BEEHIVE CANDY

Mercy Weiss (ft Christopher and Erin Pellnat) - War. Background - Mercy Weiss is an unsigned singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, who currently lives in Los Angeles.  Her unique songwriting and jazz-influenced vocals can be heard on a variety of collaborations with different musicians and producers.  In 2016, she released the "Mercy EP"  Bandcamp here - a collaboration with Christopher Pellnat, who is also the guitarist in the Poughkeepsie, NY based band, The Warp/The Weft.  "War" is another collaboration with Christopher Pellnat, with the addition of background vocals by Erin Pellnat, of the Brooklyn band, Caretaker.  Mercy wrote war after talking with two homeless drunk veterans at Union Square Park in NYC one day. It was in late August last year that we first featured Mercy, and the new song 'War' confirms (if ever it needed confirming) that Mercy Weiss is one very talented song writer and a beautiful singer. It's well worth checking out some of her

Linah Rocio - Kill The Monsters. Background - Linah Rocio is a singer-songwriter whose music - a fervid mix of jazz and indie, soul with hints of avant-pop - is passionate and powerful, intimating all manner of behind-scenes torment and drama. Showcased on her compelling new album Warrior Talk, it is beautifully arranged, with instruments ranging from electric guitar, piano and drums to banjo, trumpet, cello and double-bass. Each musician helped to shape the direction of the songs they performed on, adding to the free form nature of the recordings. The songs on Warrior Talk are richly detailed yet loosely constructed, with a jazzy spontaneity to match the self-styled diminutive warrior’s appealingly careworn - now caressing, now clamouring - voice, capable of communicating sorrow and despair, ecstasy and desire. There is a hair-trigger quality to her singing and piano-playing, both likely to erupt at any moment, with abrupt changes of tack and pace. There is a rawness and intensit

Deleter - Start To Watch. Background - Deleter is a punk rock/post-punk group from Minneapolis, MN composed of vocalist/guitarist Knol Tate (Askeleton, Killsadie), bassist/vocalist Travis Collins (Spirit Of 76, We Are The Willows), drummer/percussionist Josh McKay (Farewell Continental, Small Towns Burn A Little Slower) and guitarist Jordan Morantez (Blue Green, The King & The Thief).   Formed in 2012 as a means to deal with pent up musical and personal frustrations, the band decided to create by not over-thinking or over producing their brand of angular punk, but to keep the urgency and immediacy of their first thoughts and play by instinct. Over their short lifetime they have managed to refine their first creative thoughts to a bold and loud, sometimes obtuse, yet dynamic burst of musical therapy. Tate’s lyrics composed of poetry with classic lyricism create a voice with a unique perspective, while the band thrashes and dashes through songs before you can take the lyrical pr

Twilight Fields - All the Love I Can. Background - Twilight Fields is from Northern Canada and makes a mixture of atmospheric and psychedelic rock and influences from progressive rock, ambient, dream-pop, psych-folk and shoegaze. "All the Love I Can" was originally conceived as part of a Beach Boys cover ep of the song "All I Wanna Do" from the "Sunflower" album. When I dropped that idea half finished, I decided I still really liked one of the original compositions I had intended to include, "All the Love I Can", which emphasizes the theme of unconditional love of the original song. The production pays homage to the wall of sound production style practised by Brian Wilson and Phil Spector. "False Friend" is an old song redone in an ambient pop style and deals with the subject of betrayal. Facebook here . We are told by Twilight Fields regarding the new song  'All the Love I Can' - "I thought it would be a good way to

Heat - Lush, (from the album Overnight). Background - One only needs to take a quick glance at the bands that Montreal quintet Heat have been compared with to get a firm grasp on the visceral, wholesome noise they produce. From the brash pop of Echo and the Bunnymen to the post-punk leanings of Psychedelic Furs, this is a band that proudly take their place in the great alt-rock lineage, delivering rousing, thrilling anthems for the disenfranchised. Initially starting as “as an excuse to get together and drink”, Heat has grown in to something far more significant - and new record Overnight offers their most notable work to-date. Recorded at Montreal’s Breakglass Studio, the recording process was something of a rocky road for the band but the resulting record is a vehement leap forward, and one that looks set to cement Heat’s status as one of Canada’s most formidable exports. Led by the band’s three founding members, Susil Sharma (Vocals, Guitar, Synth), Matthew Fiorentino (Guitar, Sy

2017 and the beat goes on, musically it's a little quiet on the new material front, how long for we shall see.... Vaudevileins - Sea Anemone. Background - Chicago’s Vaudevileins released their new LP Magician on vinyl, CD, and digital download back on Nov. 18, 2016. Along with Jeff Julian (vox/guitar), Brennen Chouinard (drums/vox), and Bill Aldridge (bass), Evan Mohler joins Vaudevileins on lead guitar for the band’s second full-length recording, which will be their first release on vinyl. The 10-song album is the culmination of a multi-year songwriting and recording effort at Aldridge’s Third City Sound in Joliet, Illinois. Bill engineered the project, and the band worked with their long-time collaborator Jeff Halland, who mixed and mastered Magician for digital and vinyl at his home studio in Minneapolis-St. Paul. “We are really excited to finish Magician and have people hear it,” said Julian. “We think these are our best songs to date and we’re really proud of the prod

It's been a while since we have featured a live concert and so to end the year, here is a very good recording of a band  some will know, and hopefully many more will get to hear, know and enjoy... From the Internet Archive (IA) this is Tea Leaf Green live at Sierra Vista on the 9th January 2004. Tea Leaf Green (TLG) is a five-piece jam band from San Francisco Bay Area, comprising Josh Clark (guitar and vocals), Trevor Garrod (keyboards, vocals, guitar, and harmonica), Scott Rager (drums and percussion), Cochrane McMillan (percussion), and Eric DiBerardino. Tea Leaf Green began in the fall of 1996, when Scott Rager met Ben Chambers on the campus of San Francisco State University (SFSU). Chambers was the group's original bass player but left in 2007; he is featured on the band's first four albums. Rager and Chambers began playing together, practicing in Chambers's bedroom in a back house off Church Street in San Francisco's Castro District. In early 1997, Clar

Fox Medicine - Financial Elevator. Background - We are told that Nee rides broomsticks and likes to gypsy around. Vanny likes to tinker and get stuff done. The pair met at a Melvins show in Chicago, and describe their sound is heavy glittery noise. They go on - "We like secluded areas and are rarely social. Our influences are stoner rock, doom metal, post punk, peanut butter and good beer. PS. Reject reality and live life as art". The most recent release Noise Nurse is a compilation album of songs written by Nee while living in Toronto, Canada in the time frame between 2008-2011. She worked at a psyche/dementia ward as a nurse during the time of those songs, and drew a lot of influence from her surroundings. Most of the songs were written for projects like My Flea Circus + Goldie Luxx, etc, however little promotional effort was used, as they were mostly just for fun + for friends and were performed at local clubs and venues in Toronto's thriving music scene at the

Peter Joly - Till They Go. Background - Singer-songwriter Peter Joly was born in Buffalo, moved on to New York and began writing and performing whilst keeping his head above water working as a cab driver. Since the early 90's he has performed in and around Chicago and gaining attention for his work with the bands Big Breakfast and For Pilots. Peter Joly, released his self titled album in October 2016, an album that features contributions from top local musicians, including Jon Williams, Josh Piet (The Hoyle Brothers), Ryley Walker contributor Charles Rumback, Joe Adamik (Iron & Wine) and Gerald Dowd (Frisbie). All the songs were written by Peter in the summer of 2016 before recording them at various locations including MINBAL and Strobe Recording in Chicago, and Elecric Lady in New York (All the songs were mixed and mastered by Phil Joly in Brooklyn, NYC). Peter celebrated the release with a packed house at Chicago’s famous Hideout Inn, back in November 2016. Facebook here .