Garage Rock By: The Higher State - Darker By The Day (2008 13 O'Clock Records)

 So not to belabor the point, The Higher State is in fact a very authentic recreation of the West Coast sound of the late 1960. With gauzy, just-lo-enough-fi production values, a general wash of reverb applied throughout, and copious helpings of Rickenbacker jangle, the album successfully evokes the wide-eyed spirit of that era.

The Higher State follow the popular practice among second- and third-tier rock bands of the mid-to-late sixties, and cover records by other artists they admire. In this case, it’s Love (“You I’ll Be Following” as well as studio and live versions of “7 and & Is”) and either Southwest F.O.B. or West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (“Smell of Incense”). Either way, they give the songs their own stamp. Plenty of tight vocal harmonies and fuzz guitar are hallmarks of these and all the songs on The Higher State. Don’t get me wrong: their original songs are every bit as authentic, and often heavier on the (always welcome) hook-quotient.

Like any good bunch of actors, the group – personnel unlisted on the sleeve – stays in character the whole time. So when one of the radio promo tracks plays, there’s no hint that they’re a modern group. Yes, they’re clearly British (though when they sing, they sound closer to The Byrds), but mentions of AM radio stations and such offer not a single clue to the tender age of the band.

In retrospect, now knowing what I know, there is one characteristic of the band that might have tipped their hand as being a current group: the drumming. The heavy (but pleasing and effective) use of aggressive snare rolls suggests a drummer who’d be every bit as comfortable providing the backbeat for a band evoking the sound of Sugar or Hüsker Dü (the latter of whom, did, after all, cover The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High”).
So if you’ve exhausted your excursions through Nuggets, Pebbles and the like but want more in this style – and who in their right mind wouldn’t? – The Higher State should be your next stop. (excerpts by musoscribe.com, review Bill Kopp)

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