The High Dials play tonight at the Velvet Lounge with The Receiver and Self Servants. Doors at 8:30, Showtime at 9:30. $8. Photo by Sophie Samson.

As the Montreal music scene has exploded with cathartic indie rock from the likes of Wolf Parade and the Arcade Fire, The High Dials have quietly spun some of the most well-crafted psych-rock of the new millennium. The group’s breakthrough was 2005’s War of the Wakening Phantoms, a sprawling near-masterpiece of orchestral swirl, guitar crunch, and Smiths-like delicate songwriting. Good press followed that release, and while its follow-up, the self-released Moon Country, hasn’t quite gotten the same buzz, it’s on par with its predecessor. Tracks like “Killer of Dragons” take cues from Yoshimi-era Flaming Lips, though with considerably more restraint, while “My Heart is Pinned to Your Sleeve” is a pure pop rush from start to finish. The band’s now working on a new full-length, and on a short East Coast tour that brings them to D.C. and the Velvet Lounge tonight for their first District-area stop in several years. Lead-singer and songwriter Trevor Anderson took some time to answer our questions ahead of tonight’s show.

Are you excited to be back on tour? What got you out on the road this time around?
Yes we are, as we have not been touring much recently. It’s been a long time since we’ve played the northeast USA. We’re road-testing a new live line-up, with Shane Watt having recently joined us on bass. Another change is we will be playing as a 4-piece (no keyboard) and playing a lot of new songs from an album in the works. So plenty of new things to be excited about!

It’s been a year since Moon Country came out. Have you all been working on anything since then?
We have been recording heavily over the summer. We’ve been experimenting with old school, lo-fi production (i.e. cassette multitrack and old reverb units that hiss and barely work) We have about 8-9 songs at varying stages of readiness. I think the new material may surprise some people, as it is another shift in direction, at least to my ears. At the same time, it feels kind of like a summation of everything we’ve learned and created up to this point.

The War of the Wakening Phantoms seemed like the kind of psych-pop stuff that rock critics just eat up, but it somehow still seemed to fly below the radar, at least in the States. How do you think your last couple releases have been received?
Actually, that album got us quite a lot of attention from critics! I guess 4 years is an eternity in indie rock so it’s understandable if it’s obscure at the moment.The reality is, the world is just glutted with music. Everyone and their canary has a Myspace page. It’s just hard to keep anyone’s attention for long. But we do have pockets of loyal supporters. I’m not sure what would break us to a wider audience, as we are still very DIY. The world’s softest sounding punk rock band! I have very modest goals, which is to continue to put these albums out and pay my rent.