If anyone’s going to be unhappy to see the Libertines reform, it’s south London’s Palma Violets. Since their 2012 debut single Best of Friends they’ve carved a celebrated career as the surrogate Libs.
They have the same record label, the same brotherly onstage affinity between bassist Chilli Jesson and singer Sam Fryer and the same Christian Grey-ish way with antique styles, taking barbed paddles to glam, country, northern soul and primeval rock’n’roll. Chilli pinballs around the stage with the manic energy of Carl Barat and Sam has perfected his Doherty drawl and heroin-fop gait. All they’re missing is the homoerotic frisson and tragic post-rehab pastiness.
Their raucous racket – these songs don’t finish, they disintegrate – might sound like the clamorous poltergeist of 2003, but the devotion they inspire feels utterly relevant. Ever since the indie landfill was fenced off for our own protection around 2010, alternative gigs have largely involved either barrages of psych gloom or Nathan Barley types with laptops trying to be Otis Redding.
So when Palma Violets emerge, gang-chanting Rattlesnake Highway, they’re met with relieved abandon, as though a half-decade ban on publicly enjoying guitar music has been lifted.
The Palmas’ approach encourages familiarity. Their songs are peopled by larger-than-life characters like the rockabilly Tom the Drum and Johnny Bagga’ Donuts who, from the sound of it, works the waltzers at a haunted funfair. Best of Friends has become a modern anthem of comradeship, despite actually being about a serial friend-zoner.
And beneath the surface garage clatter and bouts of baboon howling, they’re a tight tribute to our shared musical heritage: Danger in the Club, the title track of their scrappy second album, is a Doorsy rewrite of London Calling that includes a hit-and-run solo from a mystery harmonica player; Girl, You Couldn’t Do Much Better on the Beach could be a Buddy Holly gig in a warzone; 14 is a ragged and ruined gospel country finale. It’s sharp, retro-modern chaos – the Libertines should freshen up their game.
