The Letter Eh: "Again and Again," The Bird and the Bee

From the album The Bird and the Bee

The Bird and the Bee:   Web site   MySpace

DJ comments: I love the Bird and the Bee, but their sound leaves me scratching my head about what we can play on this station.

The funny thing is, with a different marketing tack, this could be positioned as total mainstream pop and it could/would chart huge, and some people around here would have a conniption fit about it being played on KRUI. (I'm assuming we can play them since their EP was on the heavy-rotation shelves last year). Meanwhile, if, let's say, Katy Perry's music, performed as-is, was on a small label had someone championing her cause on Pitchfork or one of the cooler music blogs (My Old Kentucky Blog, Gorilla vs. Bear, it would probably be deemed OK for KRUI, possibly even celebrated.

So when I hear shit like Times New Viking and Ghostland Observatory on our airwaves, I have to ask myself: are we playing this because it's good or because it's "alternative" or "hip" or "I'm so much cooler than you because I think I understand why this nonsensical noise is beautiful music"?

What I want to say (and I guess I'd like others to admit) is that the "sound alternative" has little to do with the actual sound of the music.

Not trying to rag on Bird & Bee, I like their sound. I really just wanted to say something snide about hipsters. — cwc