Colour Revolt: Colour Revolt EP

Colour Revolt, a new band out of Oxford, Mississippi, get a re-release of their debut EP through Tiny Evil after a limited release at the end of last year. Three guitars make for some squeal, and the band pushes the distortion as far as post-grunge can go; they don’t sound so much Modest Mouse as cracked-out U2 wannabes. You can take it the EP is not worth investing a great deal of time in; the trouble is that the band seems always impatient to get from a perfectly pleasant guitar-rock place to a rawer, more ugly sound. Singer Jesse Coppenbarger doesn’t have a bad voice, but he insists on shredding it, howling with a kind of Gothic intensity that isn’t supported by the plodding guitar background. The tunes never seem to go anywhere: “Blood in Your Mouth”, a paint-by-numbers crescendo, is all faux-polite as Coppenbarger declares “I disagree.” Each second of calm belies an emergent eruption; and the lyrics, while no doubt heartfelt, fail to resonate: “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust / We’re all gonna die so we have to trust.” If you never hear this, you’re not missing much.