Palm Friends’ new EP, The Delivery, is essential listening for long-term followers of indie.
Palm Friends have dressed the genre’s rotting corpse in a straw hat, a lumberjack shirt, a guitar, and blown one last breath of life into it.
Much more. They’ve offered something new to the canon. Something poppy, romantic, subtle and seductive.
The influences.
Palm Friends ply languid, countrified indie: Teenage Fan Club, Lemonheads.
There’s also 20th century pop: Bangles, Jane Wiedlin.
Plus Shawnna Stennes, the stand out vocalist, sounds like Suzanna Vega and Chan Marshall.
But this is much more than something you’ve heard before, even if you’ve heard all of it.
Its all about Stennes.
Its her voice in part: sweeter, smoother, rangier than anything the Vega-Marshall axis has to offer.
What tones, hues and resonances. What a rainbow.
Add to this her captivating syllabic patterning, pace and wordplay, and it puts her in a league of her own.
She whispers into your ear, tender, intimate, moody. Its love at first listen, but also something to cry into.
Then she’s laid back, like she’s replaying memories whilst gazing out of a Greyhound.
Her nuance gives her a certain cool (offset by what appears to be a sausage with a bandage on its head, tattooed to the bottom of her left leg).
But its also about the playing. The songs are an intricate and subtle weave of the romantic, the melancholic and the dramatic.
I’m getting a profound ‘coming of age’ movie for mid twenties, for mid-west hipsters.
Taken together this EP is just ‘wow’; perhaps because its awakened so many musical love affairs from the last four decades, perhaps because its like meeting an old flame.
I haven’t been able to stop listening to it.
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Credits
Will Burnton: Bass
Jon Lindquist: Drums
Jesse Pedersen: Guitar, vocals, background vocals on Hidden Perks
Shawnna Stennes: Guitar, vocals
Recorded at The Terrarium, Minneapolis, MN May 15th, May 23rd, June 9th, 2021
Hilary James: Background vocals on Hidden Perks
Pat Horigan: Piano on Light Pink, Quarter Century
Mixed and mastered by Ben Etter
Except Devotion by Henry Stoehr
Lyrics
Hidden Perks
Could someone write it down
Isn’t that way forward?
I thought it was straight ahead
Maybe I missed it while going too fast
And then I trip
Forgot the point and bust my lip
And there it is –
Laying back on the grass
I taste my blood and I bounce back
I fight time in the back of my head
We throw punches each morning
I fight time in the back of my head
Trying to make me boring
Yeah I read about that
That’s good for you and that’s bad
Now I’m talking so loud
Someone call the doctor I’ve figured it out
And then I trip
Forgot the point and bust my lip
And there it is –
Laying back on the grass
I taste my blood and I bounce back
I fight pride in the back of my head
We throw punches each morning
I fight pride in the back of my head
Trying to make me boring
Light Pink
Show up
Store’s closed
Big shrug and we’re on to the next one
You’re calm in your pink hat
I dance and I pull out the snacks I’ve packed
You bring me out to the park
Felt the big breeze that I would’ve missed out on
We drive around
Let the fast cars pass while we’re looking at the town
Your self portrait is freaky
but the colors are peachy
Warm me up like butter in a pan on low heat
Hardly noticed now I’m in deep
Come sit by me
Lemon squeezed over two whiskeys
Little sip
make it last longer
Slow down and the tunes sound better
You bring me out to the park
Felt the big breeze that I would’ve missed out on
We drive around
Let the fast cars pass while we’re looking at the town
Your self portrait is freaky
but the colors are peachy
Warm me up like butter in a pan on low heat
Hardly noticed now I’m in deep
Quarter Century
Now it’s time for my favorite part of the party
When I go alone outside and listen
Maybe lay down with the garden decorations
I know what I adore
Make it last or ask for more
Hear your voice far away
Love to hear it take up space
With the buzz and the lights
I can tell that we’ll be fine
And you might as well
Plan to peak at 65
Now we frown at the waste of a drink
In the morning going down the sink
I think back to the moment when
Someone said my name wrong and I liked it
Who’s surprised
A little bit softer every time
That’s the beat
I’ve got a loose grip on my quarter century
I know what I adore
Make it last or ask for more
Hear your voice far away
Love to hear it take up space
With the buzz and the lights
I can tell that we’ll be fine
And you might as well
Plan to peak at 65
Yeah, I’m counting on the long ride
Now it’s time for business
Check to see if it’s a winning ticket
Am I ready for a new front door
I’ll sure try to love it like the last one
It’s so light
A little bit softer every time
Take my hand
I’ll spin you around and back again
I know what I adore
Make it last or ask for more
Hear your voice far away
Love to hear it take up space
With the buzz and the lights
I can tell that we’ll be fine
And you might as well
Plan to peak at 65
Mile End
I land the trick and throw my hands
Into the air but no one’s there
And then it hits me, you crazy recluse
That autonomy has busted you
I’m getting the call now
Winding up that we’re all around
Got lost in the sound
Sunburnt rows heading downtown
The NOs has overtaken my mouth
A view too familiar
Tastes like missing out
Yeah I’m fit to keep walking
Such a safe route
But I’ve hit the mile end
Time to turn around
I’m getting the call now
Winding up that we’re all around
Got lost in the sound
Sunburnt rows heading downtown
Devotion
Me and my love, we went swimming
Staying above the beginning
I’m just calling you back
Wondering if I really mean it
Echo of devotion
Me and my love, make it true
Told me to swim but I stopped too
Believe me when I try
Didn’t mean to make you high
Echo of devotion
Domino
The wind would come when I called it
If I was right like you
A sore stomach from satisfaction
If I was right like you
But that’s not where I belong
I love to be wrong
I swear
It gets me everywhere
Sure I’ll let it in
And roll it around on my lips
And then I’ll pick
Then I’ll pick
So cuddle baby what you’ve won
When the day is done
What a choice companion
A heady feeling to hit the ceiling
If I was right like you
But I’ll take the buzz from contradiction
Cause I am not like you
Where I belong
I love to be wrong
I swear
It gets me everywhere
Sure I’ll let it in
And roll it around on my lips
And then I’ll pick
I smell the fire and I’m holding seeds in both hands
Don’t wanna lay in my echoes that’s not getting me anywhere
Anywhere
So cuddle baby what you’ve won
When the day is done
What a choice companion