The Giant Panther

I've been meaning to write about these guys for months now and my opening just now presented itself. Secret Machines refer to their music as Space Rock, but The School of Rock sound chasers are having a field day with these guys trying to trace their lineage. You hear Pink Floyd mentioned, but I don't hear that at all. Last night I saw them perform, at the venerable Paradise here in Boston, for the very first time. I own three of their CDs, but I have to admit to not absorbing the last two releases as much as I intend to in the future. I'll have to get back to you on those.

I remember reading the year's critical and popular reviews in 2004 and stumbled upon their major label debut called Now Here is Nowhere. I didn't know they had an earlier 2002 EP called September 000 at the time, but it wouldn't have mattered. I liked what the critics had to say about them and I liked the artwork on the cover of the CD. I had more disposable income in those days so I threw a copy in my Amazon.com bucket. In those days my 20 mile commute from Back Bay in Boston to Framingham, MA for work was where I got the majority of my listening done during the work week. It's wasn't much time, believe me, and it was a straight shot, reverse commute no less, down the Massachusetts Turnpike to get there. Some days I heard five songs tops each way (not that I'm a lead foot or anything). I guess my point is I actually grew to like this record despite sleep deprived cranky rides into work and the frazzled stressed out rides home at night. I don't have ADD or anything, but that's a neat trick. You always want to hear something you know when you have a short ride and I didn't know anything about Secret Machines at the time. They still won me over.

Secret Machines is a three man act that evolved out of a myriad of Dallas, TX based bands even as they consider the great City of New York their home these days. In doing some light research I found out that original band members Brandon and Ben Curtis were brothers (I know that's stating the obvious, but monitoring the personnel in bands was never my strong suit). Brandon does most of the vocals and handles the bass. Ben played lead guitar on Now Here is Nowhere and 2006's Ten Silver Drops before leaving the band in March of 2007 to focus on his own band called School of Seven Bells. I don't have enough information to call it creative differences, but School's music has been described as Dream Pop, which I guess is in the ballpark of The Postal Service. If that is true, I really loved that Postal Service record, it makes sense, but I'm sure there's more to the story.

A highly competent guitarist named Phil Karnats was hired as Ben's replacement and he put on a show last night. I think I heard a bit of Adrian Belew during some of his improvisations and I enjoyed his contributions immensely. The drummer's name is Josh Garza and I loved his thunderous playing. He was very precise, heavy handed and clean sounding. It really made the sound in my opinion. I saw him watching headliners ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead after he was done playing (they had two drummers) and it made me think he was a student of his craft. Secret Machines haven't really made it just yet though. Naturally nobody is playing their music on the terrestrial dial and they were their own roadies last night. I stopped both Brandon and Phil to tell them how much I enjoyed the show as they were wheeling their equipment out, but they would never remember even though the crowd was obscenely small. I'm guessing maybe 250 people were there last night. That's just sad, but then again that's life on the road for fledgling bands I guess.

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead apparently weren't enough of a draw to fill The Paradise on a September Monday night, but in fairness a little known act called U2 was performing in the area last night as well. I went to see U2 Sunday night complete with monster staging and glitter, but everyone knows stadium shows are purely for the social aspect of the group attending of concerts. It's like a football game in many respects, after all most of these stadiums are football stadiums in the U.S., but you don't just whistle up the gate just before the band takes the stage. You get there three hours early to beat traffic, drink and eat like there is no tomorrow, walk a mile plus to get into the stadium only to watch 1000 foot monitors instead of the tiny creatures known as the band. It's kind of comical really. I think I paid $252 face value to watch them play from roughly 75 yards as the crow flies. Throw in the $10 beers and $50 parking and you wonder why you bother.

Shows like last night's Secret Machines show even up the score as we were maybe twenty feet from the band at any one time with open access to the bar and facilities. You can't ask for anything more. Secret Machines are better in concert than on CD, but that's a complement because the CDs are really very good. Now Here is Nowhere is one my sleepers of the present decade. I hope you like it. I'm posting "Nowhere Again" because it is around four minutes and representative of their sound, but there are four to five other tracks on this record I'd have no problem posting. Some of them are close to ten minutes so I didn't want to lose you, but I love them just as much. I hope they find eventual success in a very tough market. I'm a fan. Hopefully we'll make a few more out there.