West Of Rome – Movement In Your Picture: 13th Floor New Song Of The Day!
Texas-based indie rock band West of Rome has released its new single,Movement in Your Picture! It is from the forthcoming album, Keep It Fly in the Negative Zone (out January 31, 2025). Recommended if you like: The Tragically Hip, The Hold Steady, Roky Erickson, Vic Chesnutt.
Here’s the blurb with more:
About the song: “Remember that hidden envelope full of forbidden love you stashed in the unread novel from the seminar you dropped to go out on tour? More importantly, does she remember? Probably not. “It’s about eternal questions that still resonate,” says West of Rome singer Kevin Higginbotham.
“… a true standout. The song is a swaggering work of alt-country that balances poignant lyricism and big rock and roll energy. There is a feisty edge to the vocals and lyrics that dwell on the theme of forbidden love. We also get a healthy dose of guitar shredding to really up the energy of this stomping rocker, which is reminiscent of the Drive-by Truckers’ Mike Cooley tunes.” – Glide Magazine
About the band:
South Texas-based indie-rock band West of Rome is set to release its debut album, Keep It Fly in the Negative Zone, independently on January 31, 2025. A group of lifelong friends, the band members, who have all performed in a variety of Texas bands over the years, came together in 2019 at the crossroads of pandemic lockdowns, deranged governments, and a superheated climate. Not easily intimidated, musicians Blake Smithson (bass), brothers Charlie and Jamie Roadman (guitar and drums, respectively), and singer Kevin Higginbotham dug deep looking for the sweet relief of the true grand commons: great songs that can lift us out of the rut.
“Keep it Fly in the Negative Zone is a love letter to misspent youth and a survival guide for difficult times,” says Higginbotham. “It combines our love of vintage gear with modern abandon; our analog obsessions were recorded live for transmission into a digital world.”
With nine new songs recorded over two years, Keep It Fly in the Negative Zone features all new tracks and a grudgingly positive attitude. “Movement in Your Picture,” the single, will be released on November 15, 2024. The song will premiere earlier that week at Glide Magazine. Remember that hidden envelope full of forbidden love you stashed in the unread novel from the seminar you dropped to go out on tour? More importantly, does she remember? Probably not. “It’s about eternal questions that still resonate,” says Higginbotham.
Other tracks pay homage to the eternal kindness of Elliott Smith (“New Hieroglyphic”), getting shot down after a Trans-Atlantic flight to Turkey (“Like the Romans”), a blurry travelogue from an unstable narrator (“Cruising Altitude”), the scars of American violence (“Face the Beast”), Roky Erickson-inspired hallucinations (“Take a Ride with the Evil One”), and the titular track begging for a pimped out ’87 Buick to pick us up and get us the hell out of here. Recorded at Ramble Creek Recording Studio in Austin, Texas, the album was produced by the band and engineered and mixed by Britton Beisenherz (who also played piano on two of the tracks).
The members of West of Rome drew inspiration and comfort from so many musical heroes and even a few ghosts looking for relief in the South Texas heat: Vic Chesnutt playing his last show at Central Presbyterian church; Roky Erickson asking “Please Judge” at the Paramount Theatre; Cat Power elevating “Metal Heart” right through the soul of Red River in Austin; Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip at La Zona Rosa just months before developers tore it down; and, of course, the wellspring, Ram down at Taco Land in San Antonio.
The four members of West of Rome had all collaborated in the past in different bands and combinations. Jamie and Charlie Roadman had worked with Higginbotham in the San Antonio alt-rock band Evergreen. The band recorded several albums under various names, toured throughout the region, and opened for notable national acts such as The Tragically Hip, Fugazi, and Blonde Redhead. Smithson was a veteran of Coyote Dreams, and it was while on tour with that band that he met the members of Evergreen (who would later become his West of Rome bandmates), initially collaborating with them in The Unables, a just-for-fun cooperative of San Antonio musicians with a rotating cast. Over the years, members of West of Rome also performed in The Mechanical Walking Robotboy (Jamie Roadman), Buttercup (Jamie Roadman), S.T.E.V.E. (Charlie Roadman), Torrejon (Charlie and Jamie Roadman), The Paisleys (Blake Smithson), The Mescaleros (Jamie Roadman), and Hondo Radar (Blake Smithson).
West of Rome is planning an album release show on Saturday, February 1, 2025, at The Lonesome Rose in San Antonio, TX. Tickets are available here: https://www.prekindle.com/event/87134-west-of-rome-album-release-and-new-attractions-and-the-please-help-san-antonio.
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