Milwaukee's West of Rome releases a new EP this week. All in all, that's not too surprising. The band already has an EP and two full-length discs -- including last year's "Drunk Tank Decoy" produced by ex-Wilco fella Jay Bennett -- in its discography.
What makes "School and Books and Trains and Leaving" -- released by Madison's Slothtrop Records -- unusual is that the band recorded the seven songs for the mini-LP in a single day. In fact, singer and guitarist Chris DeMay says the band didn't plan on working so quickly. It just sort of worked out that way ... thanks in part to the Wisconsin winter.
"We did plan to record an EP, but not in 24 hours," he says. "We gave ourselves a whole weekend to try work fast and see what we had at the end. We kind of hit on a roll the first night, and a 10-inch snowfall kept us from leaving the studio and by midnight Saturday we were rough mixing seven songs."
Although West of Rome doesn't usually dilly-dally in the rarified walls of the studio anyway, DeMay says, they were especially focused this time 'round.
"Our approach to recording this time was to do things as simply and quickly as possible, and try to make something that sounded more like we do live," he says. "We've never really limited ourselves in the studio time-wise like this before--recording was always a very open ended experience--so it was an interesting change to restrict and curb some of our habits and instincts."
With its unadorned arrangements, "School and Books and Trains and Leaving" reads like a document of the band's live show. It's rootsy, it's rocking and it's lean.
"When I listen to the new EP," DeMay says, "I think in some ways it's more a 'document' or "of a 'piece' than anything we've ever done. This is really a document of its own rather than a preview of the next full-length.
The material itself, DeMay says, is a mix of new songs and some that have been around for a while.
"Some songs on this EP were written during the end of sessions for Drunk Tank Decoy and didn't make it on that record, but have been in our live set for like two years. And others were finished just before we went into the studio, and in some respects we're still learning to play them."
Meanwhile, DeMay says West of Rome has a few projects bubbling up, including another full-length disc and a track on an upcoming Neil Young tribute record called "More Barn" on Slothtrop, which will also include contributions from The Silos, The Waco Brothers, Howie Gelb, Steve Wynn, Jay Bennett and some local artists like Aimless Blades, The Carolinas, Juniper Tar and melaniejane.
"The next full-length is currently taking shape as something very dark and slow, like Lambchop meets Big Star's 'Sisters/Lovers'," he says. "We recorded 'Winterlong' for the Neil Young comp. ... The record is due out in June."
In the meantime, the band plays a CD release party at the Cactus Club on Friday, April 21 with Stall and The Black Hats.
"In addition to the entire new EP, our Cactus set will include a few new songs that didn't make the EP but have been part of our sets, as well," promises DeMay. "Plus, a few new covers we've been working on. Lately I've been obsessed with the new Neko Case record so who knows."
West of Rome's Web site is westofrome.com.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
