Exclusive: Palms 'Summer Is Done With Us' Video & Interview
We premiere Palms' new clip, plus talk party tricks and snapped boners.
Palms, the band that rose out of the ashes of Red Riders, enjoy camping, karaoke and playing Risk. But you might know them better as the creators of 'Summer Is Done With Us' and 'Coca Cola & Lemonade', two tracks that are exactly as fun as they sound. To coincide with the release of the video for 'Summer Is Done With Us' ? premiered exclusively on Oyster ? we sat down with Al Grigg and Tom Wallace to discuss the fizzy stuff and why it's a good idea to make sure your sexual partners know the emergency services number...
Alanna Bromley: So, you're just a couple of old pals making a racket, right? What is the most annoying sound you can think of?
Al Grigg: My hearing is so bombed out from years of aural abuse, that pretty much any high-pitched noise really sticks in there and drives me crazy ? car brakes, emptying out a change jar... My alarm's pretty annoying too, but for other reasons.
Tom Wallace: The sound of a Paddle Pop stick being dragged through clenched teeth freaks me out! But the sound of that pulsating wind that happens when one of your car windows is open is more annoying.
Do you actually drink Coca-Cola and lemonade mixed together? What's the story behind that song title?
Al: Nah, gross! That'd be like a diabetic nightmare. The song title is meant to be about how things lose their fizz, y'know? Like you can't save a soft drink for later once you've cracked it, you gotta enjoy it all just in that instant.
Soft drink is best enjoyed?
Al: Out of a glass bottle if it's Coke. You can't beat that shit!
Tom: And cans are almost as good as glass. Plastic bottles stink. But milkshakes are better in the steel cup, not glass.
Your Facebook page mentions a certain penchant for camping... give us your best campfire story!
Al: Tom's girlfriend told a particularly good one last trip about her friend who snapped his boner while in the throws of the deepest intimacy and he had to have his penis 'de-gloved' and reset. It's like a real life horror story. The lesson? Never have sex (with a girl from New Zealand... who doesn't know that the emergency services number here is 000).
Tom: And here is the friend telling the tale himself... It includes diagrams! But gentlemen be warned, this recording will deeply effect you.
What do you like to imagine people doing while they listen to your music?
Al: I know this sounds corny as hell, but I have a bit of a fear of missing out, so in a weird way I feel like I'm living vicariously through my music, y'know? Like it's a part of people's lives, so in some small, weird way so am I. Is that heaps creepy?
Tom: For the more recent demos we've done, I imagine kids moshing. There is one song that is in half time, what Al calls "the most head banging-est of time signatures", and when we play it I kind of wish I had really long hair. It has so many sweet set-ups for a break out mosh!
What was the most memorable gig you ever went to?
Al: Probably inspired by their recent reunion, I've been looking back really fondly on seeing At The Drive-In at the Big Day Out in like 2001 or something. They blitzed the stage for like 15 minutes, bleated at the audience, then stormed off to a barrage of bottles from the crowd. It was punk as hell.
Tom: I once went to a Guttermouth concert at a community hall in Manly when I was 14. The singer threw out his shirt and I grabbed it but so did this really tall guy. We then proceeded to the back of the hall in a lurching tug o' war that felt like it went for 15 minutes. I eventually gave up exhausted and let him have the shirt. I don't know what that says about me as a man...
What is your best party trick?
Al: I call it 'The Lazarus' where I doze off for about 20 minutes, usually long enough to have something dumb drawn on my face by my pals, then suddenly wake up, back from the dead, ready to keep on truckin'.
Tom: Probably having textas for when Al inevitably falls asleep. His sister Julia is the same. They both hit this wall around midnight.
Watch the video for 'Summer Is Done With Us' below:
Directed by Angela Bermuda, the video contains over 1,000 images that were sourced from personal photographs belonging to the band and the director, old travel books, images and zines.
Alanna Bromley
