Nashville, Tennessee
Band

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"hang the blessed dj"

BIOGRAPHY

Indie pop/rock outfit Roman Candle began playing in Chapel Hill, N.C. in 1997, where the the Mathenys (brothers Skip and Logan Matheny, and Skip's wife Timshel) attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Not long after they began writing and recording songs on weekends in their parents' Wilkesboro, N.C. basement (130 miles west of Chapel Hill).

Having heard their demo recordings on garageband.com, then-Denver Broncos defensive end Trevor Pryce signed Roman Candle to a record deal in 2001. Their debut, Says Pop, was released in 2002.

The band toured across the U.S. in support of Says Pop, gathering a fervent fan base, and found themselves gracing the pages of Rolling Stone, as Chapel Hill's "darling" band on the rise. During this time they met producer Chris Stamey (The db's, Yo la Tengo, Ryan Adams, R.E.M.), and signed to Hollywood Records' fledging college music division (The Polyphonic Spree, Patrick Park). Hollywood recruited Stamey to rework Says Pop for a major label release, re-titled as The Wee Hours Revue in 2003. However, Hollywood, uncertain about the college division, decided to shelve Roman Candle's album for two years.

During this time the band continued to tour, write and record and became a part of Chris Stamey's "mod squad," a famed group of studio/touring musicians associated with Stamey, Modern Recording. Roman Candle members toured in support of Stamey's records A Question of Temperature (with Yo la Tengo) and Travels in the South.

Also during this time the band was discovered by famed BBC disk jockey Bob Harris and invited to play multiple times on BBC Radio 2.

In 2006 V2 Records bought The Wee Hours Revue masters from Hollywood and released the record to widespread acclaim. The band toured throughout 2006 in support of the record, including tours with The Whigs, The Avett Brothers, Rufus Wainwright, Patty Smith, Bird Monster and Aimee Mann and a date at Radio City Music Hall.

The band is currently recording their follow up LP, Oh Tall Tree in the Ear. The title comes from Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnet's to Orpheus.

LEVEL

professional

GENRES

Appalachian/Mountain, Indie Rock

PUBLISHING COMPANY

Carnival Music, independent publishing company

Contact

Publishing: Carnival Music - cgregg@carnivalmusic.net
Label: Carnival Music - cgregg@carnivalmusic.net
Booking: Creative Artists Agency- bcory@caa.com and bphillips@caa.com
Administrative: skip matheny

P.R.O.

ASCAP

I AM INTERESTED IN

in pitching songs to tv

I WRITE:

For a living

I Also Write:
by myself
with others
for myself
for others

I Prefer To Write:
lyrics
melody
music

experience >

SONG CUTS

"Waiting on June" recorded by Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell on their "Begonias" record (2004)

AWARDS & ACCOLADES

PITCHFORK MEDIA: 7.6 "...These sharp compositional choices are also manifest in Matheny's finely-drawn lyrics-- they create specific senses of place, situated at that nexus of lament and joy that's so much more stirring than either alone. On "Something Left to Say", summer is evoked by "pollen on the beer bottles in the garbage cans." On "New York This Morning", a city "where father and son relations just deepen like a coastal shelf" looms vividly, by way of pigeons on a savings and loan and candles at St. Patrick's cathedral. Such visual flair permeates the songs -- a kid playing guitar by the subway "rolls a toothpick in his mouth," a strange woman packs "cigarettes against her wrist," and "an old button down with a cigarette scar" evokes a Proustian reverie..." THE BOSTON GLOBE: "...a stunner" Although its North Carolina roots have contributed to Roman Candle's thoroughly inaccurate alt-country tag, it's understandable why the Chapel Hill quintet has drawn comparisons with the Jayhawks and Wilco (both bands that also quickly outgrew that confining description). Like the 'Hawks' "Smile " or Summerteeth-era Wilco, RC's arresting debut -- is a smart-bomb stunner whose material moves with cool ease and crisp authority amid multi layered hooks and moods... PASTE MAGAZINE: FOUR AND A HALF STARS by Bud Scoppa On "Something Left to Say," Skips sinewy, nasal tenor veritably trumpets out of the speakers -- you cannot ignore this guy -- and the track has a hook that keeps spiraling upward until it reaches a bravura climax. It's followed by a dozen more impeccably crafted songs that are soulful, catchy and literate in equal measure.

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