Sick Bees
"The Marina Album"
Up Records

The Sick Bees live in a wonderland inhabited by Thurston Moore and Beat Happening, where everything can be turned into music, and anything can be used as an instrument. This duo play noisy punk rock teeming with drum machines, beeps, bloops and samples.

What makes it special, is that at no point does the music get stale or boring, but it's not jarring either. Hell, the whole 13-song CD is barely 16 minutes long.

Tunes range from quirky noise to sparse acoustic guitars and vocals. "Get Out" opens with ambient water splashing before blending into the chimes of a child's xylophone. "Yer Cat Loves Me" comes off like vintage Sonic Youth with Starla's off key yelling over a super distorted guitar riff.

The Sick Bees are for adventurous folks only, but the record is definitely worth checking out if you're starving for something completely out of this world.


Reviewed by: George Koroneos
Reviewed on: May 19, 2005