Minneapolis quartet High on Stress are about perseverance. Their third album iving Is a Dying Art digs even further in darker niches of DIY garage rock. They like to get in your face and under your skin, serving up their song with bravado. They rant and ramble about bad luck (Figure Eights) and conjure up travelogues (Some Things Look Better in Pictures, Coattail Rider).
With this album they proof there's a future for bar bands who insist on doing their own stuff and ignore the shouted cover requests from the inebriated clientele (they make a n exception when they are invited for Replacements tribute shows). Recommended if you like Big Star, Graham Parker and Brinsley Schwarz.
High on Stress:
Nick Leet: vocals, guitar
Mark Devaraj: drums
Jim Soule: bass guitar, backing vocals
Chad Wheeling: guitar, organ
Living Is a Dying Art is a self-released album. Buy it from CD Baby.
Tracks:- Bite Your Tongue
- These Days Are Gone
- Figure Eights
- Lost My Invitation
- Even Time Won't Tell
- Head
- Up Your Sleeve
- Some Things Look Better in Pictures
- Here Is Your Smoking Gun
- Lead Follow Roll
- Dakota Square
- Coattail Rider
- All Along the Water Tower
- 11/18 Amsterdam Bar, St. Paul, MI (CD Release show)
- 11/20 Amsterdam Bar, St. Paul, MI
- 11/24 First Avenue 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis, MI (Replacements tribute show)