 |
| Photo - Tom Mason |
Kidsmoke return with 'I’m Always Getting Carried Away', a shimmering new single and their first release since their acclaimed debut album 'A Vision In The Dark'. Written on New Year’s Day, the track carries a sense of urgency and renewal as the band step into a new chapter. Built around the dual meaning of its title, the song moves between moments of being swept up in feeling and something more physical and final. Bright, melodic and quietly weighty, it pairs the band’s dreamlike indie with reflections on memory, mortality and the passing of time.
Vocalist and guitarist Lance Williams explains: “The lyrics came really quickly and are built around the song’s title, playing with the meaning of being ‘carried away’, whether it be emotionally or physically.” The song was shaped in part by Williams’ work visiting a dementia support group, an experience that brought the fragility of memory into focus. “It was both beautiful and heartbreaking,” he says. “It made me appreciate how our memories bind us together… I think I was trying to highlight how precious the little moments are.”
On the music, bassist James Stickels adds: “I know I wanted it to sound like a song I’d of written in the early 00’s, so I was channeling The Strokes, Bloc Party, Futureheads sort of thing… It’s deliberately simple, written from a place of nostalgia and longing for simpler times.” The chorus opens out into something moving and uplifting, shaped by a gently lilting diminished chord that carries a hint of George Harrison. Layered backing vocals, including the band’s children, draw out the harmony and create a real standout moment that adds even more beauty.
============================================================================
Loosey recently announced a new LP and now they are back with a brand new video from their upcoming "A Retrospective: 2023 - 2025" LP. Following the tragic end of shooting star punk greats New York Hounds, Loosey began as a coping mechanism for a pair of friends with a shared love of rock ‘n’ roll-transforming a time for mourning to celebration of life. The resulting ideas took the big stomp of Slade, the classic power pop of Teenage Fanclub, and riffy pub rock like AC/DC and packaged it all with a DIY aesthetic, creating finely-crafted, hard-rockin’ confections with an undercurrent of punk grit, ready-made for downing an icy one during a good old-fashioned singalong.
Once Loosey began to take life, the earworms added a healthy dose of stage swagger, catching on quickly with audiences. Their reputation for owning the stage quickly lead to fly-in gigs across the states, shows with the Templars, The Marked Men, Sheer Mag, Nothing, RIXE, Murphy’s Law, Haywire, The Chisel, in addition to touring stints with Beton Arme, Angel Dust, Alvilda and others.
The band recorded several tracks in 2025 at Studio G in Brooklyn, NY with Daniel Schlett at the helm for engineering mastering and mixing. Respected artist and musical journeyman Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Zwan, Iggy Pop band) shared co-production credits with the band as well, adding guitar to the track “Need You Baby.” The result is twelve new tracks coming out in North America on TKO Records on May 8th. The band also just announced a release show and a run of shows with Generación Suicida.
============================================================================
We are a week late in sharing this video, however The Slackers are to impressive for Beehive Candy not to do a little catching up! Background... NYC ska/reggae legends The Slackers have released a brand new music video for the single "The Whole World Was In On It!" The video was shot by Eric Durkin & Alyssa Tennyson, edited by Pat Byrne, and completed with post-production & creative direction by Rock and Roll Creative. This song comes from the NYC ska/reggae legends' latest EP, Money is King.
“The Whole World Was In On It” is about the events that leave their mark on your life, and it was written by guitarist Agent Jay, who says: "The summer of ’77…there was a fire in my building in Queens, Elvis died, and New York fell into a legendary blackout. In my mind, as a kid, all these events happened on the same night, and were all related. The blackout caused Elvis to die, and my building to catch fire...which caused the blackout, etc. Everything was connected…the whole world was in on it!
But of course, Elvis did not die during the blackout...although I’m not sure [of] the night of the fire in my building. Things aren’t as connected as we’d like them to be. Nothing makes sense anymore."
============================================================================
Tangients, the collaborative project of Chelsea Hope Ray and Be Hussey, unveil their debut album, Embers — a deeply introspective and sonically immersive body of work that navigates the intersections of time, memory, loss, and renewal. At its core, Embers is an emotional reckoning; a sweeping meditation on the fragile persistence of hope. The album traces the arc of a wounded identity in flux — capturing heartbreak, self-reflection, and the quiet resilience required to endure. It is, as Ray describes, “a cry for nostalgia in its most yearning form as well as an awakening to the unknown.”
Across its runtime, Embers explores the tension between past and future, ultimately grounding itself in a singular, universal imperative: survival. Much of the album came together with an almost uncanny immediacy. Songs and lyrics emerged instinctively, as if waiting to be uncovered, later revealing themselves as reflections — and at times, premonitions — of lived experience. In hindsight, Embers carries a darker emotional weight, shaped by a period marked by personal struggle and disorientation. “There were moments where I was letting life happen to me instead of creating my own direction,” Ray reflects. “This record documents that, but it also marks the beginning of choosing a different path.”
The album opens with “We Are Listening,” a standout track that encapsulates the project’s emotional and sonic scope. Built from a synth foundation provided by Hussey, the song evolves into something both sacred and spectral — “like going to church in a cemetery,” Ray notes. Anchored by the haunting tones of a 1963 Hammond A-100 organ, the track carries a deeply personal resonance, serving as an homage to Ray’s late grandmother, a lifelong church musician. The opening lyric, drawn from her grandfather’s familiar refrain — “Feelin’ like a million. If I felt any better, I would have to take a pill for it.” — grounds the song in lived memory, while its sweeping arrangement and mid-song tonal shift deepen its sense of longing and return.
============================================================================
Jody King shared the story behind the recording: “During my college days, a buddy and I were hanging out in his parents’ basement listening to music. ‘Jet Airliner’ was playing, and one of us picked up a guitar and started playing the opening repetitive riff. After a few minutes of messing around, it had morphed into bluegrass mode. The chorus section was perfect for improvisational soloing and made for a smoking bluegrass tune, accented by the signature riff and those well-known, catchy lyrics.
I’d always loved The Steve Miller Band and that song, but playing it this way really reinforced that love. I’ve wanted to record it ever since. Fast forward a few decades, and after working with Larry Cordle for years, I knew he had a soft spot for this era and style of music. He also has the voice and instinct to pull it off. I was thrilled when he agreed to do it, and even more thrilled to hear his performance on the track. My hope is that folks listening will appreciate the same love that Larry and I share for this music—and the same excitement that a couple of college buddies once felt in that basement years ago.”
Cordle added: “When Jody King played me the track for ‘Jet Airliner,’ I was absolutely knocked out. What a great idea to take this Steve Miller rock standard from the ’70s and reimagine it as a driving bluegrass number. I knew I was listening to something special. What I didn’t know at the time was that he had played every instrument on the track except the mandolin. He left that detail out when he played me the song. When I asked who the other musicians were, he said, ‘Well, I played the bass and guitar parts,’ as if to suggest anyone could do that. It’s remarkable that this man could be this proficient on all these instruments.
============================================================================
 |
| Photo - Derek Bremner |
Brighton (UK) five-piece Highdrive have shared their third single 'Passing By', out today on Venn Records. The new single follows the release of recent tracks 'Something I Said' and 'Cherry' and arrives ahead of upcoming shows in Brighton and London, plus festival appearances at 2000 Trees and Brighton Psych Fest. Highdrive have quickly become a fixture of the south coast live scene, scoring early shows alongside Marmozets, English Teacher, Do Nothing, TTSSFU, Deadletter, Welly and Glare.
On latest single 'Passing By', their live intensity hits head-on. Scorched guitar lines lurch and coil around Lucas Leitch’s soaring vocal, tracing the messy fallout of a relationship. As big, hooky moments force their way through layers of distortion and tension, the song builds to its breathless finale.
Speaking on the track, the band said: "Passing By is a song about grief, focusing on remembering the bad things and the reasons why the relationship ended in the first place, rather than looking back through rose-tinted glasses."
Forming in 2024 with a mutual appreciation for acts including Deftones, The Jesus and Mary Chain and DIIV, those disparate influences have carved out a unique lane for the Brighton upstarts as they go from strength to strength.
============================================================================
