Gimme 5! Geoff Palmer Shares 5 Albums That Influenced Charts And Graphs (Out 7/23)

With ‘Gimme 5!’ we take a peek into the collections of artists we admire. The premise is simple: artists WE like share 5 records THEY love.

If I had a paper calendar, there would be a big red circle on Friday July 23rd. That date marks the release of the highly anticipated new Geoff Palmer record Charts And Graphs. I’ll write a review on it later this week, but I can already say that if you are a fan of Geoff Palmer’s previous solo album Pulling Out All The Stops, but also his work in The Connection, New Trocaderos, and Kurt Baker Band, you are guaranteed to like the new record as well. And yet, Charts And Graphs sees Geoff expanding his sound in different directions. Geoff recently discussed this with the excellent powerpop blog Sweet Sweet Music: “I love change. One thing that has always been a judge of success for me with a record or a band is doing something new, playing new places, trying new ideas for writing styles, new production ideas, anything we haven’t done before.” [post continues below]

That knack for trying new things is one of the reasons we are thrilled that Geoff took some time out of his busy schedule to share 5 albums that influenced Charts And Graphs. Another reason to be excited is Geoff’s great taste in music. He is a masterful playlist curator on Spotify, and I highly recommend checking out his 2021 playlist featuring some of the best powerpop and pop punk tracks of the year.

The hit-packed Charts And Graphs will be out this Friday on LP (Stardumb Records), CD (Rum Bar Records) and  Cassette (Memorable But Not Honorable). Over to you, Geoff.

Geoff Palmer:

1. Lemonheads – It’s A Shame About Ray
“I make it no secret that I have a big soft spot for Evan Dando. I credit this album for my intro into powerpop. I had no idea what that was at the time, but I knew I loved it. Also, I got turned onto so many great musicians from listening to live bootlegs of Evan.”

2. Green Day – Dookie
“What can I say about this album that hasn’t been said? Not much, haha! I will say Longview is probably my least favorite track on the album. It was Basket Case that got me hooked. Pulling Teeth & Sassafras Roots have stayed my top hits from this LP.”

3. White Reaper – You Deserve Love
“This album has it all: songwriting, performing, production, down to the artwork. This is the only band on my Gimme 5 list I have not seen live, but that will change soon. I got tickets to see them in August.”

4. Wilco – AM
“Wilco fits in with my love for alt-country, alt-rock, whatever you call it. Great songwriting. This record gets a lot of plays every summer at my place or on road trips.”

5. ALL – Breaking Things
“Breaking Things is a crucial album for me. ALL along with Descendents have been a constant soundtrack to my life. It’s impressive that all members write killer songs and perform on a whole different level. They are so incredibly tight live.”