Our latest album "Praise the Divide" is now available on iTunes. Get you some.
Romes.

No Big Deal.

Believe us, we are the first ones to admit that things sometimes move a bit, uh… slowly in Camp Roma. Sue us.*

Still, like the humble sloth or the mighty gacier, give us enough time and we'll get it done. In that spirit, we're delighted to announce that our youngest progeny Praise The Divide will fiiinally be available for purchase from the good folks at iTunes next week. Even more in that spirit, we're celebrating by hosting the almighty Traindodge (who, conveniently, have their own new young'n—I Am Forever— and seriously, words fail…) at our home port of San Francisco. Deets:

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - San Francisco, CA @ Thee Parkside w/ Traindodge

In future news, we're hearing some rumors about an October Riddle of Steel reunion in St. Louis in honor of Hieu's wedding (congrats, Hieu!). At the time of writing Roma 79 can neither confirm nor deny these rumors, but we would suggest that if you live near a major metropolis in the Central or Eastern time zones that you avoid any unnecessary travel outside the region.

And so on and so forth, in perpetuity, etc.

Roma

* Please don't sue us.

No time for cocktails… 2 big ones today that will entwine like the double helix of your very core by the end of this section. Observe:

Praise The Divide is officially out of the closet and available directly from the Commander in Beef, Ascetic Records. If CDs are too passé for your 21st century lifestyle, hold your horses—sorry, hybrid digital mulching scooters—and keep an eye on iTunes et al for the downloadable version, coming within the next few weeks.

In more bittersweet news, our tremendous friends, musical inspiration, and frequent tour companions Riddle of Steel are bringing down the curtain on 9 years of unparalleled awesome. While we will definitely miss sharing the road and stage with this thundering vornado of tone and taste, we're happy to see them going out at the peak of their powers and wish them all the best in their individual pursuits.

And so… The Final Rockdown. We're honored to be teaming up with ROS for one last barnburner through the Middle West, new album in tow. Do what you gotta do—it's make it work time.

Alright, we're the first to admit that sometimes these updates get a little bit fluffy. It's not our fault — we don't make the news, we just tell it. Either way, what we got here is some real Godzilla action so get yourself focused 'cause we're not waiting:

Headline 1 — New Album. She's finished. Like, actually, really finished. Done. It was a long slog to get this girl out the door, but we pulled it together, packed her bags, and sent the little one off to finishing school. If we do say so ourselves, we're very proud of this one. We've named her "Praise The Divide" and she'll be available through Ascetic Records and iTunes later this spring.

Unless you live in San Francisco, which leads us to…

Headline 2 — CD-release and 100th show spectacular. We talked to the Big Man at Ascetic and he's letting us drop a couple boxes of these bad boys before the official release date. So we've gone and lined up a CD-release show. And on top of that this will be our 100th live performance. And we haven't played in San Francisco for 22 months. AND we're gonna be joined by the infamous Chango Malo of Tucson, AZ. We're crying as we write these words. What more do you want from us?

2.21.08 San Francisco, CA Hemlock Tavern w. Chango Malo

Roma

We're breaking our vow of silence and setting forth across the continent for our last (okay, fine — first) shows of 2007 and first (and not last) shows of 2008. This tour includes our first ever appearances in EST country, with a handful of choice offerings south of the Mason-Dixon (Yankees, we promise we'll get you next time). Most excitingly for us, we'll be sharing the bulk of these dates with our Ascetic honch dogs, Riddle of Steel, plus one-offs with longtime cohorts Traindodge and Dropsonic, and soon-to-be BFFs Big Sky Blue Earth.

Before we leave the Riddle of Steel tip, the first week of shows will be in honor of their newest and best manifesto, 1985. The only thing better than the album title is the actual music. If you haven't placed an order, you're insane.

There's some serious tone coming from Ascetic in 08 — more about that upon our return….

Roma

What the shits has Roma 79 been up to this year?
We'll tells ya'....

Andrew ate his way through a good portion of Southeast Asia and China.
Jeremy got hitched and cart-wheeled his way through Italy.
Aaron smashed his cymbals all over the country whilst supporting Velvet Revolver.
Rob continued to dominate the Riddle of Steel and Traindodge drum thrones.

.....And we finished recording a delicious full-length tapestry of decadence. Carl Amburn is currently slaying these mixes in his Mousetrapian laboratory. We thought it'd be a great time to unleash a finished track from the new album. It's called "Shapes They Had To Build", and we're athirst for you to dine on it.

Roma

Okay, the fact that it's 5.30 and dark means summer days have come and gone, and that means it's time to consult the handy biannual 3-part checklist:

1. Reset clocks .. check.
2. Change smoke detector batteries .. check.
3. Remember to have not forgotten to play a show in the last 6 months.. oh, right.

Okay, well we have been busy in other departments .. beefing up to a 4-man lineup and writing some delectable songitude that may well define your 2007 and beyond. But now we're done and that means break's over .. for you.

The coming month will see you seeing us at one of 7 hand-picked shows in 7 choice locations, while we magnetize the new melodies with mild-mannered Carl Amburn within the merciful margins of the Mousetrap. That's right, we're recording a new album in Oklahoma starting the first week of December.

This is our first tour with rookie multi-tasker Rob Smith .. we're damn excited about it and we think you'll like the new shape, but can Rob handle the pressure of the big dance?

To be continued..

Roma


Also, If you're looking for the finest in new music, check out the latest Christopher Willits album "Surf Boundaries". Beautiful stuff. You can find the link to Chris's page in our "top 8".

Alright, here's a doozy for your summer snoozy: Roma 79 is now most definitely one louder with the addition of our newest member, Mr. Rob Smith. I think Rob will be familiar to most as the atomic drum propulsor behind two of our all-time faves Traindodge and Riddle of Steel (see links below), and he's very kindly offered to help us beef up our sonic fillet with some of his trademark madness.

See, turns out that in addition to being the most ridiculous skin-banger on, well, both sides of the Mississippi actually, dude also tickles the frets and the ivories with a reckless abandon. Anyway, Rob's built himself a little laboratory of amps, strings, keys, toms, and electro-doodads over in the corner there, and we told him to "go nuts" and "make us sound like we're takin' it to the streets".

Safe to say we're seriously excited about having Rob on board and we're looking forward to setting forth across the continent in our hefty yet muscular new incarnation....More on that before summer's end.

One last thing before we leave the subject of Rob, the aforementioned Traindodge have just signed and sealed their latest überwork. It's called Wolves, it's at www.asceticrecords.com, and it's the best thing you'll hear in 2006. Like winged jackhammers pounding the mountains of infinity, these guys just keep breaking new ground. Go on, do something nice for yourself

Roma

Rob's must-see myspace references:
http://www.myspace.com/traindodge
http://www.myspace.com/riddleofsteelband

We're back. Europe was amazing - fantastic shows, beautiful cities, generous people, assorted convenience store sandwiches.
And our tourmates Riddle of Steel? They taught us a new chord each night....but only after we begged them. Amazing band.
We even went to Stonehenge, for fuck's sake! Can this get any more perfect???
So much more to tell, but we need to save the brain power for writing chart-toppers.

Paul McCallum took these photos of us owning England @ The Garage in London:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmc_photography/sets/72057594121866787/

We met many wonderful people on this tour - they treated us like Daddy Warbucks. Extra special enormo-thanks to Chris at Bloom Explode, Georg our indispensable driver / tour manager, Claire and Paul from A Badge of Friendship, Andy from Jack Ruby and most of all Andrew E, Jimmy V and Rob S.
The friendship collages are in the mail.

We hope to get back to Europe sometime very soon.

Right now, we're in the process of redefining art.....oh, what I meant to say is that we're scribing new "pieces". Hold your breath.

Roma

This just in: Delusions of Adequacy confirms that we're more than adequate! Check it out:
http://www.adequacy.net/review.php?reviewID=6946