Ode to the High Strung, tonight at the Firebird (St. Louis)

The High Strung – “Standing at the Door of Self Discovery”
(from Ode to the Inverse of the Dude)

The High Strung are playing at the Firebird tonight, just one of the gaggle of bands making a pit stop in St. Louis on their way to or from SXSW next week (scope the sidebar for the icing on the cake). I interviewed Josh Malerman, the Strung’s singer/guitarist, for a brief piece in the Riverfront Times this week, which you can find at page two of this link. The article was way too short to cover everything we talked about, and considering that Josh is such an earnestly enthusiastic and super fast talker, there was a lot left on the cutting room floor. (For instance, the psychological bookends he provided as a way of framing and understanding the loose “theme” of Ode to the Inverse of the Dude, the band’s new album due April 24; the way writing horror novels and pop songs fulfills the same artistic impulse; and a genuine defense of late-period Bob Pollard, which, considering I basically characterized my last encounter with Uncle Bob as watching a pair of kidneys die in real time, made me re-appreciate the work he’s doing today.)

Dude, the new album, is really growing on me. It’s not as immediately catchy as Get the Guests, but I think that’s because it’s in no hurry to prove anything. It’s more of a laid-back and freewheelin’ psychedelic record, filled with swirling horns and effects-laden keyboards as if they were Midwestern refugees from the Elephant 6 collective (the Minders come to mind in particular). There are a lot of great moments on the album, from the Schoolhouse Rock! funk of “Guilt is How I’m Built” to the acoustic mixtape bait of “I Got Your Back,” but it’s the choral mantra of the opening track that I keep catching myself singing at the most inopportune times. “Standing at the Door of Self Discovery” is a triumphant salvo, bursting with hope and awe and military drumming, like they were leading a small army of banner-waving Jungian psychoanalysts over the mountaintop. Try and see if it doesn’t get caught in your head.

The High Strung are planning to release another new album in October, tentatively titled Dragon Dicks. I can only imagine the cover art. I gotta say, though, if this whole “touring rock band” thing doesn’t work out for them, they should just set up a consulting business on the side as “album name generators” for less creative bands.