Oxford, Mississippi. Home of the famous blues record label Fat Possum, whose current roster boasts Andrew Bird, The Black Keys, R.L. Burnside, Dinosaur Jr., T. Model Ford and The Fiery Furnaces amongst others, and the Sweet Tea recording studio, previously frequented by artists such as Modest Mouse, Elvis Costello and The Walkmen, and most recently Animal Collective.
Enter new Oxford darlings Colour Revolt.
Colour Revolt, the town's latest export, first started playing together while studying at the University of Missippi, or Ole Miss as it's called. Their 2005 EP, recorded at Esperenza Plantation in Jackson, was well recieved and garnered a lot of attention on the blog circuit. They soon built a steady following with energetic performances and a whole lot of shows, eventually signing to Fat Possum.
Debut album Plunder Beg and Curse is honest, raw and uncompromising. Naked and Red opens the album with a bang, Jesse Coppenbarger’s vocals spilling out onto a canvas of razor-sharp guitars and pounding drums, but the band are just as affecting when they take a more subtle approach, the ambient effects of songs such as Moses of the South and What Will Come of Us providing the perfect backdrop for Coppenbarger’s vivid images of love, loss and religion in the South. On Innocent and All they strike a particularly natural and striking balance between the two styles, with reverb-soaked guitar licks evocative of early Modest Mouse, married to simple yet ambiguous lyrics, sung with the weariness of someone who has become accustomed to the cyclical seasons of love and loss. Plunder Beg and Curse is easy to recommend, and should appeal to anyone who can appreciate honesty over innovation.
Don't Do It caught up with Colour Revolt's new bassist, Patrick Addison, to get the lowdown on the recording and release, as well as to see what else is going on in the great town of Oxford, MS:
DDI You joined the band quite recently, replacing the previous bassist. What was it like having to fill somebody else's spot?
PA I was a little worried at first, because this is a band that has been touring for a while on their own. They all knew each other's styles and had learned to play accordingly. When I jumped in, surprisingly enough, I was able to perform no problem. We actually began rewriting songs and writing new ones. It all happened so fast, but it kind of fit like a glove. We all complemented each other in our playing and it was kind of as if I had been in the band for years and as if I wasn't new at all.
DDI You came in just before the recording of the album, which was recorded at Sweet Tea Studios with Clay Jones, what was that like? How did it feel to get creative in an environment shared by so many other great artists?
PA It was pretty natural working with Clay as well. He is one of our best friends and a guy that we hang out with on a daily basis. We kind of all understand each other and know each other's limits. So when we got into Sweet Tea to begin recording, it was like all of us hanging out, playing music, having fun. There was no real stress involved with that process at all. Clay let us do our thing and pushed for us to do it like that. In the studio, we all kind of fed off of each other and I think that really comes out onto the record. We had a whole lot of fun doing this thing.
DDI Have you had any previous experience with Sweet Tea before doing the album?
PA I actually started out as an Intern at Sweet Tea before landing an actual engineering job there. I probably worked there for 5 months before deciding to continue to pursue school and get a degree before jumping into the music thing.
DDI What was it like working there? Did you get to work on any particularly interesting projects (albums)?
PA It was a very intense, but professional environment. The projects I worked on were a lot of fun and hanging out with the bands were great. I was there for an album by this Australian band, End of Fashion. I also worked on this UK band, The Blueskins, and was present for the mixing of a Fischerspooner single.
DDI What do you think it is about Oxford that makes it such a hotspot for great talent? What do you think makes it different from music scenes elsewhere, and do you think it will ever be succeptible to the 'hype machine' that has picked up on places like Montreal? Do you think it tends to slip under the rader?
PA Oxford is a unique place. It's a small town of about 15,000 people, and it is all centered around the town square. This is where the nightlife takes place. With a town so small, you get to know, or at least recognize, just about everyone. It's this southern hospitality town and that's really where it all begins. Everyone is supportive of everyone else, no matter what your taste. It's like we are all in it together. So as soon as someone starts doing well, everyone teams up and supports that. It is definitely different than other cities and it probably will never get like the scenes of Athens, Austin, or Montreal. But there definitely is something special and unique about the music that comes out of here and there is no real explanation for why other than it's how we were raised. Music is a large part of this community and we are very proud of that.
DDI Who have you seen around town recently?
PA Well with Sweet Tea being such a sought-after studio we get to see a lot of great people around town. Since I've lived in Oxford we have seen Elvis Costello, Modest Mouse, The Walkmen, The Hives, and most recently Animal Collective and Ben Folds.
DDI The band garnered a respectable amount of label interest following your performance at SXSW last year, what was it exactly that swayed the group's decision to go with Fat Possum in the end?
PA It was kind of interesting because we were sitting there talking to our lawyer about possible labels and stuff, and someone, I think it was Clay Jones, said, "what about Fat Possum?" It just kind of clicked all of a sudden. They are located 15 minutes down the road and we all kind of knew a lot of the guys who work there anyway, from classes or from around town. We brought them a CD with our demos and they were immediately excited about it. Even though we dragged out the process for a pretty long time with our confirmation, we really had kind of decided that day that we would be going with Fat Possum.
DDI Between college deadlines, classes and other commitments, the band has managed to play quite a lot of cities across the states recently, was this your first experience going on tour, personally? What did you learn from this experience?
PA My first tour with Colour Revolt was going to SXSW in 2007. It was interesting because we had all our stuff, van and trailer included, stolen in Dallas, TX. That brought us all together pretty quickly. But yeah, since joining the band over a year ago now, I've probably played somewhere around 200 shows or more with them. I had not toured a whole lot before Colour Revolt. I did a lot of studio work in Mississippi and Nashville and played some out of town shows with some other bands, but never extensive like this. I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to take the new transition, but I really love it. I love driving and seeing places. It is definitely exhausting at times, but you are doing what you love to do, and thats play music in front of people every night. It's been a really great experience and I hope that it gets to last for a long time.
DDI You're about to go out on a two week support slot with The Breeders, that must be exciting, are you looking forward to it?
PA Very much so. I mean, it's the fucking Breeders. How the hell did that work out? We don't know, but we are stoked about it. Should be a whole lot of fun. We can't wait to get out there.
DDI Any plans to come over to Europe?
PA We definitely plan to, just have nothing set in stone quite yet. The record is released in UK on April 7, so that is the first step. Hope that goes well and we'll see what we can do to get there as fast as we can.
Colour Revolt - Matresses Underwater
