Blatantly disregarding the double-live principle of rock school on their fourth full-length, Spirit of the Beehive instead take the listener on a dark ride. The record is called Entertainment, Death and with its cover image of faceless funhouse patrons being beckoned into the mouth of madness of an amusement ride’s entryway, a mouth belonging to a cartoonish but menacing red-eyed devil, we’re given a hint of what’s to come inside--a carnival ride full of herky-jerky twists and turns. 

Entertainment, Death moves restlessly between ambient floating-in-space “tunnel of love” passages like heard in the song above and whiplash passages as illustrated below, similar to when the midway ride's bumper car rolls over a relay switch illuminating a skeleton or some other scary creature leaping out of a casket and lunging straight at you, accompanied by a loud cackling laugh and a spray of hissing steam. 



Despite the seeming stream-of-consciousness of much of Entertainment, Death the album is organized around a conceit that makes thematic sense out of its through-composed structure. Album opener “Entertainment” begins in medias res and ushers the listener through a sonic birth canal of rumbling drones, squealing test tones, scuttling percussion and intense ethereal whooshing. But relative calm then descends with a loping rhythm and chirping birds and a pastoral folk song melody with harmonized vocals informing us that “I woke up when I heard the blow / heading east towards KSMO” a calm that’s broken only slightly by the entrance of glitching synths and a warped string section. 

Guitarist/vocalist Zack Schwartz and bassist/vocalist Rivka Ravede have explained elsewhere that while on tour for 2018’s Hypnic Jerks they suffered a tire blowout in route to a gig in Kansas City, Missouri (a tour that had them opening for the band Ride no less) which led to them imagining a scenario where they perished in the aftermath of a car accident and where their new album would be conceived as a series of fleeting thoughts and musical fragments and distant memories triggered in the split-second leading up to their imminent death occurring on the last track fittingly called “Death.”

More than just an inner space travelogue the record also serves as a reckoning of sorts for lives spent creating and consuming “content” (a.k.a. entertainment) with the Beehive crew expressing some ambivalence and admitting “I regret some choices I’ve made / entertainment only remains / while I keep descending / who will decipher the pain from the lie?” and between the bookmark tracks of “Entertainment” and “Death” the album delves into a sonic and lyrical purgatory for the rest of its running time, descending into Hell for the penultimate multi-part “I Suck The Devil’s Cock,” a song that doesn’t so much advocate demonic fellatio as it advocates demonic fellatio used as a metaphor for the Faustian bargain of selling one’s soul for rock ‘n’ roll or of serving the servants by serving new content to the modern-day deity of the Internet server.

Just in case you're not finding it easy, one good way to get on the wavelength of Entertainment, Death is to read up on what the Buddhists call “bardo”--intermediate, indeterminate state of non-being (based in becoming vs. being) like the twilight state between wakefulness and sleep (a.k.a. hypnagogia) or the cosmic void between life and death or between death and rebirth. Spirit of the Beehive cross the dharmata bardo or “luminous void” described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead with Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle as represented by the record's shifting tempos, warped pitches, flanged timbres and vacillations between chaos and stillness where “enough is never enough” and where the “remember[ed] promise of a future” is replaced by an eternal present. 

Both the quotes directly above are taken from “There’s Nothing You Can’t Do” which transforms a cheap ad slogan into an aspirational mantra and a luminous void (“Property of Void Industries”) and for almost two minutes it comes on like a song you’d hear at a sexy alien discotheque--with a slinky groove wedded to a strangely alluring detuned trumpet and wispy vocals that declare the merits of a “heavy hand, middle class / chemical in a bag / all I want; love me all the time” before lifting off into s hook at 1’13 that's sublime enough for one to overlook the quiet desperation of lyrics like “Could it all be in my head?” and “I made my bed, I’ll lie in it”--a song that just about any other band would leave untouched and promote as their radio-ready new single. But instead SotB drown their potential hit song in the bathtub toward its end, submerging it under waves of feedback and distortion and paranoid-sounding screaming that promises “I’ll be your friend” over and over again but which I usually hear as asking “Are you afraid?”

 

And so with Entertainment, Death the Philly-based three piece (reduced from five on their last LP; Zach and Rivka are joined here by multi-instrumentalist Corey Wichlin) Spirit of the Beehive have assembled fragments of their musical past--ranging from early shoegaze and noise-based music to sample-based collage and dreamy indie rock and electronic experimentation--into a cut-and-pasted musical journey that combines the aforementioned elements with other influences (e.g., vaporwave) resulting in a manifesto for the end times that beckons you to enter the void and to buy their band t-shirts and art works. (Jason Lee)

Hypnic Jerks is the latest album from The Spirit Of The Beehive, and is out now via Tiny Engines. Hovering between a laid-back, melodic cloud and dramatic shifts of intensity, the band finds a mechanism to bring down tensions without eliminating them. An eerie, warped element hangs in the periphery, creating a mesh between odd, groovy precision and gritty abruptness. You can catch The Spirit of the Beehive with Boston's Pile on Thursday, October 18 at The First Unitarian Church.

“Can I Receive the Contact?” is the lead single from The Spirit Of The Beehive’s forthcoming album Hypnic Jerks, due out September 14 via Tiny Engines. Keys lift in an emerging manner, before the band’s raw, lo-fi, experimental energy takes hold. It feels like witnessing a dream-state that is part floating fantasy, before shifting with urgency as the song’s inquisitive title is continuously repeated. The band is set to go out on an October-long tour with Pile, and will be making a stop home on Wednesday, October 18 at the First Unitarian Church. (Photo by Emily Burtner)

Together with visual artists/filmmaker/photographer Craig Scheihing, psych outfit The Spirit of the Beehive has provided us with a woozy documentation of their adventures on the road, soundtracked by "Pianos, Heavy Instrument" and "Snow on the Moon," songs sequentially found on band's latest LP Pleasure Suck (Tiny Engines). The former goes along with the band members on a scenic, hillside hike, before melding into the latter, where a lazy, sun-kissed day at the beach is eventually interrupted by the perpetual motion of life on the road. The Spirt of the Beehiove will be continuing their heavy 2017 touring schedule with a nearly month-long stint opening for The Districts this summer, but before they leave home, you can catch the guys and gal this evening at Spruce Street Harbor Park's Waterfront Sessions with Permanent Body. (Photo by Emily Burtner)

There is way too much going on this weekend in Philly, and it looks like the weather is going to be fan-fuckin-tastic! So what’s on our agenda? Psych outfit The Spirit of the Beehive have been on an extensive tour of the U.S. for the past month and a half, bringing the wonderful weirdness of their LP Pleasure Suck (Tiny Engines) to the masses. They’ll be returning home this evening to finally celebrate the record’s release among friends at Everybody Hits, where they’ll be supported by Three Man Cannon, YT, and Old Maybe. Laser Background will also be holding an album release party of their own for Dark Nuclear Bogs this Saturday night with good pals Norwegian Arms, Breathers, and YCIB at Baird Mansion Atrium.

Get Better Fest 4 will be taking place over the weekend at the First Unitarian and PhilaMOCA, as well as Glitter Galaxy. The two-day event taps the talented and socially conscious Philly punk community to raise donations this year for the Trans Assistance Project, Youth Emergency Service, and Women Against Abuse. At the showcase, you’ll find Deli faves +HIRS+, Thin Lips, Radiator Hospital, Amanda X, Soul Glo and many more (view the full lineup HERE) raging out for good causes. And of course, there is the NFL Draft going on at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and besides seeing some future NFL millionaires, you’ll be treated to performances from rising stars in the local music community such as Strand of Oaks, The Districts, Tunji Ige, Chill Moody, and Good Old War. So get out, and take advantage of living in such a rad city! - Alexis V.