The Bird and the Bee
The Bird and the Bee
I’m not going to lie about how I came to appreciate these people - my appreciation had nothing to do with their own musicality, but instead was the result of the Ralphi Rosario and Jody Den Broeder club mix for the disc’s first single that first got my attention before I went the next step to look into the group’s own native expressions. But that’s marketing for ya, right? Minor transgression aside, The Bird and the Bee are a visionary musical duo with a highly original sound that combines multiple disparate influences into a hybrid musical statement that sounds as unexpectedly wonderful as a peanut butter and pickle sandwich tastes. What makes this duo so yummy is their scalding irony. On the disc’s first single, vocalist Inara George’s pastel voice is as soft and delicate as buttery pastry as she coos, “Would you ever be my, would you be my fucking boyfriend” atop music box-like piano notes. See what I mean? The group’s name is so apt, referencing the euphemism for sex and how sharply the words contradict the pulpy topic they infer, the same way the album’s lyrical content about love and sex contradicts so intensely the delivery and gentle instrumentation. The contrast isn’t always as stark as “Fucking Boyfriend” - on “Again & Again,” Inara politely commands “Say my name, say my name, say my stupid name / It’s stupid how we always seem to do it again” and reminds of the divisive kid in class who just wants to see how much he can get away with without really raising heckles. Or, on “I’m a Broken Heart,” where the irony comes not from sexual frankness, but in the form of dire confessions stated the same way a child would absent-mindedly recite a nursery rhyme, “Ache, aching, and teething / My big love is bleeding / I think I might be dying.” The subject matter doesn’t always hover around relationships, but always feels deeply internal, like a neurosis-ridden Hollywood hipster airing her scattered thoughts in a non-franchised coffee house.
The Bird and the Bee’s MySpace page proclaims their sound as “a futuristic 1960’s American film set in Brazil,” cleverly paraphrasing comparisons to the Astrud and Bebel Gilberto girls, Brazilian Tropicalia, and contemporary indie electronica while alluding heavily to the duo’s scene-establishing atmospheric tone. Their biography is short and specific: “Greg and Inara met a few years ago. Discovered a common love of jazz standards… nerded out for a couple of hours playing every song they knew… and then wrote and recorded a record together.” Inara George is the daughter of the late Lowell George (of Zappa / Mothers of Invention). George Kurstin is a multi-instrumental producer who has worked with Beck, The Flaming Lips, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In addition to this self-titled debut, a 4-track EP titled Again and Again and Again and Again was released several months prior which included a Peaches remix of “Fucking Boyfriend.”
