The Panderers

The Panderers gathering stemmed all from one seemingly idle Myspace contact from Wynn to Pete McNeal, who happened to be a member of Mike Doughty’s Band led by Mike Doughty, an American singer-songwriter and former frontman of the band Soul Coughing through most of the 1990s before emerging as a solo artist. McNeal had also been the drummer for Cake (band) from 2001-04.

With that one unsuspecting outreach on Myspace, and subsequent listenings by McNeal to Wynn’s home-recorded demos, the first two, of the three personalities that would become known as "The Panderers", were soon contemplating the recording an album.

McNeal shared Wynn’s demo recordings with bassist and composer Andrew “Scrap” Livingston. Being both classically-trained and also possessing an equally unorthodox “greasy" upright bass style, Livingston was a natural fit for the album project and Livingston immediately committed to the recording sessions.

Incidentally, via McNeal, Wynn crossed paths with producer and Grammy nominee, Dave Wilder. Wilder had been nominated as a songwriter for co-writing I Try with Macy Gray and others. Wilder and McNeal were also joint producers in a production company that they had recently formed at the time.

In late 2006, Wynn, McNeal, Livingston and Wilder all convened at Wilderstyle Studio in California, to record what would become Songs that Bang, the very first full-length album as The Panderers. The LP was self-released worldwide, available only from The Panderers' Myspace page, on April 25, 2007. Each copy had a home-printed, understated black and white cardstock jewel case insert with a hand-numbered serial number and is said to have sold a limited 1,000 copies in 19 countries in a short time. In order to make it a true "limited-edition," The Panderers stopped selling the hand-numbered units when the serial number reach an even 1,000 and ended offering the serialized copies until their next step became apparent.

The attention and income generated by Songs that Bang, coupled with their growing successes on web sites like Myspace and Ourstage.com, The Panderers were offered and took a showcase at the CMJ Music Marathon and Film Fest 2007.

In late 2007, Mike Doughty took an active interest in The Panderers. Doughty created a microlabel called "Snack Bar" in early 2008 and signed The Panderers to their first national record deal. Snack Bar released an EP consisting of five songs that were originally on Songs that Bang. The EP was entitled Hotshot's Boy which was an early pen name for Wynn and a nickname for Wynn as a youth.

Wynn's father was from the Southeastern Kentucky coal counties and Wynn would make regular treks to his father's mountain hometown as a child. Many knew Wynn’s father only as "Hotshot" after an old school Wolfman Jack-esque radio DJ of the same name. Wynn was known to many in coal country simply as "Hotshot's Boy." Wynn was the first male in his family not to have been a coal miner.

The Hotshot's Boy EP was released by Snack Bar on March 12, 2008. On the very same day, Doughty brought The Panderers (Wynn, McNeal and Livingston) out on the road for their first national tour of the U.S. and parts of Canada.