The band's songs are characterized by lush arrangements, eclectic instrumentation, and Carpenter's lyrical themes of love, death, religion, and American mythologies.

[3] In 2005, Carpenter steered the band in an entirely different direction with the development of Dreamland, a 150-page through-composed score for nine musicians containing songs based around a stage play treatment of a story involving the turn-of-the-century Coney Island theme park which burned in a devastating fire in 1911.

To develop the Dreamland score, Carpenter formed a second incarnation of Beat Circus with Matt McLaren (drums), a long-time collaborator of Cuneiform Records label-mate Redfearn, Kaethe Hostetter from Boston, Curtis Hasselbring (trombone), Briggan Krauss of Sex Mob (saxophone), and original members Redfearn, Caswell and Seabrook.

With the departure of Redfearn and McLaren, who wished to focus on their band The Eyesores, Carpenter formed the third incarnation of Beat Circus in 2007, casting himself as the lead vocalist with Paran Amirinazari(violin) and Jordan Voelker (viola) as background vocalists, and introducing a rockabilly-style rhythm section composed of Paul Dilley (upright bass), Andrew Stern (guitar/banjo) and Gavin McCarthy of Karate (drums).

[5] In 2014, Carpenter was commissioned by the Berkeley Repertory Theater to write music for The Barbary Coast, a play based on the true crime book by Herbert Asbury about the rise of San Francisco during the Gold Rush era.