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It's A Southern Thing For Revolt

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By CURTIS ROSS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 5, 2008

A friend in need is a friend online - maybe one you've never seen.

Oxford, Miss., quintet Colour Revolt had all its gear ripped off while on tour last year, a sadly common occurrence for bands.

They were more fortunate than many. Almost all of the equipment turned up in a Dallas area pawn shop, from which the band had to buy it back.

More heartening, though, was the show of support the band got from fans far and wide.

"There were lots of people online who sent us money," drummer Len Clark says by telephone while traveling between tour stops in Austin and Houston.

"I'd get phone calls from some guy in Maine or Nevada saying, 'Hey, man, I have a floor tom. Where should I send it?' We didn't know any of them," Clark says.

"It was a very humbling thing," Clark says. "We had no clue that so many people liked our band. I'm not saying there's a ton but they're all over the place."

Credit the Revolt's powerful music, turbulent but melodic rock that has drawn comparisons to Modest Mouse. It's captured on 2006's eponymous EP, and this year's full-length "Plunder, Beg and Curse."

The band members all hail from Jackson, Miss., and have known each other since junior high school.

Creating the band's music can be fractious, Clark says.

Songwriting often starts with singer-guitarist Jesse Coppenbarger or guitarist Sean Kirkpatrick bringing in a riff. Then the fireworks begin.

"Sometimes it falls together quickly," Clark says. Other times, though, "we'll play a riff forever and argue forever.

"We're all strong willed, I guess," Clark says of himself and his band mates, who also include guitarist Jimmy Cajoleas and bassist Drew Mellon.

"We have a lot of different ideas so it kind of takes a lot of time," Clark says. "Our philosophy is you write something and you have to love it, then you mess it up and love it again.

"It's like the layering process. Great paintings sometimes have all these paintings underneath. It's like scars," Clark says.

That's an apt metaphor for Clark, who just graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in printmaking.

The rest of the band members were students at Old Miss as well. All five finished studies early in order to hit the road with The Breeders in April.

Coppenbarger writes the Colour Revolt's sometimes elliptical lyrics. Many concern the relationship between spirituality and the South.

"People who aren't from the South don't understand how entwined religion and culture are," Clark says. "In the South, it really doesn't matter if you love God or hate him. You still think in his terms."

It's one of the aspects that makes Southern culture - and Southern music - unique.

"When you're in the South you don't think twice about the link between religion and everyday life," Clark says. "I didn't notice it until we started touring and began realizing people don't do that everywhere. A lot of things seem really specific to that part of the country."

ON TOUR

Colour Revolt

WITH: History and Mouse Fire

WHEN: 7 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Orpheum, 1902 Avenida Republica de Cuba, Ybor City; (813) 248-9500

COST: $8

Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com.

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