Colour Revolt
w/ All Get Out, Steven Fiore & The Good People, Josh Moore
Tues. July 15
8 p.m.
$10, $8/advance
Music Farm
32 Ann St.
(843) 853-3276
www.musicfarm.com
www.myspace.com/colourrevolt
“Elegant View”
Audio File
The connection between Colour Revolt and England might have something vaguely to do with the relationship between their home base and the country. The north Mississippi college town of Oxford was named after the English university, after all. But that claim is far too simple and tidy — even though the band takes its name from a 19th-century mathematical satire and religious allegory titled Flatland by Edwin Abbott, an English schoolmaster and theologian.
The young quintet evolved from a much more tangled upbringing — and their grandiose and guitar-heavy alt-rock style derives from much more than a mash-up of Faulkner/Grisham literature and Beatles/Oasis-meets-U2 Britpop/Eurorock or whatever … it is tempting to define the band in such a fun manner, though.
Still, elements of the band’s rustic Bible Belt upbringing and U.K. rock leanings are evident in the powerful music of their impressive new album Plunder, Beg, and Curse. Dense, well-orchestrated, and delicately unsettling, the 10-song collection was just released in April on the usually bluesy Fat Possum label — home to many peculiar Southern artists.
“We get a lot of crap sometimes from people for being from the South,” says Jimmy Cajoleas, one of Colour Revolt’s three guitarists. “It’s always people outside of the South who seem to be upset that we aren’t more redneck. It’s weird. I think there’s definitely a Southern element to the music — like the way we play guitars. It’s a very uniquely Southern thing … the slow-grooving rhythms and being slightly out of tune. We’re certainly not the Black Keys or anything.”
Cajoleas, drummer Len Clark, bassist Patrick Addison, and two co-frontmen — singer/guitarist/keyboardists Jesse Coppenbarger and Sean Kirkpatrick — headline a four-band bill at the Music Farm this Tuesday in support of the new album.
“In the last two years, we’ve probably played 300 shows, so they kind of run together,” says Cajoleas, trying to remember if he and his bandmates ever made it to Charleston behind their previous release. That self-titled EP that was less bombastic and more atmospheric than the latest release, which was tracked at Sweet Tea studios in Oxford with friend and musical advisor Clay Jones at the helm.
Leading up to the sessions for Plunder, Beg, and Curse, someone stole the band’s entire van, trailer, and all the equipment in them — including an old piano that was utilized in much of the material.
“This album kind of took shape out of necessity since we lost the piano,” says Cajoleas. “We didn’t have access to one, so we had to make do. We recorded the whole album pretty much live over a week and a half. There’s an urgency to it.”
There’s a mysterious tension across the music and lyrics in the album as well, from the texture between the guitars and the unusual vocal harmonies of lead-off tune “Naked and Red” (with those Larry Mullen-style 16th notes on the snare) through the hippie-funk beats of “Swamp” and the whispery prom-waltz vibe of “Moses of the South.” One of the strongest tracks, “Elegant View,” demonstrates the dynamic guitar interplay and quiet/loud arrangements, with some moments sounding almost as thunderous and shouty as something The Melvins or Jucifer might attempt.
“Sean and Jesse have drastically different tones of voice,” says Cajoleas. “Sean’s voice is this gorgeous, ghostly thing, and Jesse’s is a hoarse, gravelly thing. Together they set a mood. And all three of us guitarists have drastically different styles of playing, too, so there’s a conflict there, but we also play off of each other really well.”
Coppenbarger and Kirkpatrick sing, growl, and holler about their own surreal spiritual mindsets, with lyrical references to prophets, primitive sounds, gravesites, Easter morning, and hearts in bloom. Religious imagery and elements of traditional church culture permeate every song.
“There is a lot of God-talk, which may alienate some people,” Cajoleas says. “It’s kind of a vocabulary thing, whether or not you believe in God. The vocabulary of the church is in the way people talk around here, so a lot of the religious allusions come from that. It’s like unpacking some of the garbage you’ve been fed about it. There’s a lot of religious confusion and family conflict down here. I think that conflict is in the music. It’s an old times/new times conflict, and, a lot of times, a God conflict.”
More of a unique blend than a troubled contradiction, Plunder, Beg, and Curse works well as a fully-realized, fluid, and bombastic modern-rock album.
“Neutral Milk Hotel was one of my favorite bands and I consider their In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as one of the quintessential Southern records because it’s about love and God and sex and death — all those things,” Cajoleas adds. “To me, it’s a very Southern record, maybe not at first glance … I hope that we are following in that tradition.”
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