Cursillistas

Cursillistas is the moniker used by Portland, Maine resident Matt Lajoie for his brand of folk-inspired psychedelia.

Cursillistas began as the Psych-Folk solo project of Portland, Maine's Matt Lajoie. A self-released CDR called "Rotary and Gems" was picked up by Time-Lag's Nemo Bidstrup in 2005. Since then, Cursillistas has released a number of handmade & self-released documents in addition to CDR, CD, and vinyl releases on Time-Lag, and a CD and LP on Digitalis Recordings. Lajoie started his own label, L'animaux Tryst, in 2006 and also plays in a handful of other groups (including Lightning strike Lightning, Bad Bus, Sacred Basil, Aldus Shores, and Planets Around The Sun).

Of the name ‘Cursillistas’, Lajoie said in an interview with Digitalis: ”Well, the short story is that it was just a word I thought looked really nice. It's a word I would see all the time in the church bulletin in Van Buren, and didn't really know who these Cursillistas were or what they did, but it was always just a nice word to me. I like the palindrome "sillis" in the middle. I never really considered it would be difficult for a lot of people to pronounce.”

His follow up to the CDR 'Rotary And Gems' was 'Thrush Chimes In The Field Haunt' released in a limited edition of 140 through Time-Lag in 2006. A 3"CDR and cassette entitled 'Les Biches' was released on L'animaux Tryst in 2006, which was later reissued by Time-Lag & L'animaux Tryst as a remastered LP & CD (with previously unreleased tracks) in 2009.

The full-length 'Wasp Stings the Last Bitter Flavor' was released as a CD on Digitalis Industries in February 2008, with plans for a lathe-cut LP version of the album pending from 5MA Records.

Cursillistas expanded to a duo in 2008, with Dawn Marna joining on electric guitar and vocals. The pair recorded the LP 'Joint Chiefs', released by Digitalis in a limited edition of 200 vinyl copies in 2009, and the 'Peace Pipers' full-length cassette that collected unreleased tracks from the 'Joint Chiefs' sessions and released by L'animaux Tryst.