During the creation of Nonagon Infinity there were a number of working titles that the band used for different songs and motifs. While some kept their names such as “Wah Wah”, many titles such as “Motorhead Ending” (later “Road Train”) and “New Metal” faded into obscurity as relics of the creative process. One, however, has remained a point of interest as the band actually played it live multiple times, though no recordings of it are known to exist. That piece is “High School.”
We know that the band had recorded the track in August of 2015, as an Instagram post by Jamie Wdziekonski shows it on tape next to songs like “Mr. Beat” and “Gamma Knife.” On December 1st, 2015, Rolling Stone published an article called King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Talk Infinitely Looping Concept LP. The piece, written by Kory Grow, talks about the band recording Nonagon Infinity at Daptone Records in Brooklyn and features the only material info on the song known to exist. “Back at Daptone, Mackenzie leads the group in a tight, Krautrock-influenced segue connecting songs with tentative titles “Mr. Beat” and “High School.” The tape whirs, and when they stop, the engineer pulls out a razor to splice it.” This indicates that the two songs were meant to transition into one another at this point in the album’s history. Gizzard played “High School” a few times following these recording sessions.
The earliest reported performance of the song was on 2015-12-02 at the John Curtin Hotel in Naarm (Melbourne). It would make at least two other appearances that year, one on 2015-12-06 at Howler in Naarm and another on 2015-12-09 at The Metro Theatre in Eora (Sydney). The final reported performance of the track would be on 2016-02-16 at Rescue Rooms in Nottingham.
No recordings of the song are known to exist, leading fans to believe that it was an early version of a track from Nonagon Infinity. If this is the case, by process of elimination (assuming the set list notation is correct), “High School” could only be a working title for “Big Fig Wasp” or “Invisible Face”, as the rest of the tracks from Nonagon Infinity were either on tape alongside it or were played during the same show as it. That said, without accurate info for these four shows, it remains unclear what “High School” exactly was.