- Courtesy of Kris Di Benedetto/Ice Age Records
- I can only assume this is what the band members looked like as children.
I’ve been a fan of Ice Age Records for nearly as long as I’ve lived in Chicago—the local DIY label has released music by defunct postpunk trio Cloud Mouth and a handful of fourth-wave-emo outfits, including CSTVT and the World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die. So when Ice Age honcho Kris Di Benedetto hit me up to tell me about an album he’s getting ready to release I was eager to listen to it.
Di Benedetto is teaming up with Ranch Records to release the self-titled debut from Philadelphia’s the Spirit of the Beehive. Their melodic, melancholic tunes are steeped in fourth-wave emo, but they also cozy up to more than enough warm shoegaze and worn-in power-pop to win over anyone averse to the “e” word. Today’s 12 O’Clock Track is an exclusive premiere of one of the songs off the Spirit of the Beehive’s album, “Tulsa, OK,” which opens with a lovely, life-affirming guitar riff and never looks back. The band’s debut comes out on cassette in the fall, which should coincide with a tour that will bring them to Chicago on September 30; e-mail kris@theiceageiscoming.net for more information.