SOUNDTRACK: PALM-Ostrich Vacation (2015).
Palm has recently reissued this record on cassette. I don’t like cassettes, so I won’t be getting this. But it is available streaming so you can check out this early, peculiar release from this peculiar band.
Palm is an unusual band and these four talented musicians (Eve Alpert (gtr/vox), Gerasimos Livitsanos (bass), Kasra Kurt (gtr/vox) and Hugo Stanley (drums)) have found their ideal bandmates because they play off of each others ideas perfectly.
The digital release is treated like a cassette, with two tracks and multiple parts.
Side A is Dime / Drift / Communication / Trust / Small Mouth (11:54).
There’s 30 seconds of a funky bass (that seems like it’s not them) before “Dime” starts. It’s a slow almost shoegazey song with all kinds of angular chords thrown on top. And then after a minute and fifteen they do what they do best–dissonant notes played often enough that they become melodic together.
There’s a few seconds of a grooving song on a tape that gets sped up before “Drift” opens with a series of unexpected notes and complex drum pattern–in other words, typical Palm. Their exploration of atypical melody is really fantastic.
“Communication” opens with the two guitars playing different dissonant sounds–weird angular chords against a three note melody that seems … wrong, like screaming solo notes. The impressive things are the way the drums and bass ground this exercise in experimentation and that it turns surprisingly danceable by the middle.
“Trust” starts out with some slow chords and echoing voices–it’s all vaguely out of tune sounding and then “Small Mouth” jumps in with a lurching melody and some percussive drumming (nice wood block). The vocals are soft and shoegazey despite the overall noisiness of the song. It’s certainly the prettiest track here. The track ends with 30 seconds of sped up version of a live album. I suppose it could be determined who the band is if one were so inclined.
Side two is longer with fewer songs: Ostrich Vacation / Is Everything Okay / Tomorrow the World (14:29).
“Ostrich Vacation” opens with a fast single chords that sounds like “Helter Skelter” but it lasts for some 45 seconds before the drums kick in and the song shifts into a different beast. This song feels fairly conventional despite the odd chords. Until it gets Palmed at 1:34 when things slow down and the two guitars start throwing around unconventional guitar melodies and noisy chords. It starts jumping back and forth between these three parts until around 3 minutes when it turns into a total guitar freak out with both guitars making wild noise for twenty seconds until the drums kick in and the song lurches into a new melody. This new melody is mostly conventional (sounding a bit like some early SST bands). Then at around 6 minutes it changes again, this time a fast full on melody that lasts all of 30 seconds before the song ends
“Is Everything OK” starts with some jagged chords that ring out while an interesting and unusual bassline runs underneath. The chord stays the same while the bass explores different melodies. Then the drums kick in with some jazzy almost improvised-sounding beats. The second guitar stats throwing in weird shapes and feedback, while quiet vocals whisper around the edges and a clarinet (!) squawking around. After some jamming the song comes to a crashing end with some echoing and looped drum riots.
“Tomorrow the World” is literally two guitars tuning and detuning for five minutes. It really stretches the boundaries of what a song is–and what someone might want to listen to.
Their later albums are more complicated and supremely cool.
[READ: May 11, 2021] “Something Like Happy”
I rather enjoyed this simple story.
The narrator is a bank teller–it’s her first job and she’s pleased to have it.
Arthur McKechnie came in to deposit a bunch of checks. He seemed like a nice guy, but he seemed to be living mostly in his own head. It wasn’t until he signed over the checks that she saw his name McKechnie, and knew who he was.
The McKechnies were bad news, but then narrator knew of them because her sister Marie was dating the worst of them–Stan McKechnie. Of course the more people told Marie that Stan was no good, the tighter she clung to him.
he always returns to her when he deposits his checks and he seems to be flirting with her–in odd ways. She didn’t know what to say though and the transactions ended. (more…)
I saw Real Estate open for Belle and Sebastian five years ago. I enjoyed their mellow set and found them very pleasant.
