Ruby Jean and
the Thoughtful Bees

Ruby Jean shows are ground-poundingly ecstatic. Rebekah Higgs, the first horsewoman of the apocalypse, throws herself both figuratively and literally into the seething, sweating, dancing masses before her. The bruises she incurs while crowd surfing, moshing and hurling herself unto the audience are unfelt until she wakes up calm and hung-over in Rebekah Higgs’ bed, remembering little of Ruby Jean until she sees a Youtube video of herself doing seven costume changes and pouring a bottle of champagne into a guy’s mouth from the stage.

Though a force of blonde and loud, Higgs alone is not a plague of killer bees. Providing the flaming guitar licks from hell is the gold spandex clad, red sequin-sporting stallion of doom known as Jason Vautour. Alternate tunings and ear bending pedals turn this guy’s guitar into a bass when necessary and turn his hooks into the type that lodge into your face and rip your cheek clean off.

The hooded master, the song-crafter in black leather is Colin Crowell. This guy hangs back on stage, keeping the machine tight, basking in the insane blips, beats and bass that he composes and records back at his bat cave. It is these that inspire Vautour’s guitar and Higgs’ warped voice-as-instrument layerings.

Holding it all together with a grin is the devilishly handsome Nathan Doucet. His beatings alter the magnetic electro mess that is the Thoughtful Bees. With impeccable timing and monstrous force he fills the room with the most primal of all noises: the rib cage rattling of real live drums.

The audacity of their live presence won the Bees some damned impressive shows and festivals before they even released their 2009 eponymous album. They’ve opened for Dragonette, Kid Koala, Thunderheist, and they recently tore the UK a new one on a trip there to play The Great Escape in Brighton.

The album, which Crowell meticulously recorded, mixed and mastered over nine months, has received rave international reviews and a hell of a lot of “fuck yeahs” from listeners. The first one thousand CDs come in limited edition, entirely hand crafted and silk screened cases, by artists Chris Foster and Laura Dawe.