Maybe The High Strung have the SPIRIT of The Flaming Lips. Guided By Voices. Bands who produce seemingly impossible numbers (1200 shows, 400 songs) and who's audience exists more from word of mouth than by being in the right place and the right time.

Maybe the High Strung have the SPIRIT of the Merry Pranksters. Leaving their tour bus at the front door of the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame (with a plaque, making it look like a real exhibit) suggests they do.
Maybe the High Strung have the SPIRIT of Lewis Carrol. Malerman's lyrics, one of the most striking features of the band, usually describe characters more likely found in the pages of an eerie children's book than those who so often adorn the rock n' roll cannon. A young girl who builds the world's biggest "something" in "Seems It's One Thing". A museum curator who's envy of the paintings he protects drives him to some very mischievous deeds in "The Curator". A workaholic who is mooched off in different ways for each stage of his life in "A Real Meal Ticket" (it's maybe worth noting that Bob Pollard called MOXIE BRAVO, the band's second record, and the one that includes many of these characters, a "masterpiece").