BEEHIVE CANDY

Photo - Sophie Jouvenaar Pale Blue Eyes - Star Vehicle. Following the announcement of their debut album Souvenirs, coming out on September 2, Totnes’ Pale Blue Eyes yesterday shared a new track from the record. “It’s a hopeful and uplifting track,” says PBE singer/guitarist Matt Board. “It’s about daydreaming of the future and riding out difficult times together – kind of fantasizing about somewhere far away. It touches on times at art college, where there was a student bar called The Rat & Emu, out in the middle of the countryside. I remember the stars seemed so bright overhead.” Souvenirs was recorded in PBE’s own Penquit Mill studio, just south of Dartmoor, the studio having been funded by a bank loan and endless part-time jobs. PBE are the couple Lucy and Matt Board, crucially aided by Motown-mad bassist Aubrey Simpson. Matt (vocals/guitar) and Lucy (drums/electronics) met at Dartington College of Arts in South Devon, a storied establishment that’s been enlivened over the year...

The Local Honeys - Better Than I Deserve. Linda Jean Stokley and Montana Hobbs, better known as the beloved Kentuckian duo, The Local Honeys, have a gifted way with words—particularly the playful colloquialisms and regional idiosyncrasies from their home in the Bluegrass State—that simultaneously connects the past and present, old and new. They bind stories with warm vernacular that makes those in-the-know feel warm and welcome and those not, well, flat out curious to hear more.  The Local Honeys’ newest is “Better Than I Deserve” from their upcoming self-titled album (out July 15th via La Honda Records), of which the title itself was an everyday motto of Hobbs’s Papaw; a positive answer for the oft-asked question, “How are you doing?” A moody two-step, “Better Than I Deserve” tells the story of Montana’s grandfather who was an orphan, a U.S. naval pilot, and a war survivor. “‘Better than I deserve’ was his motto in life and carried him through many hardships,” says Hobbs, who bui...

Elle Celeste - So Few. Calgary-based singer/songwriter Elle Celeste releases the second single, “So Few,” from her debut solo album Call On Me, due out in Autumn 2022. Much like the title track, shared back in March, “So Few” offers another powerful glimpse of Elle Celeste’s stunning artistic vision that combines familiar folk-rock elements with cinematic atmospherics, all propelled by her haunting voice, reminiscent of Cat Power’s Chan Marshall and Sharon Van Etten. “This song was inspired by the original Blade Runner from 1982,” Elle Celeste says. “I enjoy the gloom and dread in the film and the feeling that everyone is just existing. Vangelis did an incredible job on the score. I tried to emulate his synth tone in the intro. Overall, this track is my ode to the rise of machines.” Elle Celeste’s new material builds on the “21st Century folk music” approach of her former band Copperhead that blended punk, ambient and electronic sounds with traditional elements. She wrote eight of Cal...