On Friday, April 1^st, Olympia trio Gun Outfit celebrate the release of their new 12" EP High Places in Seattle. Ironically, title track "High Places" was recorded in a basement, and "High Places" is already the name of a LA duo who-like Gun Outfit-have released material on the Post Present Medium label run by No Age's Dean Spunt.  Gun Outfit's Dylan Sharp says the song is about touring, but references Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places." April Fool's?

Multi-tiered, incidental song-name humor aside, there's nothing funny about Gun Outfit's music-they're a melodically-gifted, rightfully-acclaimed band with a flair for melding the clean guitars and drawling vocals of post-punk and '90s slacker rock with the aching, whiskey-soaked world-weariness of country music classics. They bring this signature sound to a stacked show Thursday at all-ages hub the Northern.

Sharp and bandmate Carrie Keith write, sing, and play guitar (each penned two out of High Places' four tracks), and their recent influences include everything from '60s psychedelia to Spanish hardcore music. 

"I was listening to a lot of Barbara Manning when I was writing those songs," Keith says. "I listen to a lot of country music. I like older stuff, and I like some new stuff-I like some Taylor Swift (laughs)." While Keith also cites super-heavy Oly band Son Skull as an inspiration, she says that country greats like Lucinda Williams are some of her most consistent muses.

Sharp, too, cites Manning, Grace Slick and the Great Society, and Jefferson Airplane as influences, but stresses that High Places encompasses a spectrum of diverse sounds.

"[High Places] has a 'four songs in four different genres' kind of feel,'" Sharp says. "To me, this EP seems more pop than our other records."

It's also the band's first record with drummer Dan Swire, who replaced Rueben Storey prior the recording High Places approximately one year ago. The EP, limited to 500 vinyl copies, is on sale now from Bay Area label Make a Mess Records. Gun Outfit plan to play MMR's base of operations, San Francisco, on the 16^th, and then continue working on their next full-length, due sometime this year. Clearly, they're not slowing down anytime soon-the band's fully loaded and ready to expand their international fanbase with more impressive aural ordnance. No foolin.'

[Northern, Gun Outfit with Des Ark, Pygmy Lush, All Green Lights, Thursday, March 31, 8 p.m., all-ages, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia, northernolympia.org]