Philly noise-makers Palm are leading up to their new album Nicks and Grazes out October 14th via Saddle Creek. Single “Parable Lickers” is out now, along with North American tour dates that include a hometown show on December 1st at the First Unitarian Church.
“Parable Lickers,” like the single “Feathers” before it, sets a new tone for Palm. Ever the experimentalists, Palm has leveled up their knowledge of sound design and music production on the new record. The band sites Glenn Branca, Captain Beefheart, and Sonic Youth as influences – and can’t escape comparisons to Animal Collective – but truly sounds like the most fully-realized version of themselves yet. Steel drums and a looped recording of a Kensington high school drumline fill out the sound with discordant texture, while guitarist Eve Alpert’s breezy background vocals smooth out the song’s aggressive spikes of percussion.
“‘Parable Lickers’ is the oldest one of the bunch,” says drummer Hugo Stanley. “We were performing a version of this song live when we previously toured, but it didn’t finish itself until just before we went to the studio.” For a band that was unsure if it would continue producing music prior to the pandemic, Nicks and Grazes is shaping up to be a shining product of everything the band has worked for.
Tickets to Palm’s show at the First Unitarian Church on December 1st are available at the WXPN Concerts and Events page.