Rhinestone Pickup Truck Struggle to Conform in “Bee Sting” Video

Arriving October 21, Tristen Colby’s new EP Adore Me was mixed by JEFF the Brotherhood’s Jake Orall.
First Listen

Rhinestone Pickup Truck Struggle to Conform in “Bee Sting” Video

Arriving October 21, Tristen Colby’s new EP Adore Me was mixed by JEFF the Brotherhood’s Jake Orall.

Words: Mike LeSuer

September 07, 2022

Although the origins of Tristen Colby’s scuzzy garage-rock moniker Rhinestone Pickup Truck sound almost incidental, his forthcoming EP Adore Me—as well as the signing to Swedish indie label PNKSLM before it—certainly adds a sense of legitimacy to it. Still fairly lo-fi and bare-bones, the songs on this collection resemble the grungy, Southern-tinged output of a certain garage rock scene which lends one of its figureheads to the mixing of the album in the form of JEFF the Brotherhood’s Jake Orall.

The latest single from the collection demonstrates both its haphazard nature and its lineage from the Orall brothers’ own output, with “Bee Sting” proving to be as catchy as it is stoned-out. “When I was first working on this song it went through many different forms—the chorus especially has changed at least five times.” Colby shares. “I didn’t have a sense of direction with this track. I came up with all the instrumentation first and the lyrics came later on. This song has become one of my favorites that I’ve written throughout my entire discography. It depicts how socially awkward I am and the anxiety I feel when conversing.”

The song also arrives with a video that sees Colby decked out in corpse paint struggling to fit in while engaging in familiar everyday activities—shopping, mowing the lawn, cursing oneself in the mirror. Check it out below, and pre-order Adore Me via PNKSLM ahead of its October 21 release date here.