Poet Named Revolver – Meets Gruesome
4.18.14 by Ian Franklin

The newest release from No Kings Records, the labels 50th, is “Meets Gruesome” from Poet Named Revolver, a band consisting of Steve Molyneux, Lee Noble, TJ Richards, and Caleb Steelman. A band since broken up but survived in this reissue of sorts from a batch of 50 that came out on Nailbat in 2008. No Kings gives it a fresh facelift with a pro-dubbed edition of 100 imprinted tapes with 2-color risograph printing and hand painted flourishes providing an excellent visual accompaniment. More on that later.

These jams are so good. Just want to get that out of the way first. I wouldn’t know how to categorize these tunes in a way that would have people nodding in confirmation and connecting the musical frames of reference of my insider knowledge; cause I don’t have that knowledge. But what I do know is that this is an excellent collection of loose but finely structured outpourings of emotion. Occupying a back-road ease and stripped down instrumentation these Appalachian infused, mathy folk, country hand dipped tunes bristle and shine with forlorn exuberance. Like admiring the beautifully sunny day slowly passing away from you. A red sun setting through the dense recollections of the day’s disappointments.

The main instruments suggest a somewhat traditional setup with guitars, bass, and drums but also include flashes of banjo and mandolin, multiple textures of electric guitar, harmonica, accordion, and screaming voices. Vocal harmonies emerge at the most satisfactory times. Rhythm changes develop naturally and spontaneously bloom into longer passages of post-rock type voyaging, eventually reducing back to the common theme of slow and staggering mid-tempo bounce. These songs are catchy in a sticks to your ribs kind of way.

Now to the packaging and artwork. This is the first No Kings release I’ve owned personally but I’ve seen and admired their artwork for a long time. I can only assume for others as well but they really hit a home run with “Meets Gruesome”. Printed with 2 color risograph, a method that uses different ink than a traditional copier and makes use of a master stencil which is rolled onto pages at a very fast rate, the j-card feels like no other one I’ve seen. Blue hazy photos of the band are laid out in perfect balance to the blue text, all with a background of pink dots. Topped of with a hand painted gouache orange circle, the total attention to detail does not go unnoticed. They even included a separate thank you card with the same orange gouache from the cover; an A+ in my book.

Stream tracks below and grab the tape from No Kings and get lost in your mid-afternoon reveries.