When a band is trying to make something truly new, the temptation is to immediately put them in a place that can be easily categorized. If we don’t keep things tidy, how can we discuss and dissect? It’s how some of us make a living. So, keeping that in mind, are Palm art rock? Are Palm post-punk? Are Palm indie or even, God forbid, prog? Hooray for Palm for being all and none of these and who cares! Making music that feels equally alarming and welcoming, let's let Palm just be Palm. Hailing from upstate, Hudson, NY, and cozying up in both Brooklyn and Philadelphia, the band are a compelling hodgepodge of all sorts of Eastern Seaboard art damage. Like John Cale and Robert Quine doing time in Chavez or Polvo, the quartet keep listeners perfectly off balance. We don’t need to call something punk or post-whatever for it to be good. Just rest assured that whatever weirdo tradition they may best belong in, Palm are very fucking good, which you can hear the evidence for on their lately released LP Trading Basics (Inflated Records / Exploding In Sound). It’s the sound of hyper-intelligent aliens tuning guitars for the first time and attempting to cover the Voyager Golden Record in its entirety. That’s either appealing to you or it isn’t, but it’s pretty hip.Below is the premiere of the video for the song "Ankles," directed by Greg O'Connell. The video, with its rendition of office work as a TRON battle-scape, is as jarring and mesmerizing as the band. Check it out.
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