Thursday, March 12, 2009

A Band of Bees Brings the Retro Vibe


I came across A Band of Bees one day last year as I was sifting through the archives of concert.tv videos. I watched a low-fi video of a live show the band played somewhere in the UK, and there was something about the band's informality that caught my interest. They were up on stage with baseball hats pulled low over their eyes wearing jeans and t-shirts, just standing still. Occasionally they'd end a song, and all the band members would switch instruments. The singer headed back to the drumset, the bass player picked up a guitar, and the guy that had been playing the shaker stepped up to take lead vocals. Whoa, I thought. A Band of Bees are just a bunch of dudes that love making relaxed, retro music without trying to be anything that they're not.

They're from the UK. Originally, they called themselves The Bees, but apparently some legal issues came up from someone else who thought that their band was called The Bees first. They've got two full albums out now, I believe...A new one called Octopus and an older one called Free the Bees (which is better).

 Sometimes I wish all music sounded like this song does, it's my favorite song they've ever done.

A Band of Bees - I Love You
Buy Song: Amazon / iTunes

A Band of Bees: MySpace

-Chris

1 comment:

clance03 said...

Couldn't agree with you more. Fantastic band and seriously under-rated. I like the diversity that each album has, strong musicianship with a delicate ear for detail. They experiment well, somewhat reminscent of the Beatles at times.
I never hear of them playing live much, Looking forward to catching them someday.