Lacona not just going through the motions after first album
BY KYLE KOSTER
Lacona explores a wide range of musical styles in "Pantomime," the band's first full-length album. It sprawls though folkish fields and winds through stretches of '80s-influenced melodic pop, all the while painting everything in its path a shade of gray. The meandering release is a testament to the versatility of the local group -- who, as it turns out, may never make an album anything like this again.
"I guess that's just kind of what happened," keyboardist/vocalist Patrick Newbery says of the music's broad spectrum. "We wanted a country or folk song with strings, but also a song with a drum machine and a groove. So we did a little of everything. Everyone says it's all over the place, so we took that into account moving forward. So maybe from now on each record will vary -- as opposed to each song varying so much."
The impending stylistic change is not a byproduct of a lackluster record, however. Lacona's many different sounds reward the listener who delves into every track. There are many subtle nuances that lay under the prevailing indie rock theme that allow each track to be accepted on its own terms.
"Staring out, a lot of the songs were coming out of us just playing, not discussing anything or sitting down and planning," Newbery explains. "We'd just play. Out of the 20 minutes we'd record, maybe there was something cool going on for five of those minutes that we'd take and dissect into a song.
"Lately Geoff [Dolce, guitarist/vocalist] and I have been getting together and having writing sessions. The songs have been more cohesive. 'Pantomime' was a little all over the place whereas the newer stuff is a little more audience-friendly, more high-energy."
What started out as a three-piece outfit (Newbery, Dolce and drummer Andrew Grill) in 2003 has now expanded to four with the addition of bassist Jon Hill. A cursory listen reveals a heavily-Cure influenced sound, with dashes of Radiohead and the Cars sprinkled in. But the strength of Lacona is in its listless lyrics, which impart the perfect balance of despair and apathy without dragging the listener too far into the doldrums. "Not Around" is hauntingly sparse while "President's Day" soars on Dylanesque wings.
In the tradition of all grass-roots rock groups, Lacona has worked its way up the nightclub-venue ladder. Last January, the band headlined a show at Metro with Driftless Pony and Mt. St. Helens as support. Now Lacona can be found anywhere from Schubas to the Beat Kitchen to the Double Door, which is where it will be tonight.
"We're going to be playing a lot of new stuff," Newbery says. "We played a show with Cursive at Subterranean a while back and broke out lots of new material. Fans who had seen us before came up to us afterward and were real excited about the newer songs."
Lacona currently is writing songs for its sophomore album, which is optimistically planned to be released this winter.