The High Strung 'Moxie Bravo' album

The High Strung’s road-band lifestyle may be Nuggets-era retro, but MOXIE BRAVO, the sophomore effort by the Detroit-via-Brooklyn three-piece, is thoroughly forward-looking. MOXIE BRAVO’s guitar hooks, well-crafted three-part harmonies and sprawling song structures can recall Village Green-era Kinks, Brian Wilson, or the Zombies, but the High Strung’s sensibility links them more closely to contemporaries like past tourmates the Rosebuds and Brian Jonestown Massacre. MOXIE BRAVO’s tightly melodic songcraft is part Motown, part Grandaddy minus the robots, with psychedelic guitar interludes recalling Built To Spill’s best and power-pop choruses that could make Teenage Fanclub jealous.

MOXIE BRAVO follows up the band’s 2003 Tee Pee Records release THESE ARE GOOD TIMES, which was named one of NPR’s top records of the year and earned wide acclaim in national publications like Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, and Entertainment Weekly.

Defying easily referential description, MOXIE BRAVO is most of all a document of the spirit and sentiment that has driven the band through nearly five years of constant touring. The same restless optimism spurred them, in January 2001, to leave behind their Brooklyn homes, girlfriends, pets, and familiar beds for good.

The road life’s exuberance and ennui inform every track: from opener “Never Saw It As Union,” a paradoxically celebratory, emotionally frustrated lament, to metaphor-steeped mission statement “On Your Feet,” to closing track “The Gentleman,” a covetous ode to its overachieving subject.

But despite their enthusiasm, the frustration, exhaustion, and melancholy accompanying their rigorous touring schedule claimed a victim in 2004, when vocalist/guitarist Mark Owen left the band. Instead of dispirit, the new trio found renewed vigor in the change, scrapped most of the LP they had recorded with Owen, and refocused their travel-time and soundchecks on writing new songs.

Naturally, when the modified school bus the High Strung had lived in for three-and-a-half years became another casualty of their relentless touring schedule, the band “donated” this well-traveled symbol of rock music’s transformative power to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

At 3 a.m. one August night, Berk drove the van – covered inside and out with artwork, notes, and photos from friends all over America – up two flights of concrete steps to the museum entrance, where the band set up an signpost for the “exhibit,” and left a letter explaining their gift. “Dear Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: We believe rock and roll can make man heroic, make man Superman, can make giants out of the audience and artists alike….” This joyous manifesto dissuaded their would-be arresting officer from administering a heavy fine, and – as he explained via email – earned them a new fan.

In January of 2005, Stocker, Berk, and Malerman returned to Jim Diamond’s Detroit studio to record eight new tracks, which capture, more than ever, the bravado and humility with which they’ve dedicated their lives to rock music.

The High Strung offer this record to those who seek (as their song “On Your Feet” puts it) “the sound of something loud enough to keep awake the street” – whether “the street” is a dive in Oxford, Mississippi, the foyer of a public library, or a crowded festival stage; they present twelve outstanding rock songs that are as close to perfect as most ever come; and in these songs, they present themselves, in all their drive and dedication, all their longing and triumph.

Free from swagger or posturing, the High Strung present MOXIE BRAVO.

Chad Stocker – bass, vocals
Derek Berk – drums, vocals
Josh Malerman – lead vocals, guitar, principal songwriter

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The High Strung - Moxie Bravo