At the WAMi Weekender in June 2004, they played their first gig as The Panda Band, with late addition Steve Callan on keys in Perth.
The band undertook its first tour of regional and metropolitan Western Australia with Little Birdy in July 2004, followed by their first interstate dates in Sydney & Victoria playing with Hope of the States in August 2004.
Their second single "Sleepy Little Deathtoll Town" (taken from the EP of the same name) was released in September 2004, and was playlisted on national & interstate radio, this was followed in October by an eleven date Australian tour with Little Birdy.
Australian music journalist Ed Nimmervoll declared it Feature Album of the Week in April and described it as "An avalanche of ideas, neatly packaged into songs.
It's some of the most intelligent, original, unpredictable, bizarrely fascinating music..."[2] The band's next single, "Then you Appear" was released in March 2005 and again playlisted on national & interstate radio.
March also saw the band performing at The Knitting Factory in Los Angeles, SXSW Festival, Rothkos and The Mercury Lounge in New York City and The Marquee Club in London.
The band then undertook a headline tour to Sydney and Melbourne including the Bathurst Village Fair and were again invited to perform at SXSW in 2006.
Their first full-length album This Vital Chapter was independently released in Australia on 5 August 2006 and in the United States by Filter US Recordings and Fontana Distribution on 18 September 2006, with a special iTunes pre-release on 25 July.
[4] Following the festival they then undertook an eleven date USA tour covering Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, Chicago, & New York to promote the album release in North America.