Skip to main content

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)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Everglades Adventure

Over the Feb break, i went to Everglades National Park for a sea kayaking trip with W&L Outing Club. The trip let us embraced and appreciate the true wilderness and we learned to survive on an isolated island. Over the trip, we followed the "Leave no waste" rule from permaculture, which i think is really interesting. We used biodegradable dish washing liquid and other environmentally friendly products when we were on the island and we picked up all the trashes (from us and from other people who left trash and didn't pick them up after) Human leaves footprint wherever they go. What we can do to make our footprints sustainable is to be conscious about the waste we are making and recycle them. It is the same in permaculture design. When we try to build things and make progresses, we have to be conscious of our actions. We had campfire every night and everyone sit in a circle (and we burn the burnable trash such as orange peels and tissues to leave no waste). We also use...
1 comment
Read more

Making my own paint

In this exploration of place, I have come to realize how much coffee is the essence of Coop. It is one of the most commonly ordered items on the menu. The smell permeates the space (and now my room). The sound of the coffee machine is the soundtrack underneath the conversation and laughter.  When approaching this in progress critique, I struggled with how to bring that essence into the piece. A simple cup of coffee did not have the same effect, it was not overwhelming. Inspiration from my third visit inspired me to use the drink in a different way. I spent my weekend painting with coffee. I used a variety of "canvases" to see how the textures affected the way the "paint" dried. I used napkins, paper and cardstock. The varying degrees of thickness determined how quickly the material soaked up the liquid and the patterns it dried in. In addition to staining the surface, the coffee left behind the faint scent of Coop. 
1 comment
Read more

Photography Conference

I spent this past weekend at a photography conference in Philadelphia. The theme of the weekend was "Uncertain Times." I attended a panel by Byron Wolfe and Matt Klett about their most recent project, Drowned River . They spent several weeks documenting Glen Canyon and the effects of the Glen Canyon Dam. During their trip, they rephotographed sites shot by Eliot Porter back in 1963. I kept coming back to this idea of rephotography. While not specifically eco-art, their photographs demonstrate the change in environments over time. In Drowned River , they illustrate the negative impact the dam has had on the water. Specifically, the canyon that Porter photographed is now underwater. I am interested to hear how you all think eco-artists can engage with photography in their work. You can check out more of their work here: http://www.klettandwolfe.com/
1 comment
Read more