For Minnesota Music Month, The Current polled local music fans for April’s edition of The Scouting Report. A total of 245 people filled out this year’s Minnesota Music Month Scouting Report ballot, and 455 unique artists were chosen overall. The top 10 artists who received the most support include Panel.

Panel lead singer and bassist Annie Sparrows remembers watching MTV’s 120 Minutes at sleepovers in high school. At the time, the now-defunct late-night alternative music show was her only access to music that wasn’t pop.

“I don’t know what the f***k [Panel] is because the songs are all over the place style-wise,” Sparrows says. She and guitarist Kat Naden say the band’s music is for fans of the MTV show, which Naden describes as, “Everything that was considered college radio, like Pavement or Bikini Kill.” “Babes in Toyland [and] R.E.M,” Sparrows adds.

I find the band members huddled outside the back door of Bull’s Horn in Minneapolis’ Ericsson neighborhood on an unusually warm day in March. Drummer Justin Nelles and guitarist Drew Schmitz turn around, and Naden and Sparrows stand up from the parking lot’s pavement. Sparrows works at the bar, so we sneak in before opening time and congregate around a table in a corner.

Panel’s debut album, A Great Time to Be an Empath, arrived in the summer of 2025. The songs include punk, garage rock, grunge, and one swooning piano ballad. Writing the record was a cathartic release for Sparrows. “My Auntie, who was like my very favorite person, passed away a couple years ago, and it was just really hard,” she says. “So the record was like a grief process.”

“It felt really weird to play the songs for other people. The first several times, it was hard not to cry,” Sparrows admits. “A great time to be an empath” is a heavily sarcastic phrase for her.

Panel had yet to materialize when Sparrow wrote the songs, but Naden, former bandmate/bassist Zac Mayeux (replaced by Schmitz), and other friends encouraged her to form a band. She enlisted Naden, Mayeux, and Nelles to bring the songs to life and record at Soft Cult Studio in northeast Minneapolis.

While the seven-track record stems from a dark time in her life, lyrics don’t specifically detail the time Sparrows spent taking care of her aunt until her passing. For the other three musicians, Panel is all about camaraderie.

“Kat and Annie have been buds forever. The rest of this was kind of a shot in the dark,” Nelles says. “You sort of never know, but I think all of us have been doing this for long enough that we kind of know what we want, so it was a really painless endeavor.” Schmitz feels the same: “The older you get, it's like, if the hang is good, then everything else is fine.”

The group senses their chemistry, but what’s the best part of a Panel show from an audience perspective? “No disrespect to the boys, but for me, it’s seeing Annie and Kat’s friendship manifest on the stage,” Evan Minsker says. “You love to see two best friends laugh with each other like there’s nobody else around.”

Minsker is a music journalist, former News Director at Pitchfork, and someone Sparrows shouts out gratitude for. “He has done a lot for us in terms of exposure, you know, putting our name in front of people,” she says. “He's sort of like the 120 Minutes of the modern era…,” Nelles offers. “...of underground punk,” Sparrows finishes.

“I can’t remember how exactly I first heard about [Panel], but I was really excited to learn that Annie had a new band after Green/Blue,” Minsker says. “I was obsessed with that band and Bermuda Squares.” He suggests new Panel listeners “give ‘Neurotica’ a spin. That song feels like it’s been around forever. A total classic.”

One of the band members’ favorite places to spin their tracks has been Eagles #34, and they’re regulars on bills at Cloudland, but they’d like to see more mid-sized music venues in the Twin Cities. They miss Palmer’s Bar, Hexagon Bar, Triple Rock Social Club, and Grumpy’s (the downtown location), but appreciate the strong DIY infrastructure like long-running house venues, pop-in warehouse shows, record stores, and Flying V, a newer non-profit music venue known for its young, punk audiences. "There's a lot of young people doing stuff, and that's always the most important thing,” Schmitz says.

As someone who spent most of his life in Austin, Texas, and visited Minneapolis on tour stops with other bands over the years, Schmitz has seen an enduring local music scene. “I would always come [to Minneapolis] on tour when I didn't live here, and it was always the best show of the tour, just because there's such a strong DIY scene at the very low, house show, dive bar level.”

Panel begin a mini Midwest tour beginning in April, supporting punk band Off With Their Heads, and the band members hope to begin recording their sophomore album soon. They’re not in a rush, though.

“I like to play — that's it. It's fun,” Nelles says. “We try not to play too much,” Sparrows adds. “Yeah, short and sweet,” Nelles agrees. “I mean, wanting more is way better than like, ‘Oh my God, please get off this stage.’”

Panel open for Off With Their Heads at 7th St. Entry on April 15. Tickets here.

Related: Minnesota Music Month Scouting Report 2026: The top 10 new local artists