Kevin Bronson on September 4th, 2020

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Long Beach duo Soft Palms — Julia Kugel of The Coathangers and husband Scott Montoya — released their dreamy debut album today. In today’s QUARANTUNES, they dream of other things, like playing spies in their next video, a better world and what makes an Ultimate Summer Playlist.  

THE LATEST FROM SOFT PALMS

Soft Palms’ debut album, out today, feels so … close. An eight-song reverie sheathed in reverb and echoing the simpler pleasures of the girl-group era (i.e., first-wave dream-pop), it’s a warm hello from the married duo of Julia Kugel (The Coathangers) and Scott Montoya, known not just for their music but for the 2-year Happy Sundays festival and other events they’ve staged around Long Beach. “My goal was to create something that sounded like a mental hug, a sonic embrace,” Kugel says of the album. “Everything can feel so wild and out of control, we really wanted to create something you could sink into and use to calm those emotions.”

Mission accomplished. The album, out via Everloving Records, arrived along with another of the duo’s inventive, DIY videos (see “Wash Your Hands” from April,  “Rainbows” from May and, especially, “Baddy” from July). This one’s for “Rain and Thunder,” and like the song, it has layers. They figure to reach their zenith in the forthcoming video for one of the album’s highlights, “Pretty Dancer.” It’s secret agent-meets-sci-fi/fantasy stuff, and if there’s any spy couple who can save us from ourselves, it might be Kugel and Montoya.

Bandcamp shoppers, get your vinyl here.

HOW ARE YOU HOLDING UP AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MANAGE THE ‘STAY AT HOME’ EDICT?

We may or may not be stealing ancient power crystals and top-secret alien technology.

We have been working on music and videos and creating our own little world at home. In our forthcoming video for “Pretty Dancer,” we get to act like jewel-thieving spies. It’s been really fun so see what we can do with $7.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO WHEN THIS IS OVER?

A changed world with a new perspective on the possibilities of life on Earth. And very much looking forward to traveling again.

ANYTHING WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS PLAYLIST?

This was our Ultimate Playlist for Summer 2020. Our playlist is a local, international, supernatural, vibe-inducing, pheromone-producing mix, stacked with oldies and newbies that will make you feel all the feels and shake your heels. These are the songs that have helped us stay focused on making art.