Roman Candle Announce April Tour Dates / Show at Union Hall on April 20th

Nashville indie-rock band Roman Candle just finished up a run of shows at SXSW and they are back on the road this month, playing shows in the Mid-Atlantic and New England. The tour stops at Union Hall in Brooklyn on April 20th and tickets are $10.

The tour kicks off at The Garage in Winston-Salem, NC, on April 13th and wraps up at the Jefferson Theatre in Charlottesville, VA, on April 23rd. Recently Roman Candle has toured with Ravenna Colt - with whom they will play again on the Charlotte and Boone, NC, shows - and Alejandro Escovedo. The band's Louisville, KY, set with Escovedo earned a glowing review from My Old Kentucky Blog, while Atlanta, GA's Creative Loafing wrote of the band in advance of their March show, "Sharp pop hooks blend with indie melodies, distinctive vocals, clever lyrics and an attention to songcraft rare in contemporary music."

Check out Roman Candle's most recent disc, Oh Tall Tree In The Ear (streaming above), which was released last May on Carnival Recording Company.

Roman Candle tour dates:

APR. 13 WINSTON-SALEM, NC -- THE GARAGE (w/The Parson Red Heads)
APR. 14 CHAPEL HILL, NC -- CAT'S CRADLE (w/The Parson Red Heads)
APR. 15 CHARLOTTE, NC -- THE EVENING MUSE (w/Ravenna Colt)
APR. 17 BOONE, NC -- BOONE SALOON (w/Ravenna Colt & Possum Jenkins)
APR. 18 VIENNA, VA -- JAMMIN' JAVA (w/Paper Bird & Tao Seeger Band)
APR. 20 BROOKLYN, NY -- UNION HALL (w/Henry Wolfe)
APR. 22 PHILADELPHIA, PA -- NORTH STAR BAR (w/Roadside Graves)
APR. 23 CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA -- JEFFERSON THEATRE (supporting Sons of Bill)

Singer Skip Matheny, meanwhile, has also been keeping busy with his new interview series for American Songwriter magazine, 'Drinks With...'. The series, which launched in late October with an interview with Wild Beasts, currently features conversations with Alex Turner and Matt Helders (of Arctic Monkeys), Elvis Perkins, Fran Healy (of Travis), Alejandro Escovedo, Brendan Benson and Ashley Monroe, Jason Isbell, and Tom T. Hall.



Links:
Roman Candle's MySpace Profile

Roman Candle Announces January Tour Dates with Alejandro Escovedo

Chapel Hill indie-rock band Roman Candle are back out on the road this month in support of their third album Oh Tall Tree in the Ear. This seven date tour runs through the Southeast and has the band supporting songwriter/roots rocker Alejandro Escovedo. The tour kicks off at the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC on Jan. 15th and wraps up January 23rd at Headliners in Louisville, KY

Roman Candle's newest disc, Oh Tall Tree In The Ear, was released May 12th by Carnival Recording Company. Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus and Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll, the smart, lyrical album is a loose meditation on the connection between music and longing, full of hooks and impassioned vocals (download album track "They Say"). Oh Tall Tree... has been earning the band some of the best reviews of their young career, with USA Today declaring, "...These are simply witty, sturdily built and charming pop/rock tunes that owe their debt to Wilco, The Jayhawks, Ryan Adams, perhaps even My Morning Jacket. That's great company, and these songs should accompany you on summer road trips." Summer is over, but Roman Candle will continue to warm up and keep fans company on these winter dates...

Here are Roman Candle's current tour dates (all with Alejandro Escovedo):

JAN. 15 -- ASHEVILLE, NC -- THE ORANGE PEEL
JAN. 16 -- VIRGINIA BEACH, VA -- JEWISH MOTHER
JAN. 17 -- CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA -- JEFFERSON THEATRE
JAN. 19 -- KNOXVILLE, TN -- THE BIJOU
JAN. 21 -- BIRMINGHAM, AL -- WORKPLAY THEATER
JAN. 22 -- MEMPHIS, TN -- MINGLEWOOD HALL
JAN. 23 -- LOUISVILLE, KY -- HEADLINERS

Links:
Roman Candle's MySpace Profile

Roman Candle Play Mercury Lounge Tomorrow Night, Sept. 10 (Indie Rock/Alt-Country)

DOWNLOAD: Roman Candle - "They Say" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Roman Candle - "Why Modern Radio is OK" (Daytrotter Session)

Chapel Hill, NC indie rock band Roman Candle are playing a show tomorrow night at Mercury Lounge with Wild Beasts.

Roman Candle are currently touring behind their newest disc Oh Tall Tree in the Ear (released this past May) which is the follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2006 Chris Stamey-produced release, The Wee Hours Revue. Oh Tall Tree in the Ear has been getting strong reviews and you have to love Paste Magazine's quote: "Oh Tall Tree in the Ear is part the kind of ragged, sprawling travelogue you'd imagine Paul Westerberg would pen if he was a roadie for Oasis at the height of Britpop, and part barrage of hallucinatory Dylanesque visions vomited up after a boozy, blurry night spent careening down dark, moonlit North Carolina backroads."

Tomorrow night's show is an early show - Roman Candle is listed on the Merc's website as going on at 7:30PM (which probably means 8PM). Cover is $12.

Links:
Roman Candle's MySpace Profile

The dB's (Chris Stamey, Peter Holsapple) - Legal Music Downloads

Everyone knows there is a lot of unauthorized music floating around on the internet. This is the first of a regular feature focusing on legal music downloads.

The dB's are back and played a great sold-out show last month at the Bowery Ballroom.



The band has one of the better website that I have seen and they have posted a number of mp3s to this site.

The earliest recordings posted are 6 songs from a December 1979 show in NYC at the Philospher's Club. This recording was made from the audience by a friend of the band and it sounds great. It is interesting to hear the band during this period as their sound is closer to Fear of Music-era Talking Heads than the Big Star-ish sound of their 1981 debut LP. What also keeps things interesting is that three of the songs from this show are embryonic versions of songs that ended up on Stands for deciBels.

One of the other interesting recordings is an outtake from The Sound of Music sessions from 1987 entitled Rains Around Here. This sounds like a fully produced recording and the song contains a great guitar solo by Gene Holder.

These mp3 are on the Multimedia page of the band's site.

The dB's are supposed to be working on a new CD so this should be something to watch for.