After interviewing Hot Panda's Chris Connelly, I accidentally left my recorder taping for ten minutes as I breathed heavily and read Twitter. I'm afraid to listen.

Besides being generally ashamed of hearing my big fat mug heaving sluggishly as I stare deeply into my glowing computer screen (were it not for the clicking of the tape recorder shutting off, this would have continued forever), my embarassment is heightened by having just listened to Hot Panda and spoken with the man in charge over the phone.

Hailing from Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, Chris Connelly and Hot Panda make joyous, vibrant and super-melodic indie rock that has no other desire than to pick you up off your lazy, Twittering ass and spin you dizzy on the dance floor. Connelly's voice strains and spits from behind a wall of overdriven guitars and bouncing keys. If I were in a cartoon, I'd have X's over my eyes.

Topping off my malaise is the knowledge that Connelly is an exceedingly excited, productive and charming man.

"[Before starting Hot Panda] I did more theater stuff," says Connelly. "I did improv, and I did some comedy, and went to film school - just dabbled in a lot of different arty things for a while, and only decided to try music last. I think it's worked the best so far."

Connelly says that Hot Panda was definitely influenced by his experience in disciplines like comedy and improv. In addition to the humor that is so a part of Hot Panda's music, the looseness and openness of improv, he says, helped him to grow as a songwriter.

"There's something about comedy, improv, things like that, that make you not take stuff so seriously," he says. "We don't really worry about not sounding cool. We're open to trying a bunch of different things, even if it makes us look ridiculous."

Lord, get me off of this computer and position me in front of an amplifier.

[Northern, with Hot Panda the Long Mornings, Monday, Dec. 6, 6 p.m., $6, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia, northernolympia.org]