Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Converse Shoes

We were recently interviewed for the Converse Shoes blog. Check it out here --> http://play.converse.com/play/talk/


Contributor Spencer Young profiles Salt Lake City, Utah-based indie pop band Palace of Buddies.

pob2

Palace of Buddies is one of those rare bands that sneaks into your city at night, plays at some obscure cafĂ© near an overpass, blows your mind, and then vanishes, leaving only a sexy bass-line throb in your ears Two weeks later that throb is still going as I listen to POB’s tour teaser-CD—an intoxicating blend of fleeting, floating pop songs able to endure the repetitive demands of an endless summer. I recently caught up with POB’s guitarist, Tim, to shed light on this bedazzling two-piece.

SY: Palace of Buddies just finished a West Coast tour. How’d it go? What were the revelations, highlights and low points?

POB: We just got home from our second West Coast tour, and it was a blast. We were able to play in many of the same cities as we did the first time around, but it seemed like we had a little more momentum with us this time. We had great responses in each town we played in. I’d have to say that some of the high points were playing in the Northwest through San Fran. We had some really fun shows there, and played with some great bands. We were able to see some of our friends and travel down the 101 (super gorgeous drive). I can’t think of too many low points to be honest, we had an amazing time together. Our van had a couple close calls, and at times, I thought that we were going to have to ditch it somewhere, but we were able to patch up the leaky tubes and make it back in one piece. I like to look at it as an adventure more, than as low points of the tour.

pob

SY: You guys employ a lot of instruments—several keyboards and guitar pedals and go-go gadgets. How did this music militia come about? Was it an ad hoc or fortuitous?

POB: We have a lot of equipment to lug around. It takes us sometimes 15 plus minutes to set up, but each piece of gear that we use plays an important part in our sound and performance. I would have to say that it came about as more of an ad hoc formation than anything. We will have an idea of a sound that we want to incorporate into a song, and in most cases, because we are a two-piece, we will have to invent a way to trigger or play that particular instrument. For example, for our song “Noel,” Nick plays the bass line at the beginning on his keyboard through the bass amp while he is drumming, then we switch and I play the bass line through a midi foot controller, which triggers my synthesizer while I am playing a guitar riff. We switch off again later in the song. Kinda nerdy, I know, but it adds volume to our songs.

Being a two-piece has its limitations, but we try to break them by adding different ways of playing our instruments. We’ll have an idea for a song and then try to execute it in some way without backing tracks or any pre recorded mumbo jumbo that makes a performance more like a sing-a-long than live music. It can be complicated to do live, but when it works I feel that the sounds produced are full and interesting to watch.

SY: Your first album is primarily rock reminiscent of ’80s avant-garde electronic greats while your new stuff is more classic 60’s pop; are you guys retrofitting the Palace to allow more sweet sunshine in? Your second album is forthcoming this summer, will it be music you can play tether-ball or surf to?

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POB: The first album was a culmination of early material that we had when we were trying to figure out what we were doing. Some of the songs on the album were written while we were still developing our sound and acquiring more gear, so they sound a bit more raw than the newer material, which seems to be a little more pin-pointed.

The newer album will be more focused than the last record, I think. We are finally reaching a point where we are not adding more instruments and have a grasp on what we are aiming at. We have a mix of a lot of similar sounding songs that will be released on this new record, which I hope will give a sense of a complete album where each song compliments the last one. This album will be a little happier than the last; we are going to let as much sunshine in as possible.

SY: What’s the Salt Lake scene like these days? And is Palace of Buddies outgrowing its crib?

POB: Salt Lake is a great place for music, although it still is a smaller town compared to San Fran, Portland, Seattle, and other cites that we have been playing in. The music scene is strong, but it could be stronger for sure. We have been pretty fortunate and have had a lot of good opportunities to play for bigger audiences here. Right now Salt Lake has some really amazing bands that would have a lot of national recognition if they were put in the spotlight.

Nick and I have thrown around the idea of moving to the Northwest; Salt Lake is definitely our home, though, and it would be hard to leave. I suppose that time will tell.

Palace of Buddies

Updatez time

This has been severely neglected for quite a while......

Our West Coast tour was amazing! So many great experiences! All the stops were so fun for us. I'll post some photos from the road soon.

A few weeks ago we played at the Utah Arts Festival. Our good friend Christy Baugh took these photos. She has such a great gift with taking pics.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

tour, movies, new songs, fanny packs


Lots going on. Check out the tour dates below. Also, we have four new songs part of a summer sampler of tracks that will be released this sumer on our full length. Check out our Mypsace page for the songs. www.myspace.com/palaceofbuddies
5.20 Urban Lounge w/ Starfucker. SLC, UT

5.21 Badlander. Missoula, MT

5.22 Sunset Juction. Spokane, WA

5.23 Le Voyer, Olympia. WA

5.24 New Crompton. Seattle, WA

5.25 Ella St Social Club. Portland, OR

5.26 Wandering Goat. Eugene, OR

5.29 Epicenter Cafe. San Fran, CA


5.31 Red Room. Tuscon AZ

6.1 The Trunkspace. Phoenix, AZ

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Underground Jukebox

A few weeks back we were featured on KRLC's Underground Jukebox. It was pretty cool. Our history in a nutshell.

Check it out:

Underground Jukebox

Also, lots of good things in the horizon. Our spring tour is coming along. We'll post dates/venues as they come.

-Tim

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

January-Feburary

We are almost done writing the material for the new record. We should be in the studio recording it this March (cross our fingers).

We recently played a show with Mathematics Et Cetera, and The Super Buttery Muffins which was documented by Gavin from City Weekly. Check out the article here. They had really nice things to say about us. We were really happy to play with both bands. Great peeps.

Here are a few shots from the show:


Also, we weren't booking any shows for a while, but now have a great opportunity to help raise money for Hati victims by playing a benefit show on the 18th of Feb. More info soon.

-Tim

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Some of Utah's best music of 2009

We were selected among many of our friends here in SLC as having some of the best new music in Utah for 2009. It aired on the KUER 90.1 FM yesterday, Dec, 9th.

Check it out here KUER Interview.

In other news, we are playing at birthquake's CD release party at the Urban Lounge on the 19th of December. Should be a night to remember. I think that they are planning some pretty insane things. Also, we have some new tunes that we will be playing that will be on an upcoming release that we will be recording sometime in the next few months.

-Tim