Back in the deep-dark past of 2006, when MySpace was the go-to place to discover music, art, writing – virtually everything creative from all over the world, it was an embarrassment of riches as far as new bands and new music was concerned. You could spend hours, even days, plunging into rabbit hole after rabbit hole, digging up gems from bands located everywhere from Cork, Ireland to Tijuana, Mexico.
It ran the risk of being overwhelming, and on more than one occasion the sheer number of bands and the vast variety of music got me lost. And out of my own spaciness, neglected to take notes sometimes – being swept away by the music, swearing up and down I would remember and then finding them lost as the avalanche kept rolling along, not stopping for anything.
One such band totally lost me – I forgot to write down who it was. I had the song but no way to identify it. So it sat on a hard drive for the better part of ten years. I would make vague attempts over the years to find out who it was. I had no clues – even though the search engine for My Space was very good at directing you to specific genres, countries and even towns where the music you were listening to was happening. Not so with this band. For the longest time I thought they were Swedish, because the dates lined up around the same time I had found a bunch of Swedish bands that caught my attention. I assumed they were from Stockholm.
But no. I forgot about it for a good five years before running across this totally amazing piece of software that could identify any song – I mean ANY song you handed it. Knowing how much hype goes into claims of “doing everything all the time” I tossed the track in as a half-hearted afterthought.
Took about 30 seconds and the result was Portsmouth by Highspire, off their debut album in 2003. Quickly found them on Bandcamp and felt my jaw drop. The album is a gem and Highspire are still very much around and their debut album, Your Everything was like running into an old friend. Come to find out, they are from Lancaster Pennsylvania (nowhere near Stockholm) and have been together since 1994 and have a cult following and a new album in the works, their third – their second album Aquatic continues in gem status and this is a band that I find hard to believe has not been catching attention everywhere. I think that needs to change now.
I confess to knowing very little about the band members, other than reading blurbs on their Facebook page – but I would urge you to keep an eye out for them on Facebook and head over to their Bandcamp account and grab the two albums they’ve released so far.
As for the four tracks tonight:
1. Portsmouth
2. Shattered
3. No Day Like Today
4. As The Crow Flies.
Haven’t found any live soundboards or radio sessions, but when I do you’ll know about it. In the meantime, crank this one up – it’s Saturday night and you need to untie your mind.
Do it.
