Philadelphia via Hudson Valley, NY quartet PALM are sharing their new single “Ankles” via The FADER, a song the site complimented by calling it, “rhythmically perverse, melodically convoluted”. This is the sort of world that PALM live in, one that is complex and challenging, forever shifting direction and undeniably rewarding. The band’s full length debut Trading Basics is due out on November 6th via Inflated Records / Exploding In Sound, a behemoth of uncompromising post-punk and experimental art rock, brilliantly created and envisioned as a true collaboration between each member of PALM. Unpredictable music for unpredictable times. PALM are set to bring their highly praised live show across the North East and Canada in November. Dates can be found below.
The FADER magazine offered the exclusive premiere of “Ankles,” the second track to see a release from Trading Basics. Speaking about the song and the band’s reputation for being a “must see” live act, The FADER shared, “There’s a definite magnetism that comes with sidestepping conventions, which Palm does a lot here, with a hypnotizing energy. The track, premiering below, is ultimately full of so many clever turns that it’s tough to imagine them ever playing it the same way twice.”
Speaking about “Ankles,” Kasra Kurt (vocals/guitar) offered some insight:
“We wrote “Ankles” after recording the rest of the album. Compositionally it worked with some ideas that we’d been talking about a little, namely: i. stuttering, imperfect loops, ii. working outside the confines of traditional rhythmic organization, iii. having the drums truly play lead. But it wasn’t worked out in advance. The song came together super quickly – a true collaborative effort. Lyrically, “Ankles” is basically a rip-off of Queen’s “I Want to Break Free”. “Ankles” is also the only track on the album recorded by our friend Paco Cathcart (Big Neck Police/The Cradle).”
Tour Dates:
11/06 – Brooklyn, NY @ Palisades (Album Release Show)
11/07 – Amherst, MA @ Hampshire College
11/08 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Petting Zoo
11/09 – Washington, DC @ Above the Bayou
11/10 – Richmond, VA @ The Camel
11/11 – Raleigh, NC @ Neptunes
11/12 – Columbia, SC @ Blue Tie Skateshop
11/13 – Atlanta, GA @ The Cleaners
11/14 – Tallahassee, FL @ The Wolfs Den
11/15 – New Orleans, LA @ Saturn Bar
11/16 – Lafayette, LA @ Sacred Alter
11/17 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas
11/18 – Denton, TX
11/20 – Nashville, TN @ Pussy Palace
11/21 – Indianapolis, IN @ Joyful Noise
11/22 – Chicago, IL @ Flood House
11/24 – Windsor, ON @ NLS
11/25 – Toronto, ON
11/27 – Montreal, QC @ Brasseire Beaubien
11/28 – Hadley, MA @ Tube Cats
About the band:
While the four-piece have made their home in the same Hudson Valley scene as experimental art rockers Buke and Gase, Palm’s story started when guitarists/vocalists Kasra Kurt and Eve Alpert developed a musical kinship while attending the same high school. The pair decided to continue their education at Bard College and quickly founded Palm with drummer Hugo Stanley. Their earliest material was entirely instrumental and concentrated on the interplay between Kasra and Eve’s thick, mechanical guitar parts against Hugo’s sparse, loose drum phrases. Not long after that, the band added Gerasimos Livitsanos on bass and has refined its sound over the past few years with a focus on detail, density, and heaviness. With a palette informed by punk, metal, and noise as well as jazz and bossa nova, they utilize traditional rock instruments to create playful experiments that, using unpredictable time signatures, move up and down, back and forth, and all over the map.
Trading Basics challenges the listener’s expectations with moments of dissonance that are reigned in and precise. The pretty moments are often where the chaos is. Amid these constant and rapid changes, the band sneaks in an unrelenting, trance-inducing repetition. Recorded and mixed by Eli Crews (Deerhoof, tUnE-yArDs) at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn, the album is a confident statement that this young band has carefully crafted a unique sonic vocabulary and methodology during their short time together. Being somewhat removed from city life, and having access to a 24 hour practice space in Hudson, has resulted in an unparalleled level of discipline and focus on their craft. In addition to the new record and the band’s recent relocation to Philadelphia, expect Palm to take their incredibly tight live show on the road in support of Trading Basics in the year to come.
