Watch Palm’s bizarre, yet mesmerizing new video for “Ankles”

Palm are a band who split their time between in Philly and Brooklyn and – just like their geographic location – their music is tricky, if not impossible to pin down. “Art rock” may be the best qualifier, but their main goal seems to be to create the unexpected in a way that can be both harsh and inexplicably enjoyable at the same time. Last week Palm released the video for “Ankles,” a single off of Trading Basics which came out last month via Inflated Records.

The animated video contains singing paper clips and staplers in what appears to be some kind of computer-based office landscape. The music behind the video does nothing to dwindle the overall weirdness of the experience but it does effectively accentuate the repetitious nature of “Ankles.” The song seems dead set on putting the focus on the video, which is often the opposite of how music videos work; although it is undoubtedly all kinds of strange, it is also remarkably hypnotic and not something you will take your eyes off of, even if you kind of want to.

If you want to experience some of the strangeness in person, Palm is set to play the Girls Rock Philly benefit show tomorrow night, December 10, at the First Unitarian Church with Speedy Ortiz. Click here for more info on that show and check out the video for “Ankles” below.