The Path EP (Independent)

Those of a certain age will be more than a little confused by The Path. To American frontier–obsessed baby boomers, the Ponderosa was the expansive Old West ranch owned by Bonanza’s Cartwright family. Think steers, dust, wide-open frontiers, and three cowboys way too old to be living with their father.

The Ponderosas from Vancouver, on the other hand, play a brand of sun-splashed Latin-tinted world music that gets, well, those of a certain vintage up and dancing their fool heads off at Car Free Day on Commercial Drive. All this is to say that, if you hate seeing other folks having a good time, The Path will make you want to nuke the living shit out of, well, Commercial Drive, not to mention the world headquarters of Putumayo Records.

Shiny, happy people, on the other hand, will be all over the bright horns, straight-from-Cuba percussion, and jazzed-up sexy-cool vocals. The playing is almost crazily professional, the songs impeccably arranged, and the vibe—despite song titles like “I’m So Cold”—hot enough to make you feel like you’ve stumbled into Club Med during the filming of a Havana Club commercial.

Unfortunately, however, there’s no cover of the Bonanza theme song. You can’t have everything.