The Lexie Mountain Boys

First up, despite their moniker, they’re girls, um, women. Anyhow, these five ladies are an a cappella performance art troupe from Baltimore (and Austin) who engage in a type of ecstatic improvisation that’s equal parts power and comedy. A quick perusal of their YouTube performances illustrates that Sacred Vacation is just a fragment of the TLMB experience. Recorded at a church in Maryland, the album opens with an uninterrupted four-song suite that starts out with a wordless stomp/chant that forecasts tribal shenanigans but soon enough the "you wanna see a banana… you wanna sweet tomato… you wanna soft potato” vocal section interrupts the seriousness of it all. The Boys overturn many conventions of vocal improv — none of them are particular operatic in their range, they let their giggle breaks and cracks remain in the light — and that makes things both more fun and interesting. At times, as the lyrics get more prominent, things get closer to good ol’ hambone and county carnival style than urban stomp. Still, as much fun as the album is, a DVD should be rushed into print.