The Beeps

The slow beats, dreamy musical pastiches and the gentle, alluring voice of Sue K should win over even the most jaded pop consumer, and the true connoisseurs'll go nuts over some of the most addictive songs currently available on the street. It's not pure downbeat, mind you. It's been cut with some high energy tunes like "The Jesus Song" and "Surf's Up" that are so swirly, trippy and happily disorienting that you not only don't mind looking up from your shoes, you appreciate the chance to dance. With guitars, drums, bass, various horns and keyboards (including Hammond organ), they make a fine sound on their own, but the production adds just the right touches to bring out their strengths without clouding things up. It would appear they did that themselves, usually employing the "less is more" philosophy with rewarding results.

There's a lovely retro feel to certain moments of their music, though not necessarily entire songs. In a tune that seems perfectly contemporary, a sudden wide gap will open in the soundscape and a lonely guitar will slowly bend a few notes in a Doors-like fashion, then just as quickly the time hole closes again, which is a pretty fascinating thing to hear. Lyric hounds will have fun, as well, since several songs have unusual subject matter. In fact, "We'll Keep The Peace" should have the NRA up in arms, so to speak, since it calls them out by name and is less than flattering. A song in high rotation at Chez Debriz.

This one actually came out in 2003 and has been hiding in a dark corner of the Cosmik Tower ever since. Had it been reviewed on time, I think it probably would have made my Top Five list for last year, or at very least had an enthusiastic honorable mention. At the moment, I can't get enough of it.
© 2004 - DJ Johnson

- Cosmik.com

March 2009

Top-rate lounge pop, with smoky singing (courtesy of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Sue Kr.) that will have you drinking three-olive martinis until closing time.
- Spin Magazine

The Beeps, as their website states, is "not just a band...it's a lifestyle." This lifestyle might be lived by the kind of people who "make love," drink martinis, and have actually been to tupperware parties, but that is not to say this band is simply a kitsch rehashing of old styles. This is definitely the kind of music that kids into Stereolab, Portishead, or even Hooverphonic would also love. From surf rock to shiny pop to orchestral numbers, the Beeps find a way to incorporate disparate genres in a way that's fresh beneath Sue Krush's light and seductive vocals deliciously drenched in reverb. As countless reviews of this New York band's debut effort have also mentioned, The Beeps really do create the soundtrack for the ultimate Bond film -- but it's a Bond film for the 21st century that surely doesn't take itself too seriously. - The Big Takeover

April, 2004

The Beeps have called their debut record ‘Music for Awkward Situations’, but there is nothing awkward about their orchestration. This seven piece, globetrotting (with members from the US, Argentina, Australia and the UK!) band have made a soundtrack to the life of some sultry, scooter driving, sunglasses-all-the-time being.

This is a record you play while mixing drinks in Italian boots. The flutes are rivaled by Sue Krush’s come-hither voice, which copulates with the trombone styling so very subtle and majestic. There are a bundle of beats on this album, hopping from jazzy to salsa and somewhere sleepy and cozy right in between. Percussions seem to bring everything together and push the mood. Nothing is overbearing here, piecing together a sexy vibe that doesn’t take much to enjoy.

Visualize a scene in a spy movie where the cat-eyed temptress seduces the well-suited secret agent in the swinging, low-lit nightclub. Imagine them hopping on a plane furnished in white plastic and black velvet. These are the songs that are playing in the background, loud enough to hear but without being distracting. With just enough gusto to make you want to know more, this atmospheric record swims through sex and comes out the other end with a South of France suntan.

Lyrically, someone is up to something. When you get down and listen, words like this shouldn’t sound so pretty. ‘The Jesus Song’, swoons, “Getting down with Exodus/Jesus he likes angel dust”, loving you all the right ways. In ‘We’ll Keep the Peace’, a runaway dizzy tune, “We’ll keep the peace/by shooting everyone that we can” is just a part of the chorus. Krush uses her voice as an instrument of grace, and though the lyrics are clever they aren’t even necessary to enjoy the music.

The only drawback? This record is far too short, but can be played on repeat without getting old. At 37 minutes and 10 swiftly interlaced tracks, it’s over before you can say, “Come home with me.”

With impeccable musical training and a taste for the less intrusive sense of sound, this record may leave drink stains on your nightstand and expensive lingerie on your floor. Whether you want to dance close to it, reproduce Mondrian’s to it, or save the world from some criminal mastermind while listening, The Beeps have given you the soundtrack for the fantastic.
- Indieworkshop.com

The Beeps
Music for Awkward Situations
Ilegalia
Format Reviewed: CD
Soundclip: "The Jesus Song"

It's hard to be nostalgic for the sixties, as they never really went away, but it's still makes for great escapist fun. Like cocktail revivalists Combustible Edison and Friends of Dean Martinez before them, multi-national Manhattan septet The Beeps remake yesterday's ultra-modern lounge pop for the harsh digital age. Their letter-perfect jetset sound and mod boutique image could be just a kitschy pose, but it's hard to pull off a modish vamp like Music for Awkward Situations without meaning it.

Scoring their own private Goldfinger, The Beeps punctuate their smoky spy flick vibe with layers of organ, flute, Tex-Mex guitar and hints of a deeper darkness. As a willing prisoner of her inner space-age bachelorette, singer/flautist Sue K. (Sue Krush out of classical-metal ensemble American Pistil) sets the tone as she icily coos, "I'm still here because I want to / I stay here because I have to" on opener "Wonderland". Slinky first single "Tell Me" curls out like smoke from an impossibly long French cigarette, and "Paterson" completes a murky triad, beginning with funereal organs and reticent Challengers-like chords as K. builds to a towering crescendo. It's perfect closing credits stuff for non-existent film noir.

It's not all moody frugging in dark suits, though; unlike some of their peers, The Beeps aren't limited to re-jigging Stereolab's Peng! until the grooves wear out. Predictably, "Surf's Up!" swaps detached uptown cool for a rollicking go-go guitar freakout peppered with trombonist Lane Moore's brassy blurts, while "Sunflower" is breezy finger-poppin' bliss, perfect for a day at the beach with your favorite tangerine-tuxedo-clad hipster. All of the group's disparate influences come to a head in "The Jesus Song", a chugging paean to the cute boys of the Bible. Pablo Martin's fuzzed-out licks and Frank Campbell's frenetic keys battle to be heard over the roar of the wind as the song gleefully hurtles towards Dead Man's Curve at full-tilt.

All of the elements of the Groovy Decade's laid-back best -- reverb-soaked vocals, funky tablas, a touch of brass -- are present and expertly played, but mercifully without an ironic, self-satisfied smirk. They may be fashionably late for the cocktail revival party, but The Beeps come impeccably dressed just the same.
-- Steve English - www.splendidezine.com

The Beeps :
Music For Awkward Situations
Ilegalia Records

"This sounds like music to have sex to," pondered my girlfriend, prompting me to instantly turn it up. Alas, she was merely pondering. She did have a point though. In fact, this is music for Special Agents to have sex to. Music For Awkward Situations is the greatest Bond soundtrack that never was, with a hint of Austin Powers sprinkled on top.
    In fact, Music For Awkward Situations offers a soundtrack for the entire day of any smooth and sleazy wannabe shaker-not-stirrer. We'll Keep The Peace is there for the tricky situation with your arch-enemy, Speak Your Mind covers your spell at the roulette table, The Jesus Song is perfect for the high-speed mountain road drive from the casino to the cocktail party, Surfs Up!, Sunflower and Paterson get you boogieing the night away, and Wonderland and Fragile lead you and the lucky lady on your arm through the evening's lava-lamp haze to its 'do not disturb' conclusion, accompanied by Tell Me and Ferns.
Hailing largely from the US, with a Londoner, an Australian and a couple of Argentineans thrown in for good measure, The Beeps are a seven-piece who seem to have appeared perfectly formed and ready to schmooze.
    With honey-coated vocals courtesy of Sue Krush and a lush cocktail of horns, organs, guitars and laid-back drums, Music For Awkward Situations is an album of perfect pop. Though its tongue is firmly in its cheek at times, the album is full of soul and warmth, and the lyrics add to the intriguing complexity of the songs. Nice .
:: Philip Goodfellow
- www.counterculture.co.uk

Artist: The Beeps
Title: Music For Awkward Situations
Label: Ilegalia Records
Websites: The Beeps | Ilegalia Records
Release date: Out now
Rating: +++++ (5 out of 5 stars)

The Beeps are a New York-based septet with a sound borrowed mainly from the sixties and all the classic James Bond theme tunes. However, they aren't stuck in the past; the band may take their cues from a bygone era but their music also draws in elements of more modern bands like Stereolab, Portishead and The (International) Noise Conspiracy.

There's really nothing bad to say about this album; the music is perfect, written and performed with fantastic style and it is topped off by Sue Krush's awesome voice. The edge given by the slightly cynical but basically happy lyrics pulls it all together and a healthy sense of sarcasm (as displayed on The Jesus Song and We'll Keep The Peace) serves to make the listener even more comfortable, as if you'd known these people your whole life and they just happened to be playing you some music. (AM) - www.indigoflow.co.uk

BEEPS (MUSIC FOR AWKWARD SITUATIONS)- Sublime. Roger of the Spunk Lads turned me onto these cats who roared with a big motherfuckin meow when they played at Southpaw. This is a CD that loosens inhibitions. This is so good it should be illegal. It's like a lover who pushes all the right buttons. This CD, with it's sensual and cinematic tunes, will tempt and eventually succeed in seducing you. This should be the soundtrack for your fantasies whatever they may be. Listened all the way through uninterrupted,  it’s like the best moments of sex. It slowly builds without peaking...tantalizing you by prolonging that feeling of nirvana right before the bliss of a simultaneous orgasm. Yet another fantastic live act that will have you feeling up the person next to you, or closing your eyes and thinking of doing it.

--Dugulus Hus, booking manager of Southpaw “Best of 2003”


- Dugulus Hus, Southpaw Booking Manager