In Víctor Erice’s 1973 coming-of-age film The Spirit Of The Beehive, a young girl and her sister growing up in 1940s Spain see a mobile cinema’s screening of Frankenstein. “The film’s producers do not wish to present it without a preliminary word of caution,” goes the presenter’s spoken introduction. “But I would encourage you to not take it so seriously.” Six-year-old Ana takes it as gospel. Plagued by unanswerable questions – how could Frankenstein’s monster accidentally kill someone, and why would the villagers murder him in retaliation? – she sets out in search of unknowable answers. The real world’s monsters, she soon discovers, tend to hide in plain sight.

Every week the Stereogum staff chooses the five best new songs of the week. The eligibility period begins and ends Thursdays right before midnight. You can hear this week’s picks below and on Stereogum’s Favorite New Music Spotify playlist, which is updated weekly. (An expanded playlist of our new music picks is available to members on Spotify and Apple Music, updated throughout the week.)

Last month, Spirit Of The Beehive announced their fifth studio album was imminent. You’ll Have To Lose Something, following last year’s i’m so lucky EP, will be their first full-length effort since 2021’s Entertainment, Death. We’ve heard lead single “Let The Virgin Drive,” and today we get two more: “Something’s Ending” and “I’ve Been Evil.” There’s also a double music video directed by Kelsea Dakota Larson.

The season of the Beehive is upon us: Psych rock/noise pop greats Spirit Of The Beehive have announced their fifth studio album You’ll Have To Lose Something. It’s their first project since last year’s i’m so lucky EP, and their first full-length since Entertainment, Death, which was one of the 50 Best Albums Of 2021. Before the new one’s out in August on Saddle Creek, they’ve shared its lead single “Let The Virgin Drive.”

For the past few years, we’ve dedicated a list during our year-end coverage to shortform releases. There’s no grand through-line for these sort of lists — it’s just 25 EPs that got us hyped up from artists all across the board. There are young bands showcasing developing talents; established acts taking a much necessary breather between LPs or offering us some might-have-beens from their previous albums; splits and collaborations and one-offs that just wouldn’t make sense in a full-length incarnation. Their runtimes might be minor, but they feel major.

Philly’s Spirit Of The Beehive have announced a new EP, i’m so lucky, their first project since 2021’s ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH, which made our 50 Best Albums Of 2021 list. Coming September 1 via Saddle Creek, the EP also arrives in the wake of bandmembers Zack Schwartz (frontman) and bassist Rivka Ravede 2022 breakup after 10 years together, a subject they individually parse on i’m so lucky. In tandem with the announcement, Spirit Of The Beehive are sharing a double single, “tapeworm” and “natural devotion 2,” which comes with a video directed by Daniel Patrick Brennan.

Over the weekend, Stereogum headed to Austin’s Oblivion Access to catch heavy and experimental sets from bands like Godflesh, Chat Pile, Mamaleek, Faust, MSPAINT, and many more. Yellow Swans played their first show in 15 years! A couple got engaged during Drain! Everyone performed in a sauna! In between gigs, we enlisted local photog Jay Ybarra to capture portraits of over three dozen acts on the lineup. Check those out below and find our reviews from the fest here.

This weekend, the nascent Austin festival Oblivion Access returned for its second outing. Though originally plotted to debut in 2020, rising from the ashes of Austin Terror Fest, Oblivion Access got put on hold during the long pandemic wait for live music to properly return. Now that it’s been able to kick off in earnest, it’s begun carving out a strange little corner for itself. Oblivion Access is a small, venue-based event that highlights things that would either be niche or completely unrepresented at more mainstream fests. Its overarching ethos is heavy and experimental music, leaning towards metal and hardcore or generally abrasive outsiders from the indie and rap worlds. But even those descriptions are not satisfactory. Everything at Oblivion Access is something-adjacent. It’s a place where all the most weirdo iterations of a genre or style can thrive.

Back in 2020, a new festival called Oblivion Access emerged from the ashes of Austin Terror Fest. They had big plans for their inaugural outing, but of course those got put on hold like everyone else’s 2020 plans. Last year, Oblivion Access finally got to make its debut, continuing Terror Fest’s penchant for booking some of the most beloved underground metal acts out there, but also an array of dark electronic, experimental rap, visceral hardcore, and even some more abrasive names from the “indie” world.

It’s been a long time since shoegaze has felt as invigorated as it does right now. But before examining the riveting state of the present-day shoegaze landscape, it’s important to revisit what happened to the genre throughout the 2010s, a decade of myriad incremental innovations but few radical transformations.

We made it! Mostly. Kind of. The COVID era, which utterly derailed music and most other things for the better part of two years, isn’t quite over. But around the time that most of us got our second arm-jabs, the whole economy surrounding music started to sputter to life once again. It’s not quite the same as it was this time in 2019 yet, but it’s now possible for a band to release an album and then tour behind that album. We used to take that for granted. Now, it feels miraculous.

Even as normal life feels closer and closer in America, the pandemic continues to disrupt the music world. Shows and festivals are scheduled to take place in a matter of months, yet some major 2020 tours keep announcing new dates for 2022. It’s all a bit surreal, when you consider that some of us, at least, thought we’d be back inside a venue sometime last summer when the initial waves of lockdown first hit. If you glance over the lineups and gigs plotted for the latter half of the year, and if you consider the artists we haven’t heard from in a while, you get the sense we’re in for a wild fall. It might not be quite how it was, but a post-pandemic world seems very within reach — and it looks like it’s going to be a loud one.

Spirit Of The Beehive don’t know why people think they’re mysterious.

Every week the Stereogum staff chooses the five best new songs of the week (the eligibility period begins and ends Thursdays right before midnight). This week’s countdown is below, and you can listen to a playlist of all our 5 Best Songs on Spotify.

The Philadelphia band Spirit Of The Beehive have been responsible for some of the past decade’s most beguiling music and they’ve been steadily building up steam as they go, getting more confident as their songs become more defined. 2018’s Hypnic Jerks was a definitive leap forward for the band and they’re following it up in a couple months with a new album called ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH, their first for Saddle Creek.

Last we heard from Philly indie-rock experimentalists the Spirit Of The Beehive was 2018's mixtape-style album Hypnic Jerks. Today they're back with a new song that continues to defy definition.

Last month, the Spirit Of The Beehive announced their forthcoming album Hypnic Jerks with the release of lead single "can i receive the contact?" Today we’re getting the second single "d.o.u.b.l.e.u.r.o.n.g." and its music video.

The Spirit Of The Beehive have been releasing inscrutable rock music since 2014, most recently with last year's excellent Pleasure Suck. For their next trip, the Philadelphia band is putting out a new full-length, Hypnic Jerks, in a couple months. The album is named after the involuntary twitch that happens sometimes when you're drifting off to sleep, violently pulled back into the real world. It's an appropriate sensation to describe the blend of dreaminess and aggression that the band has trafficked in since the start.

The Spirit Of The Beehive are great at creating their own weird little world. On their 2014 self-titled debut and 2015's You Are Arrived (But You've Been Cheated) EP, the Philadelphia-based group painted in muddy watercolors and dreary smears. Their third release, Pleasure Suck, is even more ambitious and chaotic, fine-tuning that evocative portraiture into songs that sound stormy and submerged. It opens with a far-off violin and tape warble, gradually morphing into a layer of dense noise and confusion that never lets up for the album's runtime. But underneath their obfuscation are tight melodies and hooks; they just take a little while to become apparent. Once they're under your skin, though, it's hard to get them out, and Pleasure Suck is an immersive listen that speaks to the talent of this enigmatic band. Listen to the new album in full below.

The Spirit Of The Beehive are releasing their sophomore album, Pleasure Suck, in a few weeks. We've already heard "Ricky (Caught Me Tryin')" and "Cops Come Looking," and today they're sharing another new one called "Twenty First Road Trip" via The A.V. Club. As with the last two singles, this one comes attached to a video. This one's directed by Federico Casanova, and it matches the song's disorienting pace with a series of increasingly frantic cuts of dystopian-looking scenarios that are actually playing themselves out in this country, and it includes an appearance by '80s TV character Max Headroom. Watch and listen below.

Philadelphia five-piece the Spirit Of The Beehive put out an excellent EP last year, and we'll be treated to a full-length from them soon. The band's new album, Pleasure Suck, will be out in March on Tiny Engines, and they debuted its lead single, "Ricky (Caught Me Tryin')," today by way of NPR. It comes with an imaginative, psychedelic video made by Nnamdi Ogbonnaya. Watch below.

Philadelphia five-piece the Spirit Of The Beehive released a great and overlooked EP, You Are Arrived (But You've Been Cheated), last month, and they've just announced that they have signed to Jade Tree Records to put out their next full-length, which they'll go into the studio to record early next year. They've also shared a video for the heavy, psych-influenced title track of their latest EP, featuring distorted, laggy shots of people experiencing... pleasant alone time. If you haven't checked out this band yet, please do. It's totally worth it -- watch via BrooklynVegan below.

The Spirit Of The Beehive play in muddy smears, punctuated by withered vocal samples that establish atmosphere and do a great deal of world-building. One in particular comes at the peak of gentle dirge "Natural Devotion": "If someone had asked me fifteen years ago to imagine what hell feels like, it would have felt a lot like being here right now." These voices at the margins of existence add to the feeling of being overwhelmed that comes with their new release, You Are Arrived (But You've Been Cheated). This is the kind of music that takes a while to unpack, densely layered and pockmarked with small details. The Philadelphia band throws everyone onto the floor in a jumbled mess and expects you to pick up the pieces, or at least get lost in the chaos and roll with it. The pillowy "You Are Arrived" acts as a steadying wave; "World Access" its hellish transverse. The closing track asks "Who Do You Belong To?" and provides no easy answer. The parenthetical in the title of the EP feels poignant, as it points out that life is inherently dishonest. Maybe we've gotten somewhere but for what purpose, and to what end? This sounds like the feeling of running in place, or searching around for something to latch onto and consistently failing to come to grips. Listen below.

The Spirit Of The Beehive descend ever further into darkness on "World Access," a new track from their upcoming EP, You Are Arrived (But You've Been Cheated), the follow-up to the Philadelphia band's self-titled debut. The song makes it feel like there's danger looming around every corner, and the video that goes along with it hammers that point home. Both go hand-in-hand to establish a haunting atmosphere. The video is a game of cat and mouse, with the cat being a demon in the shadows and a mouse being the terrified bystander trying not to get offed. The song carries the weight of being chased, and the inevitability of getting caught. Dissolves and skipped time match the jumbled nature of the track, slipping from droning feedback to eerie piano bits, all speaking to the impending doom. Underneath all the effects, there's a traditional song peeking out at times, but it's all filtered through abject horror -- the catchiest part is a repetition of "I'm running" followed by "I can't support you." There's no lightness here, only whispers in an ear while you're sleeping and screams outside a closed door. The Spirit Of The Beehive have created a living, breathing nightmare in song form, and it sounds great. Check it out below.

The Spirit Of The Beehive's self-titled debut is the kind of murky, densely layered record that is richly rewarding on repeat listens, and one that deserves a much wider audience than it has right now. The Philadelphia band has crafted an album that chooses to stay in the shadows, a storm cloud overhead and with no light in view. It oscillates between moments of beautiful, unbearable vulnerability and a tarnished ambience that slides towards tightly-packed noise, and it's at its best when both of those things happen simultaneously. On "I Smell Bud," an album highlight, they achieve a balance between these two that's absolutely divine and deeply sad: "I can't be myself when you are away/ It's okay, we'll do it your way." And later, spoken in deadpan: "I wish that I was skinny, then I wouldn't need to be cool and maybe you would need me more than I need you." The whole song has a queasy roll to it, which is matched in their new video, shot at a house party with an unsteady hand, mimicking the dizzying nature of the track. Watch below.