“New Roman Times…Sweet Florida sunshine…Soon!” reads the latest blog entry on the Austin-by-way-of-Orlando band New Roman Times’ Myspace page. While they've returned to Florida numerous times since they left for greener pastures nearly three years ago, this visit they arrive with a new album and the support of a new label, Tampa’s own New Granada Records.
The foursome’s sophomore effort, On the Sleeve, continues their style of re-imagining the sullen sounds of the ’80s. Their dramatic, Dark Wave-influenced alt-rock isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, but it’s well done, and the perfect music for dancing and brooding — spiraling guitar notes pierce washes of synth-phonic sonics, back-and forth boy-girl harmonies contrast bassist/backing vocalist Josie Fluri’s sweet and piping sighs against lead singer/guitarist Daniel Owens’ deeper agonized tone, and driving rhythms that carry it along at a sure and steady pace.
New Roman Times was initially formed in Orlando by married music-making duo Owens and Fluri. “We were the band for a while and we’d bring on other people to play with us, a revolving cast of characters,” Owens told me in a recent interview. By 2005, they’d written and developed enough material for their debut full-length, International Affairs, the inaugural release of then-new, now-defunct Orlando-based indie label, Social Recordings.
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2009.