Bio: Montreal-based The High Dials make lush, intelligent psychedelic pop; dreamy anthems built on bittersweet melodies, bright harmonies and moody guitar sounds.
The band has released two previous records. “A New ... (more)
Bio: Montreal-based The High Dials make lush, intelligent psychedelic pop; dreamy anthems built on bittersweet melodies, bright harmonies and moody guitar sounds.
The band has released two previous records. “A New Devotion” (2003), was an out-and-out 60’s-style concept album with 12-string guitars, retro synths, 3-part harmonies, and a science-fiction tale of paranoia at its dark heart. “War of the Wakening Phantoms” (2005), their lovesick follow-up, made the year-end top-10 list of many critics, including the Washington Post and Magnet Magazine. It won high praise from the All Music Guide and Spin, and was declared a “psych pop perfection” by NME. The New York Post listed them as a “must-see band” at SXSW. The album went to number one on Canadian college radio charts.
The High Dials have won some notable fans along the way. Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre declared them “the best band in North America,” and often turns up at gigs to say so, hopping onstage to join in their songs. Andrew Loog Oldham, original 60s hustler and star-maker to the Rolling Stones, also lists them as a favorite. Rod Argent, legendary songwriter of the Zombies, performed on one of their B-sides. Little Steven, of Bruce Springsteen fame, has been their most public champion, slotting them in with the Strokes and the Stooges at his festival, as well as featuring them regularly on his Underground Garage radio show.
Their newest album, “Moon Country” was produced with Joseph Donovan (Sam Roberts, The Dears). It is a celebration of the album as art form in an Mp3 age, divided into two sides like an LP. Parts were recorded in a stone cottage in Ireland, before it was completed in the studio in Montreal.
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