The self-recorded/produced album and follow-up to 2018’s Hypnic Jerks, will be released on April 9th Saddle Creek. Pre-order your copy here.
Guitarist/vocalist Zack Schwartz and bassist/vocalist Rivka Ravede are now joined by new member Corey Wichlin, a multi-instrumentalist who relocated from Chicago to the band’s home territory of Philadelphia last year. In the spring of 2020, the trio began to write their new album at a distance by emailing files back and forth. “The process of making this album was basically the exact opposite of our experience creating Hypnic Jerks,” Schwartz explains. “We had to record that in seven days, because that was the studio time we had, whereas ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH was made over the course of three, four months.”
Though ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH doesn’t cohere in a single, unifying theme, the band samples old obscure commercials throughout, many of which guided the process of writing a song instead of serving as an appendage. Schwartz describes his songwriting process as a stream-of-consciousness, while Ravede asserts that she doesn’t typically write vocal parts with any specific intention in mind. “When I write, the narrative usually doesn’t present itself until after the song is done. And even then, it depends on how the listener interprets the words,” she reflects. Regardless of how dreamlike SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE’s lyrics can be, reality rears its head throughout ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH.
The album isn’t a metamorphosis, it’s simply the newest iteration of a longstanding project. “There’s a line in the Bee Gees documentary that I think applies to us. I’ll paraphrase: ‘We may not have always connected, but we always stuck around,’” Ravede says. Schwartz jumps in, “SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE: we’re still here.”
Check out the album's tracklist and watch the video for their new single "THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN'T DO" below.
ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH Tracklist:
01. ENTERTAINMENT
02. THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN’T DO
03. WRONG CIRCLE
04. BAD SON
05. GIVE UP YOUR LIFE
06. RAPID & COMPLETE RECOVERY
07. THE SERVER IS IMMERSED
08. IT MIGHT TAKE SOME TIME
09. WAKE UP (IN ROTATION)
10. I SUCK THE DEVIL’S COCK
11. DEATH
(facebook.com/spiritofthebeehive)
Tags: Spirit of the Beehive
