How Was The Show - Secret Panels, Sin Horses at Nomad World Pub

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Secret Panels CD Release Show w/ Sin Horses at Nomad World Pub on 12/28/07

Nic Garcia of Sin Horses - Photo by David de Young

Jenny Dalton opened up the evening Friday at the Nomad, playing with just her backing drummer of late, Jeremy Grace. With his own band, Secret Panels, Grace would close out the evening a couple hours later. In the middle slot were Sin Horses, a Minneapolis three-piece comprised of Nic Garcia on guitar and vocals, Jay Demars on guitar and Michael Moore on drums. I’d been listening to Sin Horses set for a few songs before I realized the band didn’t have a bass player as it wasn’t missed at all in the sound. The band plays captivating, moody indie-rock in the spirit of Pedro the Lion, Garcia frequently sang and played with eyes closed or rolled back, wrapped up in the music, Demars spent a good chunk of his stage time with his back to the audience and playing to drummer Moore. It’s high quality stuff, and what Sin Horses does fits well on just about any bill. Listen to them here: http://www.myspace.com/sinhorses.

Secret Panels took to the stage shortly after midnight, opening with a short introductory song called “The Letter Song.” This was the CD Release Party for their debut album “Ecotone”, and following that they would play the entire disc in sequence.

Secret Panels is pretty much the same lineup as the Minneapolis band Murzik (Murzik, by the way, will be releasing their second album Buried in the spring of 2008.) You might remember Jeremy Grace, who fronts Secret Panels, as Murzik’s mandolin player. Other Murzik players include Nathan Simar who plays bass in the live lineup, Bryan Steenerson who plays guitar and Toby Smith on drums.

The first thing that strikes you about Secret Panels self-released, self-produced album after popping it into your CD player is the echo (echo echo echo). At times it almost sounds like it was recorded in a cave as it has a reverb quotient somewhere between The Jesus and Mary Chain or early Mazzy Star. Though it makes for a pleasant and dreamy sound, the production may be the most noticeable thing about the disc at first listen - on subsequent spins other qualities, like the catchy songwriting even on the mostly slow numbers, starts to sink in.

Jeremy Grace of Secret Panels - de young

At the Nomad Friday night echo and reverb weren’t nearly as prominent a part of the sound. Instead I heard an almost 70s-like rock and roll, vinyl record warmth. In the songs, music shares equal focus with the words, many including extended instrumental sections which become their defining characteristics despite the corresponding lyrical theme – which is pretty much women: chasing them, loving them, losing them, etc. (Check out one lyric of what is ostensibly a love song, “Of all the women in this bar tonight, you’re the one I want.”) Like the album, the entire set Friday tended to weave itself into one big, long song. The song breaks on the disc are often deceptive and there is sometimes more continuity between the songs than within them - some song sections are so different from each other they’re practically different songs.

Jeremy Grace’s voice is both strong and fluid, sometimes ethereally bordering on falsetto. He’s as comfortable fronting this band as he was earlier sitting in on drums for Dalton, or as he was seated on a stool playing mandolin for Murzik. Jenny Dalton joined the band on “Las Vegas,” one of three songs she recorded with the band on in the studio. The energy of the set rose as it progressed and several fans moved to the front of the room to enjoy the sounds wafting over the crowd, another particularly engaging sound being Bryan Steenerson’s wailing and distorted guitar. On “Everything’s Changed” Steenerson really tore it up and a drum break from Toby Smith made the song sound for a second like it was part of a deep cut on some 1970s progressive rock concept album.

Having performed all the songs from the album, a couple of songs were played as virtual “encores” since the band took no break . Nathin Simar noted that the band had CDs for sale and joked, “If we don’t sell 100 we’re breaking up.” (I hope it was a joke as that would have been about one disc per person in the bar at the time.

Grace introduced the final song of the night saying, “We’re gonna play some songs about the apocalypse.” Pregnant pause. “Coming in 2012.” Lyrics about a comet hitting the earth (“Hell, it’s gonna come down”) should be a reminder you never know how long you have, so there’s no time like the present to enjoy local music.