In our continuation of Meet The Bands Of Gonerfest Eleven, we bring you, The Gooch Palms. Very cool surfpunk , if you like Bands ranging from The Growlers to Shannon and the Clams, you will be sure to dig on The Gooch Palms. They have that fuzz going full blast, Ramone style beat and beachy harmonies, this is one of my favorite combinations of music in years , throw in some punk with some surf and here we go. Above all else, Gooch Palms are FUN and that is the reason why we love these crazy kids…. GO SEE THEM AT GONERFEST AND BUY ALL THEIR ALBUMS AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THEM….
Meet The Band
Hi, our name is…
The Gooch Palms
And our sound might be best described as…
Minimal lo-fi poppy punk. We just call it shit-pop.
We are…
I’m Kat and I play 2 drums and my boyfriend Leroy is also in the band and he plays guitar.
We are originally from…
Originally and still from THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD – Newcastle, Australia.
Who are some that have an influence on your sound?
Almost everything we hear influences us in some way. We love good songs, no matter what the genre. There’s some seriously embarrassing stuff in that category too. Leroy is always really listening to everything he hears, ready to appropriate (steal) what ever he can. But the bands that have inspired us to have a go at it ourselves would be The Ramones and The Gories. A good song is a good song regardless of musical ability. We’ve taken that and ran with it. Sound wise though I guess we draw a lot of inspiration from crooners like Roy Orbison, Sam Cook et al. And the poppier/punkier stuff we really love The Ramones, GG Allin, the Back from the Grave comps, 70’s Powerpop comps. Leroy’s ultimate goal is for us to have a stage show like KISS.
The first time we met was…
At a pub in Newcastle. It was love at first sight… PUKE! Sickly sweet, but true.
We knew we were going to be a band when…
We were playing some songs we wrote with a few friends, hoping a band would be formed out of it, but they were all too good and making us look bad in comparison. So we tried to do it with just the two of us and here we are today. I guess the first time I knew we were going to be a band was our first ever gig at a friends party. We’d made it out of the garage and were playing to people for the first time. We were officially a REAL band! It was the happiest day of my life! I rang my dad and told him how great it was. Haha I’m such a nerd!
What are you looking forward to most at Gonerfest this year?
We went to Gonerfest in 2011 and it was awesome, but we were only a brand new band so we didn’t play any shows in the US that time around, it was just a holiday. So I guess the thing we are most looking forward to is actually playing at Gonerfest! We’re looking forward to the Aussie onslaught as well and of course getting to see all the amazing bands on the line-up.
Our craziest gig ever was…
This is a tough one, there have been a bunch. And once people think they can go crazy at our shows and that’s what we want, it can be a bad move. We like the crowd to be happy and nice to each other and not throw anything at us or try and hurt us. But if you really want to know, I guess THE craziest would have to be the time when Leroy made some comment about a song we used to have called “Midnight Casanova”. He joking said “this song is about me raping her” and pointed to me. He says a lot of awful stuff on stage so I didn’t think anything of it but it must have REALLY offended this woman that looked a lot like a heavy set dude because she jumped on stage and stuck her fingers up his butthole (his pants were already off) and then he threw her off stage thinking she was a man but then realised she wasn’t so he smashed his guitar to pieces and masturbated furiously instead of fighting her and that was three songs in to our set, so the show was over. This was one of our first ever shows, many years ago. I’m pretty sure Owen from Straight Arrows was there on a first date with his girlfriend Courtney. They are still together so not everything about that evening was a disaster! Please don’t come to our shows and try and finger Leroy’s asshole!
The first song we wrote was…
“Don’t Cry”. We needed a song for The Gooch Palms’ Myspace page so we could add one million people and be Myspace famous! We didn’t have any drums to record it so we used a bucket and a tambourine. Which I guess is why we sound the way we do. We still play it, it’s the only song that has stayed with us from the early years.
It’s about…
It’s a ballad that sounds like it should be about something romantic but it’s actually about an annoying chick who cries all the time. My favourite line in the song is “I find you fairly good looking… There’s just one thing I can’t stand… It’s when you cry in my arms…” a reference to Van Halen’s “Aint Talking’ ‘Bout Love”.
What tunes are you currently jamming to…
Do you mean “jamming” as in playing endless music with people that has no purpose? Like Jazz? Or how real musicians might write a song? We can’t do that. I can barely play the songs I already know that I have practiced a lot! But I’ll assume you mean listening to.
A short while ago we toured in Australia with one of our favourite bands, Shannon and the Clams. Since then we have been listening to all of their albums a lot. They are so good. Leroy’s been giving Swell Maps a good workout. He’s loving their use of piano. Nothing gets played around here more than KISS though.
What are some of the 1st songs you remember listening to that made you say, that’s what I want to do?
Leroy idolised Silverchair as a little kid. They are from Newcastle as well. He grew up in the same street as their drummer and was friends with the singer’s little sister so he was surrounded by the pandemonium that followed them. He had a toy guitar and microphone and he used to put on Silverchair concerts for his parents (typical only child).
Meanwhile I was glued to the screen watching my VHS (taped from the TV) live concerts of Talking Heads and Madonna from the 80’s. I was obsessed with live concerts. Psycho Killer and Material Girl were my favourites. I imagined myself as some sort of Madonna/David Byrne hybrid. A big suit with a cone bra!
When you are touring and have some time off, where could we find you…
We’ve got champagne taste on a beer budget! We’re starting our tour in Vegas and getting there early so we can lay around in the sun and load up on $1 margaritas for a week before we head off on tour. Generally we like to blow all our hard earned band money on pizza and nice hotels. For this tour we are camping in a tent at KOA campgrounds across America so once every few nights we can stay in a half decent hotel with pool. We have also booked a cabin in the woods in Ohio that has a jacuzzi on the balcony. Now that’s livin!!!
The one thing we want you to remember while your listening to us…
Don’t worry, be happy!
Listen to some tunes….
How could I not include this….
follow The Gooch Palms…
OFFICIALThe GOOCH PALMS WEBSITE
and as always, thanks to Madison and all the great folks at Goner Records for helping us bring you all these kick ass interviews
Go get your ticket for Gonerfest today….
and while your there check out one of the coolest Record Stores EVER
