Best Way to get Taller Cakes?

Use a core heater of some sort. I use metal flower nails  in the centers of my larger cakes, 1 for an 8 inch round, 2 or 3 for a 9-inch round and more as the cake gets bigger. This helps get the heat coming from the center as well as from the outside for more consistent baking.

Also, lower your temperature and bake for longer. This will help lower the "cake dome" in the center and get a flatter cake. 

I hope that helps! Happy caking!

"Kind of short"? 

First of all whose recipe are you using? 17 ounces of batter per 9" pan will give you a 1.5" cake under ideal circumstances. 

And then how tall are your baked cakes at the edges and the middle before you start adding icing?

In my experience the magic cake strips give you a flat well raised cake.  The smaller pack of 2 does 8" and 9" cakes.  The larger pack of 4 will do larger pans when you join two strips together.

I do NOT grease sides of my pans, I just line the bottoms with parchment. So maybe there is something else that you can try.

Yeah, getting rid of the dome using the bake even strips should help since you're not losing that amount of cake. I use the 3 inch pans as I would 2 inch pans. I have found that unless you collar 2 inch pans, you're not going to get 2 full inches of height per tier. Also, you may need to put more batter in the pan. 

Most of my cakes are 4.5 to 4.75 inches tall before fondant. My batter for an 8 inch round weighs about 43oz. Your recipes give you 34oz.