Artist description Nero was raised by a clown and a barber, and he thought he could sing. That's why the Fourth Rome no longer bares any resemblance to the first, that strange place no one escapes from until it has left its mark on him. You live there: it's a city with a Caesar for every head, a stale loaf and the eternal circus; but you can never say 100 percent that the roads are going to lead anywhere. It's the seat of an exile's pants, thoughts of home from the poor haven of a thatched-roof hut in the badlands, a she-wolf nursing orphaned human pups. You spend the better part of your time dancing on your hat for a handful of crowns and the occasional knowing wink. At night everyone huddles around a table where the fare consists of a single lightly salted egg, a genuine treasure. You thank your lucky stars for a winning smile and flash it at every opportunity like a foot soldier waving a flag of surrender into a black cloud of oncoming bullets. It's a place that was never supposed to happen, that was razed before it was founded, that the barbarian hordes were all at a loss to converge upon. If anyone fiddles, you know it's the one thing burning.

Group Members Brad Bennett: Guitar Jake Blickenstaff: Bass Tim Davis: Piano Matt Douglas: Saxes Liam Hurly: Percussion Mike Wexler: Vocals, Guitar

Press Reviews "Dear reader, we have all read history and know that there have been three Romes: Rome, Constantinople, and Moscow. But I would say that there is, in my opinion, a Fourth Rome emerging. That is New York City. I would most humbly wish that the Ecumenical Patriarchate would move from Constantinople and relocate here in the United States!" --Katherine G. Valone "I agree with you that the USA's hegemony has been peacefully achieved. But how? The "Imperial Legions" of this "Fourth Rome's" victory have been Kodak, Pepsi, MicroSoft and Boeing. It's "Seneca" is Tom Peters." --Dr. W. "Ed christens his new dictatorship and empire "The Fourth Rome." Within 24 hours, he slaughters several thousand people who protest." --Anonymous "In the face of all of this, America, this America that I love, this America to which you are assimilated from outside, that no longer has adversaries and which tends to silence those who oppose it, is in the process of becoming the Fourth Rome: after Byzantium and Moscow. In the "new world order", America imposes an oligarchy that is at the same time monetary, economic and cultural, that is marked by liberalism, which courts a real risk when it excludes a certain human freedom." -J. Kristeva "In December the USSR was no more. "The Evil Empire" had fallen. I had my visa, and in Jan. of 1992 I was in Russia. I came with the new Russian government lifting the price control. I was expecting a revolution, new books, new films, new theatres (there were 300 new non-formal theatres in St. Petersburg alone). Everybody thought that the time had come, Russia was free. Later I began to look back a few years, at the perestroyka era; maybe, I missed the time of creative outburst... The Fourth Rome vanished without a fight, without giving birth to a new life. It died out. Nothing was new. No new ideas or ideals... "

Location Brooklyn, New York - USA

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