Voice of the Beehive

http://www.geocities.com/vot bpage/

They did "Don't Call Me Baby," right?

I'm drifting in the direction of thinking VOTB were actually no good.

Still haunts me years after I last heard it.

That song was done by VOTB? That one was on pretty heavy rotation on local alternative/college radio stations in my undergrad neck of the woods.

But what I want to know is, where did all those goth girls called things like 'Jennifer Tyler' go, why did they never come to *my* house, and for that matter, are any of them still knocking about? I think Tracer Hand is just using this board to Show Off. And should be banned, and stuff.

First heard 'em when Keith Harris, who posts here sometimes, put 'em on a tape we made together--"I Say Nothing" is a pretty great way to open side two. That was shortly before I moved to Seattle for the second time (my being here now is my third time); I was making tapes w/a few friends for driving-out purposes (I was the passenger while my friends Nate and Anne drove) and during the roadtrip I would pop them into the deck. When side two of Keith + me came up Anne freaked out: "I haven't heard this in years! This was my favorite tape in ninth grade!" etc. So I have pretty good memories of it, too, albeit sort of secondhand ones.

I saw from www.voiceofthebeehive.com that VOTB are reuniting for December gigs! Tracer, you must attend!

Woody the drummer (and briefly, very early on, Mark Bedford on bass).

Actually I think that's the only thing I know about Voice Of The Beehive!

I have never really understood the Search.

Probably I am 'misusing' it.

I love the Primitives. I have a soft spot - but where? - for the Darling Buds.

VotB I don't really know well, but that one song did thrill me that one time.

I think they were nearer to Fuzzbox than the Primitives, there was always a greasier rock element to their music. And yes, one of them was going out with Steve Mack.

I'm off to Soulseek, I never heard the album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdM6v_NC-iU

I heard this song today on my Transvision Vamp lastfm station, and it sounded really good. Well, pretty good. I couldn't quite figure out of they were terrible or really sweet and good.

Then I watched this video and it was even more like, is this Lilith Fair or is this the Primitives, because they are def not the same thing. Anyway, this video totally confused me about VOTB.

Like, VOTB seemed on the other side of cheesy after watching that video, but maybe I just have my sensibilities set improperly?

So then I watched "Don't Call Me Baby" and it was even more wtf.
Do these bands have a US analogue?

What is this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFXjyo-E6ok

Please note that I knew these songs as a teen, and never saw even an album cover because I taped them off the radio from the public school station. Maybe I checked out the Primitives from my local library? Can't remember. But I was a kid, and I pretty much thought Voice of the Beehive had beehives and dressed like they were going to a fake 50s thrift store prom. I haven't thought about them in like 15 years.

They're so normal, it's weird. I guess not normal-normal, but like not the anachronistic weirdos I thought they were. Huh.

It's difficult to compare them directly to any British or American acts of the era - possibly because they were neither, wholly. A huge part of their sound was dreamy, out-of-time Californian pop transplanted onto a jangly late-eighties British indie template - somehow quite different to US bands influenced by the English or English bands trying to 'sound American'. They also had a sense of humour that set them apart from their contemporaries.

I was a bit too young to appreciate them fully at the time but i picked up Honey Lingers and Let It Bee for twenty-pence apiece at a library sale about a decade ago and had the former on repeat for the better part of a year.

used to have a tape with Scritti's Provision on one side and Let It Be on the other, taped for me by my first true love, and nostalgia aside it was the greatest thing ever made by human hands and y'know sorrow floats and etc

The closest band to them that I can think of are the Adult Net, who were Brix Smith's other band, so there's exactly the same brit indie meets California thing going on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jJrwftmoCA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWC2-MFwWr8

Actually the Bangles are pretty close soundwise too.

Oh, I saw them live once before they had any hits, on a *very* indie bill sandwiched between Slab! (kind like a dance version of Swans) and That Petrol Emotion (their singer, Steve Mack, was the blonde VOTB girl's boyfriend at the time).

All very good. I'll have to try out that Transvision Vamp station!! Some of those "artist" stations are annoying!

It was pretty good for a while, but then it started to play Tiffany, and I got even more confused. I guess Tommy James qualifies as sort of like TV but ?? it also played martika which I promptly rejected.

I was thinking this morning that the bangles were a good comparison -- glad to see I was on track. This seems like a super UK thing though right?

Oh also I had one That Petrol Emotion album (won off the radio station lol) that was similarly vexing for me. I listened to it incessantly in 9th gr and then kind of abandoned it. I think I really liked the song "sensitize"?

Totally going to check out Slab and the other band NickB suggested tho -- thx!

Don't Call Me Baby vs. Don't Call Me Darling

La Lechera that happens to me too, but at least you get to hear what the crap sounds like in case you were wondering whether you should "go there". Some places give you a limited number of bans before you have to pay.

Good point! My Manuel Gottsching station is like 90% what I want, so sometimes it works. Or maybe I just don't have the same deep seated bias against those artists as I do for Tiffany ;)

Totally going to check out Slab and the other band NickB suggested tho -- thx!

― heartbreak beet (La Lechera), Sunday, June 19, 2011 4:05 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Err, I should add that none of those bands were very good! (I do have a soft spot for TPE though)

Oh man, I heard dancey Swans and thought OOH! Guess not :-/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=48tBwHmSKe0

^ Well they did have their moments i guess

um...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48tBwHmSKe0

Wow
PEOPLE PIE

You're right, I can live without hearing that again.

Haha, that was their best song too! Kind of a weird contrast to VOTB that.

Voice of the Beehive had some indie cred despite being on a major label and being pretty mainstream in their sound. They toured with Stump, played at Reading and hung out with all the bands and were generally part of the indie scene of the time. They were an excellent band really. The Adult Net were good too but they never toured and their whole career was a bit of a mess of abandoned albums and didn't have a steady line-up so they didn't make much impact. On the other hand VOTB had proper hits.

they always reminded me of a much more pop throwing muses.

also, when I was doing writing workshops at UC Berkeley (around 1993) there was a girl who wrote a short story that was about nothing but Voice of the Beehive songs (actually I'm sure it was about a relationship because that's all anyone wrote about, but it was also about Voice of the Beehive). I wish I still had that. It wasn't any good at all, but I thought it was admirable that they had a fan who liked them enough to get ridiculed in a writing workshop.

This was the best Slab song-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6afLKPUbiZg

Total Greed-era Swans rip, but thats not a bad thing

They're so normal, it's weird. I guess not normal-normal, but like not the anachronistic weirdos I thought they were. Huh.

^ this — but I think that's true for a lot of bands from the turn of the 90s. Monsters and Angels was undoubtedly their most polished single and it didn't do much (in the US at least), but not for lack of having a good video. The Let it Bee singles, in particular, are more Bangles-y than I remembered them being.

Also, they were doing some crazy covers as b-sides. If you click around youtube, you'll see them. "Independence Day" by Comsat Angels was of particular interest to me.