Malena Smith - Tent Music - The Velveteins - Motihari Brigade
Malena Smith - 18.
Released today it's Beehive Candy's absolute pleasure to feature 18 the exceptional new single from St. Louis-based artist Malena Smith.
Malena's music is a coming of age story; her previous/recent single, "Betray Myself," was about realizing some of her habits and coping mechanisms weren't really in her best interest. Her new single, "18," is a look back over the last decade of her life, and asking the question, "If I had the chance, would I relive that decade differently?" We are pressured to figure out what to do with our lives at the age of 18, and often succumb to societal expectations to choose the "safe" options - which we can all likely relate to. The weight of the subject matter is juxtaposed by an airy atmosphere and a pop-funk groove, total ear candy.
Malena, a classically-trained singer who came up in the world of jazz, has sung in lounges from St. Louis to Tokyo and shared stages with the likes of Michael Bublé, Clark Beckham, and the St. Louis Symphony. She's a storyteller, and her music is designed to turn her journey into a shared experience that people can connect with.
She is currently writing and recording a body of work produced by her GRAMMY-winning mentor Brian Owens as a part of his St. Louis ecosystem Life Creative. The project touches on her journey through the struggles and triumphs of a young woman blazing a life and career path in a complicated world.
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The first single from Tent Music the name of the project and album by Micaela Tobin (White Boy Scream) and Joshua Hill is "Fade Away" which manages to breaks from dirge into ecstatic pop song within two minutes. It's a wonderful opening salvo hinting at the depths that Tent Music offers.
Tent Music is an album and project by violinist, composer Joshua Hill and Micaela Tobin - widely known for her avant-garde opera White Boy Scream project - that boldly cracks the door open between ritual and music, blurring the line between improvisation and possession, madness and oracular communication, destruction and creation.
Recorded in one night in a tent pitched outside the home of Joshua Hill's father's home, something happened that Hill, Tobin and visual artist Garek Druss (commissioned to provide the album art and sigilization of the album via a beautifully illustrated zine / insert) are just starting to understand the fulness of. While the album is wildly experimental, there are several entry points like the first single - "Fade Away" that recall Akron / Family's ramshackle exaltations while "Closer" reflects on Coil's ritualized noise.
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| Photo - Evangeline Belzile |
Soaked in the bright psychedelia of the 1960’s and dipped in the indie rock explosion of the new millennium, The Velveteins are best described as a bridge between the two. Inspired after living out of a camper van on the beaches of Australia for a year, frontman Spencer Morphy returned to Canada and started the band with co-songwriter Addison Hiller in 2014. Later joined by Dean Kheroufi, Daniel Sedmak and Cam O'Neill, the fivesome have since made a name for themselves for their incendiary live performances.
“Athene” is the third single to be released from their upcoming sophomore album. The track was inspired by the war goddess in Homer's Iliad with Morphy sharing, “I was exploring through the Iliad at the time, so the lore was fresh in my mind, but I imagined a tale about a woman sort of mirroring Athene in modern life. I drew from great women that I know, and crafted a song that explored developing a relationship with her, and falling under her influence and just being along for the ride.”
Written in the small surf town of Tofino, Canada, “Athene” emits an easy and laid-back tone with warm, effortless vocals, relaxed guitars and a steady beat, creating an overall comforting atmosphere. It’s easy to get lost in the mesmeric sounds of The Velveteins, where you’ll find yourself hitting repeat and staying along for the journey.
Garnering millions of streams for their music to date, The Velveteins have built an ever-growing, dedicated fan base across all corners of the globe. Their vigorous touring schedule has led to international festival appearances (SXSW, and The Great Escape) and opening slots for established acts including Wolf Parade, Hockey Dad and Chad Vangaalen.
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Motihari Brigade's new official short film “Reality Show” explores the struggle to perceive reality amidst the onslaught of corporate-state technological dystopian narrative control. Motihari Brigade partnered with filmmaker Jovana Tomasevic of MLADE Studio who directed and produced this creative cinematic visual story for the song. Jovana envisioned the mysterious hooded figure to represent the spirit of hope itself, encouraging people to break free from the technological filters imposed by an elite.
For a while, they are able to open their eyes, freely perceive reality, and smile, before all being consumed once again by the system. Appropriately, the video ends with a quote from George Orwell's "1984.” But hope springs eternal, as they say…
Motihari Brigade’s second album "Algorithm & Blues" features defibrillating electric guitar, tachycardia rhythms on bass, and drums played by an octopus on stimulants. Layered keyboard, horn, and vocal arrangements combine to produce the magic of a highly-caffeinated rock band thumping on all ventricles. Twelve original songs and one cover provide an energetic soundtrack for listeners to more happily navigate the dystopian reality show that we are all now busily sharing on our smart appendages.
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