Passionate, heartfelt and energetic, High Up’s soulful debut album You Are Here is a raw, intimate portrait of turmoil and inner strength.

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Listening to High Up’s debut album You Are Here is a sacred experience: You’ve never heard soul, rock and punk blend quite like this before. Channeling the true muscle of Muscle Shoals, High Up radiate with an intensity seldom seen and rarely heard, especially today. Passionate, heartfelt and energetic, the Omaha, Nebraska band’s first full-length record You Are Here is a raw, intimate portrait of turmoil and inner strength, personal values and societal expectations, romance, politics and more. It’s a record we need right here and now in 2018, but at the same time it carries the sort of staying power that will last long after tomorrow becomes today: This is an album you’ll be listening to for years and years to come.

Shiny like fool’s gold, the American dream

You’re sinking just like the rest of us

But you still look down on me

The swine wear the pearls

Oh say can you see?

If we’re all equal, well

you’re more equal than me

– “Your System Failed You,” High Up

Listen: You Are Here – High Up

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Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering High Up’s debut album, You Are Here, out February 23, 2018 via Team Love. Produced by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, First Aid Kit, Monsters of Folk), the record introduces a relatively unknown indie band from Omaha and jettisons them into the spotlight with harrowing strength. Fresh out of Nebraska, High Up consists of frontwoman Christine Fink, her sister (notable singer/songwriter) Orenda Fink (Azure Ray, etc.), Josh Soto, Todd Fink (The Faint) and Matt Focht (Head of Femur, Bright Eyes).

But it’s not who High Up are that should matter; it’s what they do, and how they make you feel. Through dynamic layers of heavy soul and gut-busting rock, High Up deliver a record that captures depression and loneliness, connection and determination, willpower and solace… You get the picture; it’s the kind of music that speaks to the individual, as well as the community. It lifts us up, weighs us down, but ultimately finds the highs in our lows, shining a warm light in the darkness.

Higher than high

Lower than low

Living like an angel

From down below

Oh lord, dark as night

Swimming in the red sea

And I can’t fight it

Blue Moon

My impending doom is on the rise

Blue Moon

My impending doom is on the rise

– “Blue Moon,” High Up

High Up are sonically similar to the likes of Muscle Shoals soul-stirrers Alabama Shakes and St. Paul and the Broken Bones, but Fink’s charisma and personality lend the band their own spectacular identity. Their sound is wholly authentic: Fink spent considerable time singing in Alabama before moving back home to Omaha, and she brought the music with her, as is told in album opener “Alabama to the Basement”:

Left my home in Alabama for the flats of Omaha

Gave it to the bank, I guess I lost it all

Only the highway knows…

There’s a certain kind of drama

when you’re living in the basement

Smoking marijuana, climbing higher to escape it

Only the highway knows

From Alabama to the basement

It’s only a highway

You can’t escape it

Same shit, different day

Christine Fink’s powerhouse vocals, with their emotive depth and raspy core, emulates the likes of Amy Winehouse and Janis Joplin. Fink’s roars are as unescapable as her moans and cries, barreling down on our ears with the urgency of fire itself. Alongside her at all times is an incredible band of multitalented musicians who help to keep each moment of You Are Here not merely alive, but truly thriving: They are the cream of the crop, and they prove it eleven times over the course of their debut.

Take it easy

You know you got me where you want me

When I think I’m free

You gotta show that you own me

Well that may be

But you don’t have to act so coldly

You’re power-tripping on me

And I’m about to give my notice

So you teach me

That it’s your way or the highway

Well take your finger

And point right back in your own face

I’m a believer in preparing for the worst case

You’re power-tripping on me

And I’m about to give my notice

– “Two Weeks,” High Up

“What started out as two sisters blowing out weekends at karaoke bars ended up in three years of intensive work on this record, but we’ve loved every second of it,” Orenda Fink tells Atwood Magazine. “The response to the live show and the singles has been great and we’re really excited to get on the road with it, and super excited to tour with our close friends Whispertown and Jake Bellows. “

You Are Here dives deeply into the present moment, reminding us of life’s grandeur and its fragility at the same time. It’s heated like nothing else you’ve heard in 2018 – a piece of music you have to experience for yourself in order to full understand. There’s no doubt in our minds that High Up are head high up, and we can’t wait to watch them rise. Stream their debut album, a worthy 10 out of 10, exclusively on Atwood Magazine.

You Are Here is out on all platforms this Friday, 2/23/2018 via Team Love. See below for a complete listing of High Up’s 2018 tour dates – you won’t want to miss this show.

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📸 © Andy Lachance

You Are Here – High Up

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:: High Up 2018 Tour ::

* all shows with Whispertown

03.01 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle

03.02 – Lexington, KY @ Willie’s Locally Known

03.03 – Birmingham, AL @ The Nick

03.04 – Muscle Shoals, AL @ 116

03.05 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement

03.07 – Savannah, GA @ Graveface Records

03.08 – Athens, GA @ The World Famous

03.09 – Charlotte, NC @ Crown Station

03.10 – Chapel Hill, NC @ The Cave

03.11 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat (backroom)

03.13 – New York, NY @ Berlin

03.14 – Philadelphia, PA @ Bourbon and Branch

03.15 – Cleveland, OH @ Coda

03.16 – Indianapolis, IN @ Pioneer

03.17 – St. Louis, MO @ TBA

03.18 – Davenport, IA @ Racoon Motel

03.20 – Denver, CO @ Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox

03.21 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Hotel Red Lion

03.22 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Festival

03.23 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Festival

03.25 – San Francisco, CA @ Neck of the Woods

03.27 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theatre

03.28 – Tucson, AZ @ Hotel Congress

03.29 – Albuquerque, NM @ The Gold House

03.30 – Fort Collins, CO @ Surfside 7

03.31 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown