High
Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana
Album: Unearther EP, out now via Ashtray Monument Records
While many of us were a few drinks/seasons/bags of chips deep during last year’s lockdowns, High were presumably not taking their name to heart (if you catch my smoke-filled drift). Instead, these New Orleans punks were hard at work in the studio writing an EP. While writing in the studio can sometimes result in songs that feel rushed or half-baked (sorry to bowl you over with the weed puns), the resulting EP feels lived-in and comfortable. High’s brand of indie punk feels like a time capsule for 1991, when Hüsker Dü and Dinosaur Jr. were the favored influences of punks the world over. Unearther truly is a delight, with fantastic sing-a-longs and sneaky-great riffs. There’s also a nice balance between despair and absurdity.
Guitarist and vocalist Craig Oubre wanted it that way, as he explains:
“We sort of realized that these songs had a common thread once they were all complete. It was written and recorded inside the constraints of the pandemic. The lyrics often allude to what happens when we have enough time on our hands to dig in. You think you want a day off until you spend it unearthing things you buried in the dark corners of your head. I’m glad the humor did not go unnoticed. We probably spend more time clowning on each other than we do working on music, so it would be a crime to not add a comedic element to any High release.”
Watch the video for “Day Off” here:
For more from High, find them on Instagram, Facebook, and Bandcamp.
Photo courtesy of High and Adrienne Battistella
