BEEHIVE CANDY

Snowball II - Anais & Me. Background - Los Angeles’ own chameleonic shoegaze, indie rock, and noise collective Snowball II has announced the release of their third full-length album in the first year since the band’s formation. The album is titled Flashes of Quincy.  ­Just as on the first two Snowball II albums, band leader/producer Jackson Wargo took on nearly all instrumental responsibilities on these recordings; although, the album’s first single offers a very rare and special guest appearance by Kurt Heasley—founder and frontman of influential ‘90s shoegaze band Lilys.  The first single—entitled “CR-VUC”—exemplifies yet another unpredictable stylistic departure from Snowball II’s dreamy and acoustic sophomore release Doughnut Holes—which itself was a drastic generic departure from their feedback drenched shoegaze debut album.  Flashes of Quincy is slated for release mid-February 2017. With this new album, Snowball II has resurrected and revived both the musical...

VOWWS - Heartbreaker. Background - With their new single, “Heartbreaker,” VOWWS veer into the wrong lane - and smash backwards into Pop. The new single was released this week, coinciding with their North American tour in support of British post-punk band White Lies. A flash-grenade of musical justice, “Heartbreaker” opens with the layered ramblings of a mad man - before exploding into an urgent groove of cascading beats, vertical guitars and a guiding, screaming synth - a musical offering that pummels you over the head with a sick smile on its face. "We wanted this song to be a window into casual insanity. It's war music for peaceful people cos when everything looks the same, it's harder to choose,” says Matt. Heartbreaker was produced by the duo and Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly, Fear Factory, Youth Code). Their second album, the follow up to 2015's 'The Great Sun,' is due mid-2017. Australian duo VOWWS met while studying music in Western Sydney. The...

Christina Rubino - Down To The Sea. Background - Brooklyn singer/songwriter Christina Rubino has a new video for a song entitled "Down to the Sea", off her upcoming full length album ''Godspeed and Guns" set for release on Valentines Day -February 14th 2017. With the release of the Godspeed & Guns album, Christina Rubino brings a new feel to a classic genre. Lush with addictive progressions, soulful vocals, and an alternative edge, the record boasts the aesthetic of indie rock anthems. Though the songs are diverse from one another, there is a glue that holds it all together, much like a concept album would. Most importantly, the record never loses sight of the emotional platform great songs are built from. In 2008, Rubino joined the all-female group Violator, a NYC based Depeche Mode cover band, as the lead guitarist. Throughout her time with the band, she loved the excitement of travel and live performance, but always longed to return to making original m...

The Dream - Get Dreamy (Round 2) 3 March 2017. Background - From the somewhat sparse, yet unique catalogue of adventurous, high-quality rock music coming out of Scandinavia in the late 60’s, the sole album ‘Get Dreamy’ by The Dream has been one of the most hunted treasures. Originally released in 1967, the album proves that the youth of Norway were just as happy swinging as their Blighty cousins. It also marks the beginning of guitar legend Terje Rypdals journey from beat music and pop into new musical territories, which would ultimately lead him to become a key player in the European jazz world. Any album that opens with a track (‘Green Things’) describing the heartbreak of aliens abducting your love, is clearly out of this world. But ‘Get Dreamy’ somehow fits there, and it doesn’t feel alarming when it takes you with it. Getting lost in the cosmos and making a great time out of it was the aim in ’67 and The Dream follow the tradition well. Having clear references to The Beach Boys...

Analog Candle - Trier. Background - Analog Candle are pleased to share the first single from their upcoming EP. Hailing from New York City via England, Chicago, New Orleans and Boston – Analog Candle is an expressionist, avant-garde dream-pop collective formed by producer and songwriter Callum Plews. Originally from England, Callum was inspired to create Analog Candle after collaborating with an array of musicians while living in the magic and bustle of New Orleans. The project began over six years ago, after Callum realised he was more comfortable with the concept of others performing and interpreting his creations than he was embodying them completely himself. Bringing together performers from the realms of avant-garde, folk and emo, the initial group began recording at Callum’s bedroom studio, and self-released a number of songs online under the moniker, Analog Candle (a reference to the Arcade Fire album ’Neon Bible’). Influenced by the early albums of Animal Collective and Brok...

Freedom Fry - Awake. Background - Freedom Fry is about to release a ton of great new music to follow up last year’s “Shaky Ground” single which is approaching 6M plays on Spotify, leading up to their debut album, and here’s the first single of the year. Prior to the release, “Awake” has been synced already in a handful of places including the Netflix show “Love” and the film “Baby Baby Baby.” The name “Freedom Fry” – a satire on French/US relations during the Iraq war. The French & American duo have racked up over 40 appearances on the music blog aggregator, including SEVEN Top 10s and TWO #1s. While independent, they’ve amassed over 20-million combined streams on Spotify & SoundCloud and received support across airwaves from radio tastemakers KCRW, KEXP, BBC Radio 2, Radio 6, SIRIUS XM, WXPN, RTL2, and beyond. Freedom Fry’s music, which heavily bleeds the warmth and sunshine of their home state of California, skirts the lines between pop, folk and indie rock – always blende...

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Down (is Where I Want To Be). Background - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, heads into its twelfth year and the release of its fifth album, The Tourist. Like previous Clap Your Hands Say Yeah records, The Tourist nods to Alec Ounsworth’s musical heroes—a group that includes artists such as John Cale, Robert Wyatt, Tom Waits and Nick Cave. However, this album also shows a natural progression from previous records. “Better Off” and “The Vanity Of Trying” are lush, keyboard-augmented songs, while “A Chance To Cure” and “Ambulance Chaser” are rhythmically askew, and the sighing “Loose Ends” is delicate, acoustic-based folk-rock. Ounsworth spent about a week recording The Tourist at Dr. Dog’s Philadelphia-based studio with a drummer and bassist. After that, he and engineer Nick Krill spent a few months “tidying things up” and recording additional embellishments: backup vocals, keyboards, guitars and more percussion. That gives The Tourist more of a band feel than the ...

Brandon Krebs - Alarm Pheromones. Background - “Avant-garde pop for everybody, filled with romantically gloomy soul voyages” is the best way to shorthand the windswept ache of Brandon Krebs’ widescreen rock. “Making records for me is a therapeutic process almost,” Seattle songwriter/musician/producer Brandon Krebs explains. “It's my favorite thing in the world.” Krebs has decided to go with creating under his own name for new album Refuge In Exile, due out in mid-March. A deliberate change up from the heavy guitar-rock of his last release Tethered to A Piece of Falling Sky (recorded under previous moniker Stranded Sullivan), Refuge In Exile’s instantly breathtaking sweep and rhythmically undulating hooks challenge its title’s reveal of how it was made intimately and mindfully in an uncertain two-year period of the artist’s life. The nine-song full-length will be released both digitally and on vinyl. Krebs says it comes from an urgently transitional period in which he did a lot o...