New Franklin Panthers members Grant Fitch, top, and Jason Jones position themselves in front of a wall of guitars at Mass. Street Music, 1347 Mass., where the musicians work and originally met. Today the duo is releasing its debut CD, Hot

New Franklin Panthers

A decade ago, guitarist Grant Fitch was standing on stage before 80,000 fervent fans at England’s Reading Festival.

As a founding member of Lawrence’s Paw, Fitch’s band was billed alongside Neil Young, Bjrk and Foo Fighters – just one of many highlights for the post-Nirvana act signed to A&M Records.

“It was people for as far as you could see. That’s kind of a mind-blower. We always rose to the occasion to be the best band of the day,” Fitch recalls.

Fast forward to 2008, and Fitch is proud to boast that his latest act, New Franklin Panthers, “will take any gig.”

In fact, a woman recently called Mass. Street Music (where Fitch and band mate Jason Jones both work) asking if they knew any groups that might play a middle school gymnasium party.

“We were working harder for it than she was. We wanted to play for free,” Fitch says, laughing. “Somehow or another, we didn’t get the gig.”

In many ways, however, Fitch views the Panthers as more of a success story than Paw. The band is helping him rediscover an element that had proven more and more elusive as his career progressed: the passion for music.

That in itself was enough to coax the 40-year-old guitarist out of a self-imposed retirement. He’s having fun again. And it shows.

“The whole thing was tiring,” he says of the eventual dissolution of Paw at the turn of the century. “It was tiring even listening to other bands. The late ’90s and the beginning of this decade, (music) just hit a wall. It was a soundtrack to a lifestyle. It didn’t seem like anybody cared. Whenever I heard something, it just seemed like they were going through the motions. It was a good time for me to duck out. I didn’t know where the train was going, and it was time for me to get off.”

Last year Fitch began jamming with Jones, a 22-year-old drummer who is equally comfortable on a variety of instruments. The tandem started crafting a stripped-down sound of electric guitars and drums – no vocals, no bass – assuming they would eventually add more members.

“It really wasn’t a conscious decision. For a while there it was, ‘Let’s see what happens,'” says Jones, a native of Salina.

But soon the atypical formula began to make sonic sense. The two’s chemistry gelled, and their grooves rocked convincingly.

The group is now celebrating the release of its debut album, “Hot Dogs Are Cool: In III Movements.”

Fitch calls the effort a “down-home progressive rock party,” while Jones prefers the description of “hard-hitting, honest, melt-fest rock.”

“It’s the perfect democracy,” Fitch says of the collaboration. “We almost always agree. And when we don’t, we just take the middle road of what the two opinions are.”

Doggin’ it

“Hot Dogs Are Cool” is in many ways as unusual as the ensemble that recorded it.

The full-length disc is comprised of just three tracks, each ranging in excess of 15 minutes. Within each song are several different movements a la classical compositions … or the prog-rock dinosaur Rush.

“I don’t have a lot of patience anymore for the recording process. It’s not a disrespect. I kind of want to get in there and document it,” says Fitch, a native of Chicago who moved to Lawrence to attend Kansas University.

“Like Rush went in on the album ‘Hemispheres’ and hit record, and they played side one all the way through. It’s an ideal. It’s not a lazy thing. It’s saying, ‘Here we are. We threw down a record and moved on.'”

The album was recorded at The Covenant in Parkville, Mo., where the studio time was paid for by Fitch trading the owner one of his Fender Stratocasters.

Though the songs are live, a couple of acoustic guitar overdubs were added. Jones threw some minimal bass guitar into the mix as well.

“We went into the studio and tracked it in a day. It came from a lot of the live shows we were doing. We ended up being the house band at the Jackpot (Music Hall) and Replay (Lounge) this summer for bands that fell off the bill.”

“You know we’re not doing it for anything but the love of music when we go play at the Jackpot at 7 p.m.”

The musicians admit they’ve toyed with the idea of having a guest vocalist record with them on the next project.

Jones says, “The greatness and the freedom of our whole partnership under the Panthers moniker is we can make another album with movements, or we could put out an acoustic-electro album. We can see where our muse takes us.”

Like father, like son

Fitch decided on naming the act New Franklin Panthers based on an old conceptual blues album he was pondering that never came to fruition. Plus, Franklin is his middle name. (Note: Panther is NOT Jones’ middle name.)

Despite their 18-year age difference, the two members claim this gap isn’t as problematic as it might seem.

“It hasn’t been an issue where there’s been a band or a genre that’s divisive. It’s more we’re taking turns turning each other on to different stuff,” Fitch explains. “I was like, ‘You should check out Band of Gypsies.’ And he’s like, ‘You should check out Dillinger Escape Plan.'”

That said, Fitch confesses he sometimes refers to Jones onstage as his son.

The more common conflict the group encounters usually comes from audiences not accustomed to seeing a lone guitarist and drummer perform sans vocals.

“It gets people’s attention when we step on the stage,” Fitch says. “But often they think we’re just waiting on another carload full of guys.”