POP MUSIC REVIEW : Tarnation, Pram: Distinctive Styles With Familiar Sources

Tarnation’s stark country balladry and Pram’s experimental pop are about as far apart in style as their hometowns--San Francisco and Birmingham, England, respectively. But at LunaPark on Wednesday the two young bands displayed a shared strategy, distilling established, familiar sources into distinctive, personalized sounds.

Paula Frazer grew up in Georgia’s Smoky Mountains and Arkansas’ Ozarks, and the singer plants Tarnation (whose “Gentle Creatures” album was recently released by 4AD) in the same deep strains of American music that underlie country music. The foursome operates at that root level, tapping primal themes of dread and despair with an austere elegance. It also visits the neighboring region of ‘50s noir pop, and at LunaPark it even rocked out a bit.

Frazer was mesmerizing Wednesday, using an art singer’s formality to enhance rather than stifle the music’s emotional core. When she slid into her powerful falsetto, it was like a ceiling opening to a night sky filled with both loneliness and possibility.

In contrast to Tarnation’s minimalism, Pram offered joyous clutter, arranging keyboards, guitar, trumpet and percussion into a sound that evoked everything from commercial jingles to lounge music to cartoon scores.

Chicago’s the Sea and Cake also appeared, offering smart, snappy songs with the sophisticated voicing and precision touch of a jazz group. Unlike the other bands on the bill, though, the quartet remained emotionally distant.