The Bird and the Bee at The Barns at Wolf Trap

Live!
Who: The Bird and the Bee, Obi Best What: 8 p.m., Wednesday Where: The Barns at Wolf Trap, Vienna
Washington Post
By MARIANNE MEYER

In presenting the highly buzzed-about Los Angeles-based duo The Bird and The Bee, the Wolf Trap Barns are providing a public service to all Northern Virginia suburbanites who fear that living outside the District lessens their indie-music street cred. The group, singer Inara George and keyboardist/producer Greg Kurstin, are at the tipping point of a mainstream breakthrough while keeping one foot -- with happy, tapping toes -- firmly in the hipster alternative music scene.

George, the daughter of Lowell George, frontman for the 1970s blues-rock band Little Feat, met Kurstin, an in-demand Los Angeles studio player, when he was brought in to play on her solo album, "All Rise," released on the small Everloving Records label in 2004. The two discovered a shared affection for old pop standards and began writing together, with George providing lyrics and melodies, and Kurstin overseeing instruments and production.

The couple's delightful self-titled debut arrived in January 2007 on the esteemed Blue Note Records label, and since then, their mix of easy-to-hum melodies and Brazilian tropicalia influences, along with sly, subtle humor and headphone-worthy production elements, have brought them critical acclaim. The two years since have kept the Bird and the Bee busy.

The duo's cover of the Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love" appeared in last year's "Sex and the City" movie and has been featured in promo spots for VH1. Another cover, of Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music," was featured as a free online download, and one can only hope that the pair's lounge-worthy take on Hall & Oates's "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" will be shared down the road as well.

The two also marked the year with side projects: George released her second solo album, "An Invitation," collaborating with reclusive composer/arranger Van Dyke Parks. Kurstin, who has written and produced tracks for Britney Spears, took on production duties for singer Lily Allen's highly anticipated second album, "It's Not Me, It's You."

George and Kurstin also made their first appearance at the prestigious Coachella festival as part of a wide-ranging tour that spawned "Live at the Sands," an exclusive live EP for iTunes. Two other EPs bridged the gap between the debut album and the act's second full-length album, "Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future," released a few weeks ago (also on Blue Note).

While holding firm to the pair's penchant for airy vocals, lightly psychedelic pop and bubbling electronic beats, the new CD offers a bigger, bouncier sound, which the band's press bio attributes to honing material on the road in front of audiences willing to dance.

The album's first single, "Love Letter to Japan," is an irresistible chant-along appreciation of the island nation and "all the gifts that you have given me/the patience and the peace, cherry blossoms and the candy."

"Witch" has a sultry, cinematic sound that could serve as the theme for a James Bond movie, and "Polite Dance Song" gives George the chance to coo, with playful irony, "Shake it like you just don't care" and boast of the tune's "crazy, kick-ass beat."

Such incongruity is part of the Bird and the Bee's charm, with deceptive lyrical barbs under the placid surface, as in the first CD's club hit, "[Expletive deleted] Boyfriend," a remix of which went to the top spot on Billboard magazine's Hot Dance Club Play chart. What sounds like lightweight pop at first grows more intriguing with each new spin. A song such as "Lifespan of a Fly" is whimsical but not wimpy, and for all the sweetness of George's soprano, the results are never saccharine.

The Bird and the Bee's current tour is a short run -- 11 cities (including a show at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum) -- which will wrap up in New York three days after the Wolf Trap show at Carnegie Hall's intimate Zankel Hall. Having the act play at the Barns is a coup. Don't miss it.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Barns at Wolf Trap are at 1635 Trap Rd., Vienna.

Tickets are $20 through tickets.com, 877-965-3872, or through http://www.wolftrap.org. Obi Best, a Los Angeles-based quartet led by another intriguing female vocalist, Alex Lilly, will open the show with selections from its just-released debut album, "Capades."