Roman Candle

A love of early alt-country isn’t the only thing that the Chapel Hill quartet Roman Candle shares with Wilco; both have record-label horror stories. After Roman Candle finished recording their second album, The Wee Hours Revue, their label, Hollywood Records, playing the archetypal evil record company, refused to release their work, mirroring Wilco’s infamous battle with Reprise over the fate of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. V2 records stepped in and bought the rights to the long dormant album, giving Wee Hours a release in 2006. Though the album, which the band recorded with Chris Stamey, lacks Yankee Hotel’s ambitions, it charmingly captures the twangy pep of mid-’90s era Wilco and Whiskeytown. Roman Candle’s next album, Oh Tall Tree in the Ear, is slated for a release this May.