NEW YORK, NY (Columbia Records) - Columbia Records is readying Notes From The Underworld, the eagerly-awaited major label debut album from the California-based pop/rock buzz band Persephone's Bees, for nationwide release on Tuesday, June 6.
Notes From The Underworld is produced by Eric Valentine, who's helmed successful projects by Queens of the Stone Age, Good Charlotte, lostprophets and others.
The Southern California vanguard community radio station KCRW featured Notes From The Underworld in its January 2006 newsletter as tastemaker DJ Nic Harcourt's "Favorite Album of the Month." KCRW, a longtime supporter of Persephone's Bees, will headline the group - which has a reputation for delivering incredible live performances - at the station's new music showcase concert at this year's South By Southwest (SxSW) festival in Austin, Texas.
"Nice Day," the first single from Notes From The Underworld, has been licensed for in-store play at American Eagle stores and may be heard in a television advertising campaign for the Hilton Hotel chain.
Three 12" dance remixes of "Nice Day" - featuring versions of the song mixed by superstar DJs Pete Heller and Chris Cox, John Luongo, Steve Augello, Wamdue People, Rob Rives and Junior Vasquez - shipped to the nation's clubs in November, December and January. "Nice Day" was the country's Hot Shot debut the week of January 16 and the track has just bulleted up the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart to No 5. The Pete Heller and Chris Cox remixes of "Nice Day" are getting heavy airplay on both XM and Sirius satellite radio.
Award-winning director Chris Hopewell (Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, Scissor Sisters) has directed an innovative short film visually and conceptually combining the Persephone's Bees songs "Nice Day" and "City Of Love" into an aesthetically seamless flow of sounds and images.
Persephone's Bees is: Angelina Moysov (vocals, keyboards, bass); Tom Ayres (guitar, vocals); Paul Bertolino (drums, vocals); and Bart Davenport (bass, vocals).
Singer/songwriter Moysov grew up in Russia influenced by a wide range of music and literature. Moving to America in the mid-1990s, she met guitarist Tom Ayres, who was immediately drawn to her strong melodies, poetic lyrics and striking songwriting. Finding sympathetic musicians and dubbing themselves Persephone's Bees (after the classical Greek Queen of the Underworld and her natural minions), the group released its first self-produced album, City Of Love, a nominee for Best Debut Album at the 2002 California Music Awards. The word-of-mouth buzz generated by Persephone's Bees' live shows earned the group the 2001 San Francisco Weekly Award for Best Pop Band. Persephone's Bees has appeared on bills with Cake, BRMC, Jonathan Richman and many others.
