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Volume CXXXIII, Number 16 |
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Experimental rockers The List Exists prove it with new album
LESLIE BRIDGERS
STAFF WRITER
Tonight at 10:00 p.m. in Jack Magee's Pub, student band The List Exists will be holding a release party for their first album, the Barcelona EP. While the night will feature the band's performance and selling of their first CD, decorations and video art promise to make it a true event and complete experience, much like their music.
It would be easy to call their sound experimental, as even lead vocalist Matt Lajoie '05 has difficulty categorizing their original compositions, admitting that it is "hard to be in a band that you can't describe in at least three convoluted sentences." And their use of electronic effects, instruments like the stylophone, which is played with a pen, and interludes featuring a radio tuning between channels indicate that they are willing to try anything. However, their mantra is much more basic: "if we like it, we play it."
The List Exists marks ambient Icelandic band Sigur Ros as their main influence, while nodding at Portishead, Air, and Kid A-era Radiohead as other sources of inspiration. However, the combination of each member's individual preferences makes for the band's indescribable sound. With one of The Lists Exists' key players, Max Lewis, at Emerson College in Boston and the other three, Mirza Ramic '05, Lajoie, and his brother Chris '04, all at Bowdoin, practicing is infrequent. The band, instead, relies on each member to create individual parts that get compiled when they can find time to come together and play.
However, when they do get together, the band works hard and fast. In just one week at the beginning of the past summer, they produced 18 original songs. While they were pleased with the quantity of what they created, after listening to the songs all summer, they knew there was room for improvement. Sporadic practices throughout the first semester culminated in just four days of recording at Bowdoin's own WBOR studio. Seven tracks were turned out, six of which made the CD, and additional string parts and remixing were later used to polish their product.
Even though their efforts were not initially collaborative and the genres they cover are what Lajoie calls "a hodgepodge," the result is far from fragmented. The sound of the Barcelona EP is full and stimulating, mellow and intriguing, but overall, something you have to hear for yourself.
The band was skeptical, however, when Bowdoin got its first taste of their music. Their debut performance was at Bowdoin's Battle of the Bands this past November where the yet-unnamed group played under the temporary title, Reckoner. Even though their smooth, mesmerizing sound was programmed after performances from two heavy metal bands, the crowd's response was immediately positive, which proved both surprising and encouraging to the musicians.
Due to the demand brought on by the Battle, the band took the stage again one month later. Alongside Makeout, a band with which they share mutual respect and a bass player, they gave another successful performance. Friday night at the Pub provided an appropriate setting, so they will return there tonight, but this time on their own.
Clearly, The List Exists has come along way in a short time. With a press kit in progress and plans to play in Boston and Portland, it may not be long before a performance at the Pub is solely our privilege.
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