The Re-Volts are a band not too many talk about, though they have key members from One Man Army, Dead to Me, and the Swingin’ Utters. Spike from the Swingin’ Utters and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes sings on all the songs. They have only one release, a six song, self-titled EP. It’s hard to find, I got mine at a show. You can get it from Pirate Press Records.
I’ve always enjoyed EPs (as opposed to LPs). Their length discourages experimental conceptual filler, as the band has only a few songs to define itself; no room for crap. However, outside of music enthusiasts EPs receive little attention. This is unfortunate as I feel that many bands strongest work happens on Eps (Sharks, Dead to Me, Against Me!).
The first song, “Piles”, starts out with a laid back drum beat and muted guitars before exploding into the first verse. The band hits some cool lyrical imagery here:
“Your house is in disarray
your future is a tenement of clay
on the one percentile
on the miracle mile
another fleshy fraction talking shit and spitting bile”
The song itself is a unstructured pop masterpiece, an excellent way to begin.
The next song “Scales” kinda has a pogo-space vibe to it, with an ominous outro of “Wars are coming, wars are coming…”. Later on, at track 4, the original version of “Kick It Over” can be heard, which also appeared on the Utter’s “Here, Under Protest” (in a more Beach Boy-ish style). The EP ends with “Runner”, which is a fast-paced outlaw song with a tragic angle.
Anyways, this has never left my iPod, but no-one talks about it. I’m sure in ten years everyone will pretending they loved it from the beginning. Try it. (Re-Volts, if you’re reading, make more.)
1 reply on “Hidden Gems Vol. 382: The Revolts”
[…] think bringing some of this stuff back into the small club show would be cool (as Allie Hughes and the Revolts have done). Stadium shows just seem boring and predictable. They usually end with the band […]