Papas Fritas is an American music group created in 1992 by Tony Goddess (guitar, vocals), Shivika Asthana (drums, vocals) and Keith Gendel (bass, vocals) at Tufts University in Somerville, Massachusetts.

About the name, "papas fritas" means fried potatoes (French fries) in Spanish and they say that it sounds like "pop has freed us", so that's why they chose it.

In 1994, Minty Fresh Records heard one of their songs (Smash This World) and they signed with them. In 1995 they released their first album: Papas Fritas, and one year later they released their second album, Helioself (1996). Time later, in 2000, they released their third album: Buildings and Grounds. Also at the beginning of that year, Chris Colthart and Donna Coppola joined the band and toured with them for three months in the US and Europe. In 2003 a retrospective album entitled Pop Has Freed Us was released.

In 2011 they attended the Spain based festival Primavera Sound (Barcelona) upon request as the band was not united at that moment and they have continued since then with several tours.