Columbus, OH · rock

Palette Knife

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Columbus outfit playing twinkly, wordy Midwest emo at pop-punk speed — tapped guitar figures and self-deprecating jokes in equal measure.

Palette Knife is a three-piece based in Columbus, Ohio, part of a Midwestern scene where emo, indie rock and pop-punk overlap freely. Working with just guitar, bass and drums, the band relies on tightly interlocking parts to fill out its sound rather than any additional instrumentation, keeping the arrangements dense despite the small lineup.

The band's songs pair intricate, high-register guitar interplay with fast tempos and conversational lyrics, often turning anxiety and everyday embarrassment into hooks. The choruses lean on the melodic urgency of 2000s pop-punk, while the guitar lines keep restructuring themselves underneath, more interested in movement than repetition.

Their recordings have circulated through the independent emo label circuit, and they have kept a steady presence in the Ohio DIY community that produced them. The songs stay short and quick, favoring turnaround over expanse, closer in pace to pop-punk than to the more sprawling end of emo.

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