028 – Palm Ghosts – with Joe Lekkas & Ben Douglas – Haunting post-punk disillusionment

In this episode I have the privilege of chatting with Joe Lekkas and Ben Douglas, the two main drivers behind the band Palm Ghosts. I chatted with the fellas about their beginnings, inspirations and writing process as well as digging into some of the songs off of their latest album, I Love You, Burn in Hell. The duo, along with drummer, Walt Epting, craft melodic yet brooding rhythms and melodies that sway you back and forth between the New Wave/alternative sounds of the 80’s and the modern alternative post-punk revival sounds of the 21st century. Joe & Ben are a couple of really down to earth guys and I really enjoyed our conversation. The band manages to remind the listener of a myriad of 80’s & 90’s new wave/post-punk/alternative/shoe gaze bands while creating a new unidentifiable genre that seems to belong only to them. If you love Joy Division, New Order, The Cure, Peter Gabriel, XTC, Echo & The Bunnymen, Mission UK, The Psychedelic Furs, The Doves, Bloc Party, Simples Minds (Yeah… the list goes on and on!) then you will be as enamored with Palm Ghosts as I am. This year (2024), the band will be releasing a series of songs, one at a time, every 2 weeks, which will end up populating 4 EPs and ultimately a double LP by the end of the year so be sure to check them out on the streaming platform of your choice. Thanks for joining us!   All other sounds and song clips used were procured from publicly posted sources. PLEASE check out Palm Ghosts at the below links: Band Website: https://palmghosts.net/ Bandcamp:  https://palmghosts.bandcamp.com/ Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/artist/6VyUs0vMgqSNdVtLHzKaa7 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpbeEfea7uapouXePgqeNwQ Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/palmghosts Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/palmghosts Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/palmghosts Twitter(Er…I mean X!) : https://twitter.com/palmghosts Threads: https://www.threads.net/@palmghosts     You can find Post-Punk Heartstrings on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PostpunkHeartstrings   Post-punk Heartstrings can now be found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjKWsuzqWiSY0vln1Py5ahg   Please come by and follow the page and say, “Hello!”