A Man, A Plan

“I’m going to France, basically, for a girl,” explains a smiling Gram Richmond, the singer-songwriter-guitarist behind rock band Panama. For the past six years -- even longer, counting time with his first band, Meringue -- Philadelphia has been his muse, directly inspiring pop songs about the city and its nuances. Now he’s packing up his little Silvertone guitars and Philly-oriented songs and heading off to Paris, where his girlfriend, Anaïs Loizillon, is from. They met as students at Swarthmore College and have been together nearly 10 years.

He'll be able to continue working as a freelance college guidance counselor, since his work is largely done by phone and e-mail. Due to its flexible schedule, the job should allow Richmond to pursue his musical interests in his new city.

You have to wonder how Panama's live-show favorites, like "1060" (in which he repeats "the Accu-Weather forecast forecasts rain!") or "Athletics" ("Philadelphia, P-A/ never should have lost the A's"), will fly in France.

"I wonder if it's just enough to sing in English over there," ponders Richmond, who, on visits to Paris, has seen the moderate success of cover bands and guys doing "Hotel California" on acoustic guitar.

"For some reason I haven't really written many love songs, or songs about, you know, rockin'," he reflects. Some non-local songwriting content for Richmond include Ted Turner, the Martian lander, hemophilia, how much he likes manual transmissions and a story he heard about a lake of super-dense, chemical-rich water recently discovered at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. It's not the sort of subject matter you'd expect in rock songs.

"[But] I'm kind of a pop junkie, so at the basest level [my] songs are meant to be really catchy," he says, figuring the melodies, if not the words, will cross language and cultural barriers.

"I write about Philly because I love Philly, but also because I'm here," he says. So, by virtue of proximity at least, his new home should inspire him. Maybe he'll start writing pop songs about berets, baguettes and Jacques Chirac.

He's already made a couple of loose connections in Paris, looking into putting a band together once he gets there, though he plans to do some solo stuff on his four-track at first. "The only thing that I am a little hesitant about is I haven't found the Khyber in Paris yet."

The site of Panama's debut in 1997, the Khyber will also host the band's goodbye show this Friday. "It was really easy to get that first show," says the 29-year-old Richmond; he remembers mailing out a cassette to Dave Frank, who was handling the Khyber's booking back then. "I know that if we lived in New York, we would have probably played on Sunday night for free, and it would have been an audition, not a regular show."

Inspired by Loizillon's Panamanian mom, the band's moniker is appropriately befuddling for this little, atypical pop band. "Despite the fact that a couple people have shown up at our concerts and wondered why we weren't playing Van Halen songs, it's been a pretty good name," laughs Richmond. "It's fun to say. There's the whole palindrome: a man, a plan, a canal, Panama."

Richmond guesses that, over the years, Panama's played about 100 shows, including opening gigs for Smog, Cat Power, Wayne Kramer, Velocity Girl, the Ass Ponys, the Poster Children and Barbara Manning.

Because of seemingly endless lineup changes -- indie rock regulars Mike Lenert (of Caterpillar), Kara Lafty (Moped, the Jane Anchor) and others enjoyed stints in the band -- Panama has only one CD in its discography. 1999's self-titled disc finally put on record a number of songs Richmond had been playing live over the previous decade.

The band's current, and final, roster with drummer John McInerney and bassist Brenda DeFeo (both Lenert's old bandmates from Caterpillar), recently recorded enough tracks for an as-yet-untitled follow-up CD. Richmond's sure the disc, which is being mixed and mastered now, will eventually see the light of day, even though, you know, there won't be a band to support it.

For the last show, Panama may try to re-create one of its earliest lineups for a song or two with Lafty on drums (her new power-pop quartet The Dirty Triplets is also on the bill) and bassist Mark Zepp, assuming he can fly in from his current residence in Tuscon, Ariz.

Richmond's excited about the move but isn't hesitant to name the things he'll miss about Philly: hanging out at the Philly Record Exchange, seeing friends and friends' bands, his Queen Village apartment. He regrets that he won't be here when the new ballpark opens up, though he does plan on catching a Phillies game there when he comes back to visit.

"I'll miss some of the sort of silly patriotic stuff like hot dogs, apple pie, buffalo wings.... But the French have pretty good food. People say a lot of negative things about the French, but their food's pretty good."

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