yep.
my friend told me Mary was lip synching at the show they did w/ HEALTH, Crystal Castles, etc. recently.

is this true?

It sounded a little too good, so probably. They just don't translate well to a live setting at all.

actually liked this set a lot. Reminded me of the Black Dice show a couple weeks ago. They were singing into mikes then treating the vocals on keyboards, so "lip synching" is a bit off. Mellow but intense.

i think they're the one of the best bands ever live as well as recorded, they're show last night was especially good!

lip synching?? it's called looping, and sampling... delay effects.
look into it.

i couldn't really get into this last night.

i could!

they sounded great (!) at their southpaw show last wek...kria sounded super too...more so the both of them than gang gang.

Their set on Pitchfork.tv was pretty amazing.

agreed

not true about the "lip syncing".

she sings along to recorded, heavily effected tracks, but her live voice is the highest in the mix.

High Places are Amazing!!!!!!!!

high places + mediocre live performances +
decent to okay recording = a bit over hyped, but I will give them some props.

Why not lip sync if your just singing along to pre recorded stuff anyways? Wouldn't be less hassle? I've often thought this about performers who don't have live musicians. No value judgment, just an opinion.

As I said in the No Age thread (and it was a good gag then, so it's worth repeating here) it looked like she was grating cheese at one point. And it was appropriate, because their live performance is about as interesting as watching someone grating cheese.

I am available for weddings, parties, etc.

PS I quite like their music.

no age made up for there snooze fest

I saw them during sxsw, and they were good. If you like their CD, you'll like them live. The sound quality is nearly the same. As for their performance, what do you expect them to do? He's messing with all the electronic shit the whole time, and she's singing...It'd be weird, especially with this kind of music, if she was freaking out all over stage and jumping off of speakers.. their turns are too mellow for that.

"If you like their CD, you'll like them live"

I like their CD. I don't like them live.

"as for their performance, what do you expect them to do? "

not perform

"and she's singing."

Is that what you call it?

wait, I've only seen them live. I agree about the cheese grating. Is their CD better?

a sound man at a venue they played recently told me they bring their own sound set up / PA. probably a lot easier to lip sync that way!

They didn't have their PA at Bowery. She was clearly using a delay pedal. I don't see what more they could do live. Wow, you dudes must be really harsh to bands like Ecstatic Sunshine and Growing if you think High Places is so boring live.

looks like davey tare thinks they lip-synch too: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2008/04/live_gang_gang.php

Hmm. It's not clear that it's "Davey Tare" saying those things or just some guy named Dave.

The central question here seems to be: are High Places the indie Milli Vanilli? They should do a cover of "Girl You Know It's True" at their next show, just to stoke the flames a little.

I think them starting with Banana Slugs made it pretty obvious what they were doing onstage: vocals with reverb and delay and looping, live percussion, triggering samples (definitely no keyboards onstage). If she could have lip-synced to that, she is a lip-syncing god and they are the most talented performers of all time.

the chick looks so uncomforable on stage it was making me feel weird.

it was dave from animal collective that said those things. indeed. no contention there.

yes, theyre boring live. officially.
they make sweet(sic), unoffensive pop tunes ripped out of the K records catalogue.
they sound like a poorly encoded MP3. ALL THE TIME.

this is ridiculous! they're the best, and obviously don't lipsync. I've seen songs where the singing is a little off key, sometimes out of time, etc, so obviously it's not lipsyced

High Places are a terrific band. They have created a unique sound, mixing tropical beats, drone noise, and indie pop. They work very hard live - as evidenced by Rob Barber's invariably sweaty bod after the shows!

Mary sings, there are recorded beats and backing vocals, but the main sound you hear is her live voice coming through delay and reverb effects.

I don't believe Dave "Avey Tare" Portner said those things, as he and Rob and Mary are friends. His sister's band Rings plays with High Places often. High Places' good buds Brendan "BARR" Fowler and Hisham "Soft Circle" Barhoocha have opened for Animal Collective tours. All of those people are buds, part of a particular clique.

But even if it was Davey Tare, what difference would that make? He's no end-all, be-all arbiter of quality, talent, or recorded tracks. He's just some dude named Dave, himself.

i'm the one who posted the original comment asking if the lip sync thing was true.

i like them a lot too.
i went to the Market Hotel show that was on Pitchfork TV and her vox seemed live then. (albeit kind of timid. and at one point she even turned around and stood behind one of the speakers facing backwards, but i digress.)

they're a cool band and i enjoy them, and so does my friend (hence her going to the show). she just thought they sounded a little too recorded and said there were multiple times where she didn't have the mic anywhere near her mouth and you could still hear vocals. but the backing vocals thing makes sense, so maybe that's what it was.

sorry, didn't mean to start nasty rumors!
i don't want to be one of those inexplicably angry and hateful BV commenters!

oh man. brooklyn vegan comments are a real bummer. i have to stop reading these threads. i've never commented before, but i feel compelled to now.

dear anonymous, anonymous, anonymous, and anonymous(&c)—of course you don't have to like ppl's music or their live shows, but why make unsubstaniated claims about how a band performs? why go ad hominem? why not ask the musician if you have a (thoughtful) question about what's happening in their live performance and then come to your own conclusions? this applies to all artists, not just to a band in which i happen to have a really great sister. there are ways of critiquing things intelligently.

integrity in '08.

—laura, mary's sister

I saw the pitchfork.tv performance and liked it and thought I should check it out and was kind of disappointed because it sounded like I was listening to a party through a wall that was in the next building. all the samples were washed out and the vocals were way too low in the mix and all I could hear was the electronic bass drum.

it seemed like they weren't very happy with their set either.

I think they have some good ideas and they will probably get much better but the show at bowery wasn't all that good.

I think they should lay off some of the electronic steel drum sounds as well.

my humble opinion.

Hey dudes! This is Mary from HP. Like my sister Laura, I wouldn't typically even be reading these comments, let alone posting a comment myself BUT some people thought it might be wise if I just clued everyone in on what's happening to squelch some of the rumors that are flying around these parts. In regards to the above comment, Rob and I had a ton of fun at the Bowery show. We were trying out some new stuff so naturally there were a few things we would have liked to change about the overall mix, amount of reverb, etc. We don't have any steel drum sounds in our music, just some treated guitar loops. I am not lip-synching, just using some looping and delay (I prefer the Line 6 Delay Modeler, if you are curious about that sort of thing) and at that particular show, my reverb was coming from the house board (in the past I have mostly used the HP board). I believe there were two cases where we used very effected vocal samples at the Bowery show: the chorus of Golden and the chorus of Gold Coin. If you know those songs, I'm sure you've noticed that we use samples to create a "chorus" effect in those two parts. Chorus pedals sound pretty horrible on vocals, in my opinion. But minus those (maybe) 40 seconds, all other vocals were created live. I had a bit of a nasty cold, but I'm taking care of my voice and I should be feeling better for our show next week.

mary pearson = smart and level headed

brooklynvegan commenters = nasty and poorly informed

come on, Mary dont get so wrapped in these comments. Just do your thing and if we like it, we like it, if we dont, leave us alone.

Mary (and any other performing artist) dont read the comments on ANY blog. they are usually just frustrated musicians who have no other way to vent their frustration

word!
man i wish that comment can be deleted
it just gives these dumb comments more authority
to all future artist don't comment on mean blog comments. ppl who are really fans know whats up and if they don't they'd be smart enough to email

I really wish I knew what hell is going on in Rob's case/setup that he plays on stage. Some kind of drum pad?

do you think if I make a nasty comment about him "air drumming" he'd explain it to me??