Enter hardcore quintet Colour Revolt from Oxford, Miss., that has been filling in the shoes rock and roll left behind since 2006.
Colour Revolt, currently comprised of vocalist Jesse Coppenbarger, guitarist Sean Kirkpatrick, keyboardist Brooks Tipton, drummer Patrick Ryan and bassist Luke White, has undergone its fair share of switch-ups and rotations since the release of its first EP in 2006. From name to lineup changes, the Colour Revolt sound has aged well in the past few years, refining its image while maintaining the same edge that placed the members on tours alongside other well-known names in the business like Dinosaur Jr. and The Breeders.
“The players may have shifted, but the sound really hasn’t,” said frontman Coppenbarger. “We’ve gotten older, but our music is still loud, electric guitar rock that’s both melody and harmony focused. Whereas some of our old stuff would start manic and then break down into something more soft, our new tracks are more consistently heavy, and the softness is mixed in more appropriately, so you can really hear it in the song.”
As for their new album, “The Cradle,” which was released in August of 2010 , Coppenbarger said a lot of the material stemmed from 2008, when both the original bassist and guitarist left the band after the tour ended. Coppenbarger and Kirkpatrick spent much of 2009 writing new songs for the album in a completely different way, relying more on piano and delicate acoustics mixing with heavy guitar and throbbing drums instead of the usual punk sound.
“A band like ours is like a small business. So when people leave, you feel a little abandoned, and a lot of the new album was venting about that situation,” Coppenbarger said. “It was a lot easier to write and record this album because it was just me and Sean instead of five brains standing around with the amps turned up.”
Sean Kirkpatrick, guitarist of Colour Revolt, co-wrote the band’s new album, “The Cradle,” released in August of 2010. Courtesy of colourrevolt.net
Colour Revolt is also unique in the fact it can slip into several genres without looking like it’s trying on something simply too big or too small. Coppenbarger named old folk singers as well as female songwriters and new metal bands among his favorite influences. And although the band plays around with gentler melodies on “Cradle,” he said punk and heavy metal will always have his heart.
“When I was growing up, I listened to nothing but hardcore music,” he said. “So it’s in my blood to be loud and fast, but I also like being sweet and soft as well.”
As Coppenbarger said, they like to go back and forth between their trademark manic energy (complete with smashing around the stage) to a more relaxed set.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel with rock music, but the world’s not run by rock anymore; it’s run by rap and pop,” he said. “You have to adapt, or you can’t survive. So when we do a live show, if I can see even just three people bobbing their head or singing along in the audience, it really means something, especially if we’re in a city we’ve never played in before.”
Colour Revolt will play tonight at New Brookland Tavern with Austin Crane and Junior Astronomers. Tickets are $10.
