• Artist website: www.colourrevolt.com
• Listen at: www.myspace.com/colourrevolt
• Available on: Amazon MP3 (Avail. 4/1/2008), eMusic

Yesterday I wrote about a British group who sounds like they’re from the Midwest. Today I’ve got US band who thinks they’re from the UK. Or at least spells like it. Colour Revolt is a five-piece band out of Oxford, Mississippi. The eccentric spelling came about because the band took the name from Edwin Abbott’s Flatland, a social satire of Victorian England. This is now officially my favorite back-story for the naming of a band.

Plunder, Beg, and Curse is the first full-length album from Colour Revolt, following their decidedly excellent self-titled EP. The band writes bluesy indie-rock and Plunder, Beg, and Curse has the same laid back, low fidelity feel to it as the best Delta blues music. The sound is heavy on guitars and gravelly, crooning vocals. Colour Revolt band cranks up the intensity a bit on a few songs (”Swamp”), but the album is at its best on the slower numbers. The lyrics are intelligent (you’d expect that from a band whose name comes from a 19th century satire), relatively accessible, and focus on larger themes. Lead singer Jesse Coppenbarger’s delivery is wonderfully nuanced and equally convincing when channeling Old South blues and the band’s hard rock influences.

Standout tracks are “Elegant View,” “Moses of the South” and “Innocent and All.”