Los Angeles – After breaking out in a major way with their rowdy, pub-rock-indebted 2013 debut 180, Palma Violets did what any young buzz band would do: they spent the subsequent months on the road, connecting with old fans and winning over new ones, garnering a reputation for a rowdy live show. After all that time on the road, the members naturally sought a getaway that would allow them to recharge their batteries and to begin the process of writing and recording their follow-up. While the band was in no danger of breaking up, their previously rock-solid relationships had grown a bit strained after so much time together on the road.

What was intended to be a brief weekend respite in the countryside of Wales eventually turned into a month-long writing session, with the result being the 13 songs heard on Danger In The Club. Released this week on Rough Trade Records, Palma Violets show a more mature version of themselves; while they are still the same boozy, fun-loving Brit-rockers that they showcased on 180, their songwriting and composition skills have noticeably grown.

180 mainly stayed in a single, frenetic gear that pummeled its audience with sheer aggression and youthful swagger. For their sophomore album, the band has made a point of changing the pace throughout its running length, a product of principle songwriters Samuel Fryer’s (guitar) and Chilli Jesson’s (bass) blossoming songsmith skills. For every raucous number such as “Hollywood (I Got It)” or “Girl, You Couldn’t Do Much Better (On The Beach)” that recalls their earliest work, there is a “The Jacket Song” or “Coming Over to My Place” which show a more nuanced approach to the band’s signature sound.

It is fitting that the first single, “Danger In The Club,” shares a title with the album, because in many ways it is a microcosm of the band’s added diversity. It begins with a loping guitar riff and a vintage keyboard line before breaking into a shout-along chorus, and then shifts into an even faster-paced passage that is replete with a harmonica and chanted vocals – all pretty standard stuff for Palma Violets. However, as the song hits its final half-minute, it transitions into a pretty, moody mid-tempo guitar riff. While these may seem like small tweaks to their sound, the effect is an album that has better replay value than 180.

Some of this growth in musicianship can be attributed to the guiding hand of legendary British producer John Leckie. Best known for his work with The Stone Roses and XTC, he teased out some of the intricacies in Palma Violets’ sound, guiding them along the path towards separating themselves from their British garage rock contemporaries. Though the band is led by colorful co-vocalists Fryer and Jesson, Palma Violets’ real secret weapon is keyboardist Jeffrey Mayhew. His soulful, psych-tinged keyboard lines add rich layers of sound that fill in the gaps between his bandmates’ chunky guitar lines and William Martin Doyle’s drumming.

Second single “English Tongue” sees Mayhew supplementing his keyboards with traditional piano lines that recall American bar-band rock that The Hold Steady perfected with Boys And Girls In America. The boys got a brief taste of the United States with their short Stateside tour in 2015, and Danger In The Club reveals the band’s interest in the vast nation that lies across the Atlantic. From the initial line of the album’s first proper song – “I got Hollywood in my bones” – through “Secrets of America” and the previously mentioned “English Tongue,” the band shows both a fascination with the American cultural machine as well as an acute awareness of their own “British-ness.”

Palma Violets are heading back to the United States for another tour through May and June and then head home to the United Kingdom for several festivals. To learn more about these shows and to purchase tickets, visit the band’s website.

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Publishers Note: Occasionally even amazing, world-class, publishers (that would be me) screw up and assign the same review to two writers. Both reviews are so well done that both deserve to see the light of day. So, we are now publishing two reviews of the same album simultaneously. Enjoy.

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Matt Matasci

Perhaps it was years of listening to the eclectic and eccentric programming of KPIG-FM with his dad while growing up on the Central Coast of California, but Matt Matasci has always rebuffed mainstream music while seeking unique and under-the-radar artists.Like so many other Californian teenagers in the 90s and 00s, he first started exploring the alternative music world through Fat Wreck Chords skate-punk.This simplistic preference eventually matured into a more diverse range of tastes - from the spastic SST punk of Minutemen to the somber folk-tales of Damien Jurado, and even pulverizing hardcore from bands like Converge.He graduated from California Lutheran University with a BA in journalism.Matt enjoys spending his free time getting angry at the Carolina Panthers, digging through the dollar bin at Amoeba, and taking his baby daughter to see the Allah-Lahs at the Santa Monica Pier.

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