| Persephone’s Bees | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Oakland, California, USA |
| Genres | Pop rock |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Website | PersephonesBees.com |
| Members | |
| Angelina Moysov Tom Ayres Paul Bertolino |
|
Persephone's Bees is an Oakland-based rock/pop music group.
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Growing up in Pyatigorsk, Russia, lead singer Angelina Moysova was musically inspired by her family: her mother played traditional folk/gypsy music while her brother played modern music. Immigrated to America in 1993, in 1999 she formed Persephone's Bees with Tom Ayres (who plays guitar), Paul Bertolino (drums), and Bart Davenport (bass). The band has featured several bass players including Mike Ferrel, Ethan Parsonage, and Phil Costello.
Their first LP, City of Love, was nominated for best debut album at the California Music Awards, along with being voted "Best Bay Area Pop Band" by SF Weekly. Afterwards, they signed to Columbia Records and released their major label debut, Notes from the Underworld. The debut single reached # 6 in Billboard Magazine's Club & Dance charts. "City of Love" was also featured in the opening scene and soundtrack to the movie "Bewitched" starring Will Ferrel and Nichole Kidman.
They toured with The New Cars as their opening act during their Winter Road Rage Tour '06.
The bands songs have appeared on The Sopranos ("Home"), Weeds ("Little Boxes" in Season 3), and numerous film, TV, and commercial placements including Hilton Hotels, Cingular, Nancy Drew, and more.
Persephone's Bees have been featured on popular music outlets such as MTV's "You Hear It First" (SXSW 2006 "Hot Bands to see"), Nic Harcourt's KCRW show "Morning Becomes Eclectic", and Yahoo Music.
Angelina Moysov's most recent side project is pop/rock band Candy Now!, which she formed with Blag Dahlia of The Dwarves.
In October 2010, the band relocated to New York and while on tour recorded and released a free download of Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan".
Shortly afterwards Persephone's Bees announced the self-release of their new album - yet to be titled. The first song, "Ugly Thing" was made available via digital download in the end of October 2010; the band plans to release a new song each month until the entire collection of new songs are available.
In their live performances as the opening act for The New Cars, they play a 5-6 song set featuring "Way to Your Heart", "Nice Day", "Muzika Dlya Fil'ma", and "Paper Plane" among others. They normally end with "City of Love", which is much extended from the studio version, and features Moysov playing the guitar, without looking, behind Ayres' back.