It shouldn’t have come as such a surprise, but as it turns out Lee Noble’s old band was fucking incredible. Also featuring Trabajo’s TJ Richards, as well as No Kings cohort Stephen Molyneux as members of the quartet, I guess the really surprising thing about this is to find that Poet Named Revolver was, interestingly enough, a pretty straight-forward guitar/bass/drums indie rock kind of combo. Of course, it was their experimental tendencies that made these guys so much more interesting than so many other players in the game around that time… and listening through these fantastically composed and executed songs, it’s also a surprise that this band didn’t exactly take off. Meets Gruesome, their sole album, is an earnest, heartfelt collection of rockers that bleed with sincerity. It’s full of clever song structures, pivoting sections that gallop over quick-tempo ragers and sweep across light, heart-breaking balladry, all with a nimble ease, a master of its own obstacle course. There’s a bit of a folk-bent here with help from some banjo, accordion, and harmonica arrangements peppered about, but the tendency to include these textures doesn’t minimize the electric power that runs through this record’s coarse veins. And for as big and bold as those chords strum, and as hard as those drums persistently pound, the band also maintains a thin, lean musical frame, which is the perfect construct to house the singer’s voice. Not sure which member specifically it is who’s crooning here (and it may be that different tracks on the album feature different voices), but each tune is sung with the quaking tenor of a young Isaac Brock, pretty and perfectly in tune for the softies, and appropriately hoarse when barking out over a particularly rowdy chorus.
This album was originally released on cassette by Nailbat Tapes back in 2008, and this new edition of 50 copies is criminally meager. Sorry to review a sold-out release, everyone (especially since it’s such a crusher record)… but I felt like I just had to get some words down on this one. Check your favorite distros, or heck, buy the digital record from the band, and godspeed!
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