Written by: Alex Green

The Palma Violets are one of the most exciting bands of the last five years.

Correction: The Palma Violets were one of the most exciting bands of the last five years.

At least that’s how it seems.

Let’s back up, shall we?

Over the course of two albums–2013’s 180 and 2015’s Danger In The Club–their scruffy blend of 60’s garage rock and fiery post-punk has generated comparisons to everyone from The Who to The Small Faces to The Vaccines. Before ever signing a record deal The Lambeth four-piece had amassed a sizable fan-base due to their adrenalized and frenetic live shows, which started to appear all over YouTube. At an early gig SEM’s own Leif Gaslow compared them to The Replacements, beaming, “This is the houseband of the apocalypse and this is the sound of the feral future.”

After inking a deal with Rough Trade, the band’s debut went Top 20 in the UK and yielded the singles “Step Up For The Cool Cats” and “Best Of Friends,” the latter being named song of the year by the NME.

Although their John Leckie-produced sophomore album didn’t land as solidly as their debut, it was a fine record, played with velocity and heart. A frenzied blend of psychedelia, searing ’70s rock and rabid mod stomp, Danger In The Club was a dark, but decidedly energizing affair.

Singer Samuel Thomas Fryer and bassist Alexander Chilli Jesson might very well be the Strummer/Jones of their era, their sonic one-two punch a refreshing blast of pure punky swagger and rock and roll bliss that surely will yield an extensive discography.

So why are we worried?

Well, we weren’t until this week.

Fans of the band have been openly lamenting on Twitter that The Palma Violets are no more.

Tweet after tweet have been posted, announcing heartbreak over their demise.

Although it’s unclear as to why all this activity regarding their existence came into play this week, it appears someone heard something and told someone who posted it somewhere and the rest is a social media snowball that may or may not have any validity at all.

However.

It just might.

The band’s last recorded output was a Christmas single called “Last Christmas On Planet Earth” that was released in 2015 and since then, they’ve gone mostly radio silent. There’s been no social media postings since May and those last dispatches also coincided with the last shows they played as well.

In total, the band has only posted on Facebook seven times for the entirety of 2016.

And two of those were in January.

But a paucity of social media activity may mean nothing, yet in an age where it seems to mean everything, the Palma Violets’ vanishing act is concerning.

No gigs, no posts, no sightings.

Poof.

When the NME contacted Rough Trade earlier this week for a comment, the label responded with, “Honestly no one knows.”

Not good. Not good at all.