Awesome Cool Dudes

Maxin and Relaxin (Furniture)

Just in time for fall, the Awesome Cool Dudes harness their sub-platinum pop instincts to take us on a Casio-flavored beach party weekend. Maxin and Relaxin cooks with über-sleek synthetic sunshine channeled through Lambda Lambda Lambda’s musical number in Revenge of the Nerds. Opener “LOL” surfs an irresistible synth-pop hook designed to make people fall in love and/or buy clothes with oddly placed zippers. Then “Rainbow Cattle Company” pays homage to the gay disco cowboy aesthetic before giving a karaoke-style shout-out to the B-52’s. The Dudes get their freak on convincingly with “Clap Clap,” a house party starter exhorting us to “live big like it’s 1980,” while “Longhorn Cheese” mashes up antiquated techno-pop with spazz-punk vocals to grand get-up effect. Perhaps the most ambitious song here is “Van Halen,” which features a thrifty horn-and-string arrangement that lifts its organic funk groove off the ground. Although the Awesome Cool Dudes are constantly picking up and then quickly disposing of disparate slivers of pop culture detritus, Maxin and Relaxin never hits the stall point. True to their name, ACD leave behind an awesome mess.

***.5

This article appears in November 25 • 2005.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.