RUBY JEAN AND THE THOUGHTFUL BEES
Rebekah Higgs, the band’s lead singer and respected solo artist in her own right, throws herself both literally and figuratively into each performance, becoming ringmaster for the seething, sweating, dancing crowd before her. She doesn’t feel the bruises she incurs while crowd surfing over the moshing masses until she wakes up in her own bed the next morning in a post-party haze. Memories of her alter-ego return when the YouTube clips appear, her pouring a bottle of champagne from stage into some shirtless dude’s mouth, somewhere in the midst of seven costume changes.
Ruby Jean’s soul might belong to Higgs, but the heart and beats that go with it belong to producer Colin Crowell, the mad scientist responsible for much of the Bees sound. Crowell lurks amongst the shadows, keeping the machine running fast and tight with turntables, vocoder, mini Korg keyboard, and laptop producing insane blips and bass. Rapturous adulation during a chaotic set is the hard won pay-off for the hours hunched over electronics in his home studio, giving birth to the ingredients for what has been hailed by industry insiders as the best new live act in Canada.
Higgs and Crowell aren’t lonely killer Bees. Heralded East Coast muso Jason Vautour provides the flaming guitar licks, regularly clad in gold spandex and red sequins, nearly stealing the fashion spotlight from his dolled-up female lead singer. Alternate tunings and ear-bending pedal work turn his axe into multi-purpose weapon, churning out hooks that lodge into your brain and force your ass to shake.
The devilishly handsome and massively talented drummer Mike Belyea holds it all together with a sly grin. Forget the computer-based drum tracks less worthy indie-dance acts pander. Belyea fills the room with rib-cage rattling live percussion, his time-keeping directing the
electro-inspired magnetism that is a Thoughtful Bees gig.
Together, their audacious on-stage presence earned the Bees impressive headlining and festival shows before they released a single note of recorded audio. The four-piece shared the stage with Thunderheist, Dragonette and Kid Koala, and recently invaded the UK, scoring an
invitation to the Great Escape in Brighton after a scorching set at Canada Music Week that won the group the coveted award for Band Most Likely To Succeed.
Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees backed up a exponentially growing live reputation with its self-titled debut full-length (out on Youth Club Records), hailed by critics everywhere, from Billboard, Exclaim!, Metro, The Hour (Montréal), and FFWD (Calgary) as one of the best albums of 2009. Music fans cast their vote and Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees shot to the top of the Earshot! dance chart. Even the packaging screamed “Hell yeah,” the first 1,000 discs coming in limited edition, handmade, silk-screened cases designed by renowned artists Chris Foster and Laura Dawe.
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More information on Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees:
http://www.myspace.com/rubyjeanandthethoughtfulbees
