KAMIKAZE PALM TREE - Mint Chip LP

Drag City welcomes Kamikaze Palm Tree to our tropical island destination, celebrating the energy of their second LP, where KPT play their offbeat strain of 21st century rock.

Dylan Hadley and Cole Berliner, the Los Angeles duo better known as Kamikaze Palm Tree are definitely not afraid to dabble with art-rock/pop or to take musical risks. Their initial EP (That Hand Faces Upwards), their debut album Good Boy from 2019, and a live KALX recording proved that. Now, Mint Chip, their second full album, shows that taking musical risks can pay off if you know exactly what you are doing and have the imagination and capabilities to do so.

Here, the duo is augmented by Josh Puklavetz (White Fence) on bass and Sofia Arregiun (Wand) on keyboards, as well as Laena Myers Ionita and Brad Caulkins, clarinet and violin respectively, giving Kamikaze Palm Tree the fullness of sound their musical ideas deserve. Ranging in sound all over the place, from the opener “Flamingo” which sounds like a cut/copy/paste piece of best elements of nineties indie sounds (from Pavement to Modest Mouse and back), to the (almost) inimitable seventies prog pop of the Slapp Happy/Henry Cow combination on “Y so K,” to the skewed up Velvet Underground sounds of “Smoke On The Milk, But My War,” it is an (un)usual and imaginative walk through any music that is at least a bit left-field. Oh, and it is thoroughly enjoyable too!