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Local band produces dreamy alt-country

January 9, 2006

If the puffy clouds of springtime made music together, it would sound something like The Pantones' latest CD — "Sleepless Nights, Silent Mornings."

There's a dream-like feeling to the six-piece's tunes, grounded in reality with bittersweet lyrics. The two driving themes behind the 13-track album are love and death, but with an overall sense of optimism.

"Ringing church bells round the town/I've heard for 50 years" are the opening lines of the album that ambiguously sets the mood for either a marriage or a funeral.

The band's sound is similar to The Shins, while the lyrics are influenced by Neil Young's mixture of troubled love and idealized landscapes.

Matthew Carlson, who wrote all the songs, takes on a soothing melancholy tone as the lead vocalist. Because Carlson is constant with his singing approach, he allows the music to change the mood of the songs. Mary and David Baldwin assist Carlson to beef up the vocal sound on many of the choruses.

Besides singing backup vocals, Mary Baldwin plays an eerie violin. And David Baldwin is a jack-of-all-trades on the new CD with guitars, piano, rhodes, synth, organ, trumpets, mellotron and glockenspiel.

The rest of the folksy alt-country band is Paul Delamater on pedal steel and guitar, Joel Kuiper on drums and percussion and Jacob McCarthy on bass guitar.

The new album marks the first time the band has been billed as The Pantones. Back in 2000, Carlson released a solo album entitled "Cosmic Americana." And in 2004, "Memory Is All" was released under the name of Matthew Carlson & The Pantones.

Locally, the band is set to be play at Aroma Gourmet Coffee and Tea, 110 Charles St., on Jan. 13.

Now that Carlson has firmly established himself as a member of The Pantones, the band has produced a tight sound with sauntering melodies. The album also has a good mix of upbeat songs and slower numbers.

Carlson returns to the image of a church in track five, "Whippoorwill," setting the scene "In a lovely little church upon the hill/Resting on stained glass window sill/ Perched a weeping, weeping, weeping whippoorwill."

Carlson seems to lyrically paint a picture from the locale. There's a great sense of continuity between the tracks because of the recurring images of a Midwestern landscape.

One of the catchiest, most fast-paced numbers is track 12 — "This End Of The Phone." Crashing cymbals and nifty electric guitar riffs take center stage, while Carlson accelerates his vocal pace to match the hasty velocity of the band.

The last track on the album, "Footsteps Left On Snow," has Carlson singing in a higher pitch, for the only time, with an acoustic guitar alternating between muted and ringing chords.

All of the songs run from about four to six minutes, allowing the band to build a couple of different grooves without exhausting any of the tracks.

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