Baltimore's experimental bands

Lexie Mountain Boys

Members: Lexie Mountain, Sam Garner, Amy Waller, Amy Harmon, Katherine Hill

More an improv performance troupe than a proper band, Lexie Mountain Boys has been conjuring something, but we're not sure what…yet. Nothing about this band is what one would expect, from its name, to its songs, to its riotous live performances, to the fact that member Katherine Hill is also on "Ace of Cakes," making the Lexie Mountain Boys a shoe-in for our most experimental performer on the list. The Boys incorporate elements of every vocal styling from the last century done with a backwoods sense of soul that probably ends up sounding a great deal artier than what was possibly originally intended. At heart, it just sounds like a bunch of friends goofing off, and that's why it's so much fun: "Sweet Potato Sugar Tots," for example, is a chant on sweet potatoes. The troupe must be experienced live, as the outfits, dangling pies and pyramids comprise one of the most awesome live shows you will ever witness. And even if you're left completely speechless, you at least have to admire the sheer gutsiness it takes to create such a stage spectacle. 

Level of experimentation: 10, for inhabiting a space no one else is willing or able to fill

Web site: www.myspace.com/mountainlex