"Who Cares What the Question Is?"

While eating a delicious dinner the other night in a Camden pub, I was intrigued by a music video--think if Wes Anderson had taken a bunch of acid and made The Life Aquatic in claymation...wait a second--playing on the flat screen behind the bar. Initially, the neo-Muscle Shoals piano and crusty slide guitar, basically all I could hear, led me to believe that it was the blues-loving, Detroit roots rockers The Deadstring Brothers. However, when the credits flashed, I saw that it was actually Isle of Wight's The Bees aka A Band of Bees. I missed their highly regarded show at the Astoria when I was here a few months ago and have wanted to see what all the fuss was about ever since. So, yesterday I went and picked up their newest release, Octopus. It's an album seeping with 60's psych-rock influences such as the Beatles, Country Joe & the Fish, and the Byrds("Hot One!," "Love in the Harbor","The Ocularist"). And though the band attempts to illustrate a range wider than stoner rock--they nicely incorporate Meters-eque funk on "Got to Let Go"--The Bees get a little bogged down in Toots and the Maytals with "Listening Man" and practically steal the piano riff from Stevie Wonder's "Livin' for the City" on "(This Is for The)Better Days." Admittedly it's easy to listen to--hell, the band obviously has great influences--but it's an album that keeps you wondering where you've heard a tune before. Here's the video for "Who Cares What the Question Is?" It's actually the best song on Octopus. Tell me what you think.




Check out the Bee's myspace here.