What’s up with James Pants?

This is as good as a time as any for a James Pants update.

In a nutshell, Pants makes his full-band debut at his Hump Day monthly where the guy who shot his video rolls burritos. Then James Pants and the Royal Zodiac hop over to Seattle to play The Stranger Genius Awards before heading out on a month-long tour in Europe in September.

His Stones Throw fell-length debut experimental R&B album “Welcome,” is getting mad love across the globe and hot-hands Pants has been hired to do remixes for the likes of Beck and ultra-hipster Neon Neon.

Oh, and he’s about to be James Diapers, as he and his wife, Kat Pants, are expecting the pitter patter of Little Pants in February.

Endearingly known in the press as “the goofy white guy from Spokane,” Pants is getting to be a big deal, but it’s kinda nice he still plays free shows at The Baby Bar/Neato Burrito. It shows he’s not getting a big head about his recent break in the biz since signing with one of the most respected labels in indie music, Peanut Butter Wolf’s Stones Throw Records.

Pants hasn’t changed a bit, but as the buzz spreads people do look at him differently. Kat gets it, too. These days, some people have come to know her as James Pants’ wife.

“It bothers me, but I’m proud of James so I don’t mind so much,” Kat said. “The cool thing is that it didn’t use to happen so it means something big is going on.”

Pants is taking it all in stride. He genuinely seems as excited to play the Baby Bar as he is to play Paris and Rome. But, then again, it is his third tour in Europe in a year…

But on Wednesday at a dive bar/burrito joint in downtown Spokane, Pants introduces his band, the Royal Zodiac, which includes keyboardist Josh Simon (The Groove Patrol, Son Dulce, among others), bassist Jimmie Denny (The Groove Patrol), and drummer Justin Walter (Belt of Vapor, Future Relics), who also is a freelance illustrator for 7 .

In band mode, Pants will be singing, playing tambourine, floor tom, cow bell, vocoder and spinning around in circles.

“I’ll be getting real dizzy and trying to do somersaults,” Pants said.

It should be a little like his new video, “We’re Through,” directed by Aaron Fink, a childhood friend of Pants who works by night at Neato Burrito while he’s finishing his degree in electronic media and film at Eastern Washington University.

The Pants video was for Fink’s final project and uses all of the – ahem – vintage equipment at Eastern to give it a retro feel. Stones Throw bought the license for far more than the $16 it cost Fink to make the video; iTunes picked it up, it’s got more than 19,000 hits on YouTube (as of Tuesday) and some of the hippest blogs on Earth are praising it and the single. Check out links to the “We’re Through” video, blog reviews and more of Fink’s videos at www.spokane7.com /blogs/soundwave.

James Pants and the Royal Zodiac make their world premiere on Wednesday at midnight at The Baby Bar/Neato Burrito, 827 W. First Ave. Pants spins a warm-up set at 10 p.m. The show is free.