Beehive brings ecletic mix of sound to the Quad

David Miller of Beehive describes their live set as "octopus arms going crazy."

He'll move between bass, drums, slide guitar, while Alethea "Butterfly Beats" plays keyboard, controls a laptop and might whip out a harmonica.

But the band's sound itself has their hands in a number of genres' honey pots, combing together a seamless sound of seemingly opposite entities. Glossy vocals from both band members weave like a ribbon into twitchy electro beats and brazen guitar, with layers of live, organic sounds atop pristine programming.

"On the laptop, there's maybe a preconception that it's not an instrument," Butterfly Beats says. "I do feel like you can live in this digital world but still be a human being and use these tools to express those emotions."

On their upcoming album, though, they've been working to incorporate more of the live sounds to channel the energy of their live performance, but some of that energy could just be due to the 12-year history the two have making music together.

Miller and Butterfly Beats met as neuroscience students at the University of Washington when they ended up interning at the same lab. They found a mutual interest in songwriting but eventually went their separate ways—Miller to travel, Butterfly Beats to pursue music at an art institute. When Miller came back and had to find work, a temp agency placed him at a social service agency, where about three weeks later, Butterfly Beats came knocking on the door for a job interview.

"The whole time we were supposed to be doing documents and filing, and we were doing music," Miller says. "So we said it's time to take this show on the road."

Miller, who compares their sound to that of Metric, Muse or LCD Soundsystem, says their organic-electronic approach is just a part of the bigger pictures of where much of music is headed.

"Everyone has a laptop at their side—Ladytron or Bloc Party, they're all sort of doing that, but they sort of hide it," Miller says. "We just put it front and center."

The band is excited to play Quadstock and see the rest of the show, but besides that, the day will mark another special occasion: It's Butterfly Beats' birthday.

"They wrote a cake into the contract," she says.

Mary Pauline may be reached at entertainment@su-spectator.com