by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Just over a year ago, Mirror cover boys the High Dials were in the midst of breaking America. They'd made inroads on the West Coast, where the quartet was greeted with comparisons to the Grateful Dead, the Beta Band and the post-Strokes phenomenon - shocking words for an act that was once inextricably tied to all things mod. But that was back when they were the Datsons, a trio that released two scintillating tributes to mod pop and R&B, the See! LP and "Thief in the Night" single. Then along came those Kiwi upstarts the Datsuns, indirectly forcing a name change and inadvertently abetting a fresh start for singer Trevor Anderson and bassist Rishi Dhir, who had just brought guitarist Robbie MacArthur and drummer Robb Surridge into the fold. With last summer's worldwide release of A New Devotion, a timeless pop opus with psychedelic textures and conceptual undertones, the High Dials were undoubtedly into something good.

More recently, the band offered the Fields in Glass EP, featuring said album track and a pair of remixes - including one trippy take by ex-Spaceman 3/Spiritualized bassist Will Carruthers and Toronto mod-iac Davey Love. It also sported two banner exclusive tracks, a hidden remix of "Diamonds in the Dark" and an encore of A New Devotion's sitar saturnalia, "Things Are Getting Better," an apt summation of the High Dials 2004 trek. Well, except for the time…

"Bernadette really let us down," says Dhir, reporting from the innards of the band's once tenacious van - read the painfully fabulous "stranded in Sault-Ste-Marie" story at www.amplifiermagazine.com. "She's named after the Four Tops song. Bernadette just sounded like a powerful woman. We always try to pick names for our vans that will inspire them to work hard and be strong. It hasn't worked yet. Our label [Rainbow Quartz] just bought a big van, so her days may be numbered. But don't mention that to her, we still need her to get us home."

On top of transmission issues, Bernadette's steamy interior nearly toasted Dhir's sitar, liquefying all its glue en route from Portland to Eugene, Oregon. But apart from a few such bumps in the road, it's been good times for the High Dials, who make their U.K. debut a week after their homecoming gig, leaving some American radio celebs to continue cracking away at the U.S. for them. "Fields in Glass" has made a fan of L.A. icon Rodney Bingenheimer, aka the Mayor of Sunset Strip, while longtime supporter Little Steven called the track "the coolest song in the world this week, baby!" when it was released in July. In August, the band played Little Steven's Underground Garage festival on New York's Randall's Island, alongside the New York Dolls, the Stooges, the Strokes, the Pretty Things, Big Star, Bo Diddley, the Creation and many more, an experience that is easily the High Dials' highlight of the past year.

"Hurricane Charlie was moving in fast and there was this great apocalyptic atmosphere for an hour or so. Robbie and I got quite drunk and we went on stage before the Stooges for a shout-out to the crowd, and ran back onstage when Iggy basically tried to start a riot. I was up for it. It was just an incredible night, and an incredible hangover the next day."

With guests at Café Campus on Wednesday, Sept. 8, 9 p.m., $8

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