High Places are in DC tonight as part of the probably best triple bill you’ll see all month if not all summer (catch them as the only non-LA band in the line up with No Age and Abe Vigoda at RNR).

Their 03/07-09/07 compilation of 7″ and demos and special projects has been that rare recording that has everyone loving it. From the music press to the musicians themselves (Bradford Cox being an early champion), everyone has given in.

And rightfully so.

Out now on ThrillJockey the record (which is supposed to carry you over till the first full length shows up this September) is both experimentally fuzzy yet settled and assured and always exhilaratingly positive, which does not happen that often (Bradford, I AM looking at you). We sat down with Mary Pearson, whose voice shimmies charmingly through songs about love, life on Mars and beyond, to listen to it together and talk about what these (great) songs are all about.
So open your eyes from your psychedelic dream and read up.

SANDY FEAT: This song was the first High Places song ever written. It actually was the fusion of two of our solo songs. I had written a melody and lyrics that just happened to fit exactly with some music Rob had written. The lyrics were written while I was finishing up college in Michigan, at a time when I had a lot of pen pals and I was wishing I lived in someplace more exciting than Michigan. We included the song on a CD-R we made for our first tour in summer 2006, but then we later re-recorded the vocals and added some more ambient components.

SHARED ISLANDS: This song uses a bunch of these old mixing bowls Rob found at various thrift stores. They have a really great bell-like quality and they’re much much cheaper than buying fancy hand bells. When we were writing this song, I thought of it being like a recitative (”Day one of film shoot…”) followed by an aria (”This is where I go to meet you…”). The lyrics were inspired by the John Berger book “Here is Where We Meet,” and they also reference a dedication Jorge Luis Borges wrote to his wife. Shortly after Rob and I wrote this song, I traveled with a friend to John Berger’s house in a small village in the French Alps where we met John’s wife and son.

JUMP IN: My mother is the music teacher at Gilkey Elementary School in Plainwell, MI. During the 2006-2007 school year, “Jump In” was the school-wide theme, and my mom commissioned High Places to write a song about it. In May 2007, we were able to visit Gilkey and perform “Jump In” with the students. They came up with some really incredible choreography and they sang with such gusto! It was a really fun day.

want more:
myspace away right here
and don’t miss the show at rnr tonight. seriously, DON’T.

 Send to a Friend