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The Panderers are a new band with a great story. Scott Wynn, the singer/songwriter for the band, grew up with deep east Kentucky coal mining family roots. Scott told me that one day his father walked out of the mountains, hitchhiked to Cincinnati, and the family shifted from coal mining to farming. The music he writes reflects his hard-working Appalachian roots mixed with a sound from our generation. When you throw into the mix the skills from Dave Wilder on percussion and bass, Andrew Livingston on bass, and Pete McNeal on drums and percussion, you get a sound like no other. A few other artists jumped in on the album, too, which Scott mentions below.

Scott was able to make some time to participate in our 20 Questions interview before hitting the road on the heels of their debut album release, "Songs that Bang", which can be purchased from their MySpace page. These are hand-numbered limited edition CD's that won't be available once they are picked up by a record label. It is one of those CD's that you want to leave playing in the car for weeks as the rhythm invades your soul. My copy is burning up my player right now.

Quirkee.com and The Panderers are giving away a copy of their new CD to a lucky registered member of the Quirkee Community! The random drawing contest starts next week so register with Quirkee for your chance to win!

Here is what Scott Wynn had to say for our 20 Questions:

During SXSW, amongst the various New Zealand films garnering buzz during the festival, Eagle vs Shark drew a fair bit more talk than the others. Given that thematically, it seemed to strike some of the same chords as Napoleon Dynamite, and looking at Dynamite's success at the box office, that was very good buzz to have.

Personally, I'd never been on the Jared Hess bandwagon with that particular film, but there was something about the previews for Eagle vs Shark that struck me differently. After having a chance to sit down with director Taika Waititi (now credited as Taika Cohen on the finished product) and star Loren Horsley (who happens to be Taika girlfriend and partner), I think the difference may lie in the very personable creative forces that helped put the film together. Taika and Loren sat with me over their breakfast at the Four Seasons before they had to depart back home to New Zealand.

Enrique Gomez: Taika, the old saying is that "drama is easy and comedy is hard." You started out with stand-up comedy before you got into Sundance with your short. I'm curious what the challenges are in doing something as a filmmaker where you can control the parameters and circumstances of a scene, versus doing stand-up and improv where you may be required to create more on the fly?

Ever since I was introduced to The Everyday People last year, I couldn't find much information about the band which gave me insight into what made them so captivating on stage. Listening to their last album spawned many more questions about the recording process. I was curious how the band transferred their songs which they hashed out during their tours to their first full-length album.

Luckily for me and Quirkee.com readers, after seeing them play at Antone's Blues Club last month, Jeffrey David (lead vocals and guitar) and Chris York (bass) were nice enough to meet me for lunch one day before they left for their tour dates in Colorado. My conversation with the band provided ample opportunity to satisfy my curiosities and probe more into how they became the band they are today.

This week, Quirkee.com is lucky enough to feature interviews with two of the funniest people working the comedy circuit today: Megan Mooney and Eddie Gossling. If you've seen them, you know. If you haven't, you should. Either way, you should go to their respective websites and find out when they're going to appear in your town.

As a fellow comic, I am wildly jealous of both of their acts. They are both regarded by comedians as "Fuck Funny."

Megan Mooney won first place in the Funniest Person in Austin Contest in 1998. She had been doing comedy less than a year at the time, but she managed to beat out several seasoned veterans to win the top spot.

Shortly after that, she was invited to perform at HBO's Aspen Comedy Festival. I went to that festival and watched her performances and was honestly blown away. The instant Megan takes a stage she is likeable, a quality that many comedians take years to hone. She was born with it.

The stories she tells feature people you know. The jokes she has sport situations you've had. The shows she does make you pee a little.

She is the same person off stage as she is when performing; funny, charming and effortlessly engaging.

Eddie Gossling (Megan Mooney's husband) is one of those comics that you watch... you laugh... hard... and then you realize that he is having so much fun that you really don't have to be there as an audience member. If you weren't in the room, he would still be there, doing these wonderful bits and having a ball. You just happen to be lucky enough to be along for the ride. He makes comedy look easy and I suspect that for him, it is. I really believe that Gossling could stand on stage and read the phone book and it would be hilarious. Instead, he has fantastically-constructed routines that other comedians watch with awe.

I've never seen him do the same show twice and I've never seen him leave a stage without an audience that wishes he were up there just a little bit longer.

Enjoy Eddie. Watch his video. You'll be happy you did.

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When I was in elementary school, I used to ride my bike down these endless drainage ditches in my neighborhood with my friends after school. We'd find all kind of things down there: old Playboys, fireworks, toys, tools, exotic animals like box turtles and six-inch long cockroaches, and a long list of other treasures. We weren't playing with trash. What we found were treasures. My friends and I got a kick out of going on these "treasure hunts." We never knew what we'd find. And we always found something valuable in our little eyes. Who wouldn't be excited about finding a still-working Atari 2600 with a Pitfall cartridge in it? Well, at least we got excited about finding stuff like that. It was pure fun for us.

And it's fun for Davy Rothbart too. Davy is one of the creators of FOUND Magazine, collecting and cataloging found notes, photos, and other interesting items in a zine that gives a peek into the private lives of others. It's an intriguing and voyeuristic trip to read these notes, letters, and other things that were definitely not intended for a wide audience. His FOUND items have also been cataloged in books and on a web site. There is also a magazine called DIRTY FOUND, which catalogs the same type of items but of a more salacious nature. The web site features a "Find of the Day" and also offers a way for people to submit their FOUND items. And Davy has gone on nation-wide FOUND tours, reading favorite finds and asking audiences to bring their own finds to share.

Menomena is a band who initially garnered my interest due to the unconventional way in which they write their music. As I wrote in my previous article, Menomena's Deeler, they utilize a computer program called DLR (pronounced Deeler), which is an acronym for Digital Looping Recorder, to assist in their writing process. The band consists of three members. Brent Knopf, who plays the piano, is the one who developed the program. Justin Harris plays bass. Danny Seim plays drums and percussion. In addition to their principal instruments, they show a limitless ability to play various additional instruments during their recording sessions. All three of them act as lead vocalist at different times as well. Although their unique approach to writing music is what initially attracted me to this band, their excellent albums are what have kept me coming back for repeated listens.

Their first album, I Am the Fun Blame Monster, was moderately successful despite the fact they had no label or manager at the time it was recorded and released. They packed and shipped every CD by hand, at first, until the demand forced them to get help. They released another album, Under an Hour, a year later, which included three instrumental tracks. These tracks originally accompanied a 2004 modern dance performance in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. Shortly after that release, they signed with the independent label Barsuk. Their first Barsuk release is Friend & Foe. In support of that album, they are launching a nationwide tour starting March 9, 2007. Luckily, they will be making their way through Austin during SXSW on March 15-17, 2007.

I remember a few years ago, my mother asked me to figure out a way for my grandmother to send and receive email without having to learn how to use a computer. Being a somewhat tech-savvy person myself, I was pretty much up for that challenge. But it wasn't as simple as doing some research and selecting a machine for her to use. What seemed easy for me to understand, or what I assumed would be easy for her to understand, was a lot farther from the truth. Trying to find a solution to this was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

How one person uses technology can be completely different than how the next person uses it. For instance, I design web sites for a living. I spend a ton of time thinking about site navigation and structure and organization and accessibility, blah blah blah. But the most eye-opening experience for a web designer is actually watching people surf their web sites. Nine times out of ten, they will not perform everything the way you intended for them to. All of a sudden, my attempt at making someone's day easier through technology just made it a lot more difficult.

I'll admit it. I love cover songs, especially if I love the original song. Maybe it has something to do with a connection I feel with the musician singing the cover. It's almost like I'm telling them (like a whisper in their mind), "You and I are compadres. We like the same music." It's undeniable. And I think people in general like hearing cover songs, particularly if a new take on the song is rendered, making the cover version like an extension of the original version. The worst thing a musician could do would be to play the song exactly, note for note, like the original. But to put your own spin on someone else's song can create something pretty special.

So anyway, one day I was stumbling across the internet when I came across a page with a YouTube video that was introduced with, "What do you get when you mix a hippie with Andre 3000 in the desert? A great cover of Outkast's Hey Ya." Now I don't know about you but I love that Outkast song. My daughters love that song. My wife loves that song. Everybody loves that song. So when I clicked "play," I didn't expect much. How can you top such an original song? But once it played, I was floored. Really. The already poignant lyrics, once disguised behind a booty-shaking beat, were pushed to the forefront and delivered with an achingly elegant folk delivery. It was, in my opinion, one of the best covers I've ever heard in a long time. It's true. And I've heard a lot.