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Music Spotlight Vol. 2: Palm

For this blog post, I wanted to briefly talk about one of my new favorite bands, and the best thing to come out of Bard College (sorry if anyone has any relation to Bard…). Palm, the quartet that is stealing my heart, met together several years ago at Bard. And after taking a music course together there, they were inspired to create their own band. So, naturally, they threw away their already-garnered musical experience and took up instruments they’ve never touched before.

The result is a wonderfully-unique form of math rock, reminiscent of early Battles, with Tyondai Braxton (founder of Battles back in the early 2000’s) messing with time signatures to an almost unrecognizable degree. The tracks off Rock Island, Palm’s second full-length LP (that came out just this Friday) follow a path unbeknownst to current contemporary pop. Whereas some songs today, on popular radio or not, tend to follow a certain rhythm to the point of predictability, Palm specialize in throwing loops to the point of sometimes not being recognizable as a traditional song.

And while, yes, this means their music is chaotic at times, it is never overwhelming, and is only super fresh and new. Their guitars, which already don’t sound much like guitars at all, and drums double as MIDI samplers, triggering other-worldly samples.

Check out a live Audiotree version of their “Shadow Expert" from several years ago here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3vhaSDaq9A


And here’s a live track of “Dog Milk” from their newest Rock Island: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDEFtq5Tn1Y

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 14, 2018 at 12:16 PM

    I really love the music! And i'm amazed by the guitar in Shadow Expert ( i'm learning guitar right now, and totally amazed by how well and playful the guitar is in the song). Their music express a sense of humor and light-hearted attitude towards life. Usually bands love to make the guitar heavy-metal sound. But they use a different approach to make the music fly and jump in an airy way instead of the traditional heaviness. Very interesting. (Fun fact, I nearly went to the high school program in Bard College)

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