La Verite plays outside the mainstream box

By JOHN BENSON

entertainment@vindy.com

La V rit drummer Adam Frank Rogers is familiar with the eyes-glazing-over look he often encounters when attempting to describe the instrumental ambient band he helped form more than three years ago.

“You know, that comes with a certain amount of having to explain ourselves,” said Rogers, a 2008 Niles McKinley High School graduate and current Kent State University philosophy major. “It’s not pop music, so it’s definitely different. We’ve been compared to bands like This Will Destroy You, and some people say our stuff sounds like really old Pink Floyd. But I don’t know. We’re really trying to avoid that at this time.”

Avoiding any mainstream comparisons is the modus operandi of La V rit , which features Rogers, his brother Andrew James Rogers (guitar), Derek John Winkle (bass) and Douglas Edward Thorp (guitar). The band is excited about its new CD, “Elephant,” which is a follow-up to the act’s 2008 debut, “This Divine, Desolate City.” The group has booked a CD release show Friday at Cedars Lounge.

Rogers feels the band’s most-recent effort reflects a group in transition from both maturation as artists as well as grasping a clearer vision of what La V rit is all about.

“Some of the album really sounds like our old stuff, and some sounds like new direction,” said Rogers. “One song we really love and exemplifies what we’re going for is called ‘Pachyderm.’ It’s like a 20-minute- long sonic experiment. We didn’t write it about how people react to noise and sounds, but that’s just kind of what it ended up being.”

He added, “This definitely isn’t pop music. This isn’t radio-friendly music. This is music for people who are interested in art and music together. Those kind of people check out music like us.”

While La V rit doesn’t have anything against singers — Rogers admits almost half of the music he listens to has a vocalist — the band started off as an instrumental act and just never changed. Perhaps its love of jazz music by legends such as Miles Davis is the reason.

“I think as far as the band goes, we just love making ambient music sounds into art,” Rogers said. “So that’s our band.”

Hmm, sounds like La V rit is sort of trippy.

“I’d be lying to say that some of us aren’t interested in things of the trippy nature,” Rogers said.

OK, does he mean along the lines of an extracurricular mind-altering experience?

He laughed, “It could be. Not all of us. I’m not going to say that we’re that band, but some people would describe us that way.”

If you go

Who: La V rit , with Sewing Machine War

When: 10 p.m. Friday

Where: Cedars Lounge, 23 N. Hazel St., Youngstown.

Info: (330) 743-6560