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Get To Know State College Band Palmlines

Late one Monday night, four guys gathered in the basement of the Music Building with one goal in mind. Most students this time of the school year would be preparing for finals or waiting patiently in the downtown bar lines. However, the guys of Palmlines would rather spend hours in the studio perfecting their forthcoming debut full-length album.

State College’s up-and-coming band Palmlines has experimented with its craft since the group formed this past August. Although you could argue the band’s sound falls under the umbrella of Indie/post rock, it’s hard to pinpoint a style for their relaxed vibes, and the guys are happy to keep it that way.

Palmlines is made up of Rashmit Arora (guitar/vocals), Tim Mayo (drums), Otto Kuehrmann (bass), and Brad Sorman (lead guitar).All members are veterans of the State College DIY music scene and have all been a part of different projects and groups. They are familiar faces at house show performances, which has helped the group grow in popularity.

The paths converged when Mayo and Arora were looking to combine their skills but also expand into a full band.

“How it started was Tim and I knew each other since sophomore year through Songwriters Club,” Arora said. “I saw him play in his old band and I used to play in a couple bands here and we both wanted to start playing together. I’m a guitar player and he’s a drummer and this one kid on the Songwriters Club page posted, ‘Hey I’m a bassist and I have a friend that s a lead guitar player’ so they were exactly what we we’re looking for.”

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(Photo: Natalie Lenard)

Shortly after its original formation, the band acquired current bassist Kuehrmann in October. Being a newly formed band with a desire to make original music, it took the group a couple of months to work out the kinks and create five songs to play as a live set. Palmlines debuted on the Houseasasaurus stage in January during the first SOMA benefit show of the semester. Since then, they have gone on to play events like SOMA Arts Crawl, and even Chronic Town’s Record Store Day event.

All of the members came in with diverse music influences that helped the band form its sound in the studio, although mimicking sounds from different genres can sometimes have a very interesting effect on the music writing processes.

“There are parts of our songs that have a very post rocky vibe to it, then there are times when I’m playing and add a very garage rock beat to it, a simple but heavy standard beat,” Mayo said. “There are times when my influence will be completely different from their influence when it comes to layering the songs. The drums will have a garage rock feel to it, or like an indie Alex G type of vibe to it but the guitars will be doing Foals-type stuff.”

Plamlines is still in the midst of working on its LP. If you can’t wait until its release, the group’s track “Pick Up the Pencil” is currently on bandcamp. You can also toss them a follow on Facebook for a heads up on the release as well as information on live shows.

“Were just really excited to put this out, we have no idea what to expect with this,” Arora said.

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About the Author

Shannon Fox

Shannon is a senior at Penn State majoring in Journalism and English. New York City born and Bucks County raised she often complains about State College's lack of good Italian restaurants. She is a lover of all things music and an avid football fan (just not the American kind) Toss her a follow on twitter @ShannonAudFox or Email her at [email protected]

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