Highspire is a band I was a huge fan of even before I knew who they were.
Back in the deep-dark past, when there was this somewhat mythical website known as MySpace, it was a collection of this vast world of creatives who, for once, had a common meeting place to show you who they were and, in the case of Music, let you know what they were up to.
It was an embarrassment of riches – the search engine was such that you could dial into a genre, a country, a city – narrow down your browsing to demos or complete albums. It was, to put it mildly, amazing and something that has never been attempted again. Even though there is still a MySpace, it is a dismal shell of its former self and something that has gone largely unnoticed since it was taken over by Murdoch and dismantled for no good reason.
But in its heyday, it was an adventure that would last entire days and was a seemingly endless rabbit hole of discoveries.
One of those discoveries was a band from Philadelphia who were mesmerizing, other-worldly and an astonishing example of what America could do, taking the cue from Shoegaze and running full throttle with it.
Since it was such an overwhelming experience, I recorded some of the material Highspire was offering as a sort of introduction to the band. But like an idiot, I neglected to label the tracks – went off on another tangent to a feast of Indie from Spain and promptly forgot the name of the band.
Months later I revisited the tracks in question and it rekindled my fascination with this band – but by then I had no idea who they were, what the name of the track was or even where I found it. This was around 2007.
Cut to 2025 and playing around with a piece of software that could name any piece of music just by sampling 30 seconds of it. AHA Music took the 30 seconds and in less than 30 seconds told me exactly who it was – only took 18 years to get there.
Portsmouth by Highspire was the track in question and it immediately grabbed every bit of attention I could muster to find more out about them.
This is a long, roundabout way of giving you a sampling of four tracks off their debut album from 2003. This coincides with the release of their new album (their fourth), Crushed which comes out tomorrow (July 11) and is available via Bandcamp and their label Shelflife .
It is a brilliant album and for fans of Shoegaze, a must-have.
Since it’s not my mission to play new material (not wanting to run the risk of damaging sales), I thought I would run four tracks off the debut album, Your Everything as a sample of what Highspire is all about. Your Everything appears to be out of print anyway, so . . .
The tracks in question:
1. Shattered
2. As The Crow Flies
3. Portsmouth (the track that started this odyssey)
4. Take Me Apart
This sampling ought to give you some idea of just how extraordinary Highspire is and more than enough of a sales pitch to grab a copy today.
Plans for touring are up in the air, but I got the impression they are sticking to recording for the time being.
Enough of out me – press Play and dive into 19 minutes of Highspire – you can thank me later.
