ROMAN CANDLE: With their percolating melodies bursting like fireworks and raining down, Roman Candle captures a feeling of stomach-churning, heart-in-the-throat abandon and aching, just-out-of-reach longing.

Skip Matheny's honeyed croon shimmies bittersweet before a power-pop backdrop of swelling organ, glimmering guitar chime, and lilting, mid-tempo sway. The Chapel Hill quintet's terrific 2006 V2 debut, The Wee Hours Review, was recorded with Chris Stamey and languished for two years on Hollywood Records' shelves before V2 came to the rescue.

In the intervening time, they began work on a follow-up, Oh Tall Tree in the Ear, expected out early next year. The crisp, assured preview tracks posted on MySpace suggest an early challenger for next year's best release. 7 p.m. at the Basement - - CHRIS PARKER