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AARON DOVE
M aybe if the guys in Radiohead
were from Oxford, MS instead
of Oxford, England, The Bends
would have sounded a bit more
like Colour Revolt. The Mississippi band's
last release, Plunder, Beg and Curse, made
Flagpole's best of 2008 list and it showcased
vast growth, if not a total departure, from the
band's more aggressive debut EP. With dark
strands of Southern gothic imagery and reli
gious disillusionment woven into pummeling
rock songs that swing from beautiful to cha
otic, Colour Revolt works with a broad palette
of dense textures.
But a lot has changed for the band since
the release of Plunder, Beg and Curse. In
January the band was hit with a double
gut punch when two bandmembers quit on
the same day. Bassist Patrick Addison was
absorbed into the staff of the band's label, Fat
Possum, as a full-time employee while guitar
ist Jimmy Cajoles decided to pursue a gradu
ate degree in creative writing. It was a big
hit for the five-piece to be whittled down to
three, and guitarist Sean Kirkpatrick says it's
been a challenging but rewarding change.
"You'd think it would be easier to commu
nicate with just three people instead of five,
but we had been such a complete organism
as five people that we understood and sort
of expected a voice from Jimmy or Patrick,"
he says. "In a way, you now have to be more
bold in what you want to do because you
don't have as many checks and balances in the
group."
Still, Kirkpatrick admits that writing parts
for three guitarists sometimes felt like over
kill. While the band has picked up Robert
Chisolm on bass, he says they've decided to
stick with just two guitar players.
"[In the past] it was almost like you didn't
want to leave someone out, and I think Jimmy
said it himself—he'd say, You know, I don't
need to play here and I feel like I am playing
just so I can do something.' Jimmy had great
parts, but I think at some points he was like,
1 don't feel like it's a necessity for me to be
in every song...'"
So, the band went about deconstructing all
their songs and putting them back together,
leaving only the most essential bits and reas
signing Cajoles' parts when necessary. So far,
the results have been promising.
"We've gotten a lot of positive feedback
from local shows. They can hear all the parts
more now, it's less of a wall of sound; people
have said that it sounds really good, so I'm
happy about that... For the most part, the
harmonies are still there and most of the gui
tar parts are there. Len [Clark] is still playing
great drums."
Kirkpatrick says that the new material
Colour Revolt is working on is most similar
to fan favorite "Moses of the South" off their
last record. That song is probably the most
beautiful and accessible on the record, and
Kirkpatrick is excited by the band's more
streamlined, melodic direction.
"We all love Sonic Youth, but I think we're
going to let Sonic Youth be Sonic Youth a
little bit and do our own thing. The new mate
rial is less dark, I would say, than Plunder, Beg
and Curse... it's a little more pretty."
As for the band's relationship with the
estranged members, Kirkpatrick says the split
has been amicable if awkward at times, par
ticularly with Addison continuing to represent
the band at the label despite no longer being
a member. However, it's a job that Kirkpatrick
recognizes his former bandmate is well suited
for.
"I guess [Fat Possum] liked how he ran
things. He ran things with our band as well
and I think that translated well with the label.
They've been expanding and things have been
going well for them, and I think Patrick has a
lot to do with that."
Ironically, the stress and responsibility that
Addison undertook as de facto band manager
may have contributed to his departure, an
important lesson for young bands to learn
about delegation.
"Patrick did a lot for us," says Kirkpatrick.
"We had to take a lot of his contacts, the files
that he had, and learn how to do things on
our own. It's funny how much responsibility
was on him, and I think that may have been
pressure on him as well, probably a little bit
too much. I think we now have a full under
standing of what the band is, our expenses,
our contacts, who Patrick had been talking
to... jobs have been dispersed among the band
equally and it's a lot better. Nobody feels like
they are pulling the heavier load. I wish we
had done that when Patrick was in the band,
but you know, sometimes it takes a minor
tragedy for you to reexamine what you do."
Having reworked both their sound and their
organization for maximum efficiency, Colour
Revolt is set to head back into the studio
soon, and maybe that next release will make it
to the top of our year-end list once again.
Michelle Gilzenrat
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