Ditties From Down Under: “Step Brothers” by Palms

Wearing big grins, baseball caps and swinging around surging Rickenbacker guitars, Sydney four-piece Palms undoubtedly are involved in this music caper for a damn good time. However, it’s no mere pantomime and frontman, Al Grigg has a gift for rendering the nagging questions of 20-somethings everywhere into pervasive garage pop tunes. Palms’ debut record Step Brothers explores the highs and lows of love, work, and partying with affecting simplicity. Slacker anthem “Summer Is Done With Us” pairs sky-reaching vocals and major chords, while “This Last Year” addresses an ambivalent lover with a croon that morphs into a crying power-pop outburst. Grigg’s romancing with the everyday is punctuated with touches of humor and wide-eyed exuberance and should please fans of The Replacements, Mikal Cronin, and Pavement.