-Steve Tulipana
Season to Risk, owner RecordBar, KCMO
"New Franklin Panthers is the union of singer/guitarist Grant Fitch (formerly of Paw) and drummer Jason Jones. Beating their instruments into a forsaken sonic oblivion, the duo composes epic instrumental rock that's neither "shoegazey" nor "atmospheric." Instead, it hits you like a ten-ton-brick with brazen hard-rock guitar riffs and lock-tight drum fills. The onstage spectacle is a drunken marvel of a thing that can be both spontaneous and premeditated -- a push/pull dynamic captured on the group's debut magnum opus 'Hot Dogs Are Cool: In III Movements.'"
- Richard Gintowt
lawrence.com
“Put on NFP and feel yourself leave your space…one minute you’re sitting in front of the record player with headphones on with your eyes closed, and the next you are on a distorted sonic journey through ringing guitar chords and pounding drums to a rock & roll plateau that today’s bands just take you to anymore. Controlled and out of control, subtle and unleashed….NFP will change you forever.”
-Mark Gardner
A&R Volcom Records
