Ridiculously, outrageously, awesomely cool

Bands that dress in matching costumes? It's been done. Bands releasing an album all about Valentine's Day? Maybe. Bands playing dodgeball with the audience in the middle of a show? Probably not. But Texas rock quartet the Awesome Cool Dudes don't think they're all that unusual. Their antics may attract fans, but it's the band's music that keeps fans coming back. \nThe four Hoosier natives begin a six-week tour on June 2 that stretches from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine, and one stop includes their alma mater -- IU. \nIndeed Jay McElfresh, Cory Plump, Nate Lineback and Nate Cross were all once students in Bloomington. They each played with separate bands in school but eventually met through gigging around town. From there McElfresh, Plump and Lineback formed the Awesome Cool Dudes about three years ago and recorded their first self-titled debut, while Cross moved to New Orleans to pursue his own interests. One year later, the three-piece band contacted Cross and asked him to join them. Since then, the four members have based themselves in Austin, Texas. The city, a melting pot for music, fuels the band's peculiar tastes. \nBecause Austin serves as an intricate music network, the Awesome Cool Dudes have managed to align themselves with many other bands on the scene. An annual concert event, South by Southwest, helps them get acquainted with their peers every year. \n"Austin has this huge history of a music scene that really permeates and informs the scene now," Cross said. "I mean, all these young kids now are still referencing bands like 13th Floor Elevators, Roky Erikson, Butthole Surfers, the Dicks, etc., and all of those bands give Austin this history of a scene that really is true."\n"True" is a value the Awesome Cool Dudes cherish. Like any other band trying to succeed in a cutthroat industry, they maintain part-time jobs and hit the studio and road whenever they can. \n"We'd love to tour as much as possible if we could do it without having to keep jobs," said Cross. \nThe Awesome Cool Dudes have banged out six albums since their inception. Amidst the sweat and toil, the band has adopted a witty appeal. Among their costumes are "Grumpy Old Men"-esque fishing apparel, corporate takeover suits, colorful Haight Ashbury clothes and matching basketball jerseys. \n"Seriously, yes, we do plan on maintaining our comical image to a certain extent," said Cross. "We think it adds more to our music. We want people to see us in a comic way, but we also want people to know that we are serious about our music."\nThe Awesome Cool Dudes experiment with a great number of instruments to create a unique blend that largely contributes toward a 1980s kitsch. They mix and match beats and instruments until they achieve a sound that accompanies their quirky, humorous image. Besides the standard guitar/bass/keyboard/drum combination, the only common denominator in the band is a synthesizer.\nAt times they resemble a combination between Kraftwerk and the Beastie Boys. At other points they take on a Frank Zappa Dadaist approach, as seen in the opening melody for "Tall Green Grass," which simultaneously contains a bouncy hip-hop beat. Then there's "Left Hand in Hornet's Nest," which seems like it could be a number on a 1980's haunted house soundtrack. \nAmong an arsenal of instruments that includes the full advantages of a synthesizer, Awesome Cool Dudes utilize a slide guitar, a glockenspiel and a banjo. They tap into jazzy chord progressions ("4 Chair"), salsa rhythms ("Solito") and ballads ("Tap Dat Ass").\nOne can't forget to pay homage to those who proceeded in the musical realm, and Awesome Cool Dudes are no exception. With covers like "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young and "Drive" by The Cars, they expand their horizons and become more diverse.\nSo where do all these musical influences originate? When asked where their loyalties lay, the band rattles off an elongated list of underground groups, including the Radar Brothers, Giorgio Moroder, Disco Singles and Bruce Haack. A number of bands who play in the SXSW festival include Two Gallants, Chromatics, I Hate You When You're Pregnant and Neil Hamburger. \n"Meeting bands on the road and during SXSW has been really inspiring," Cross says, "as well as getting to chat with them and hear what they have to say from their experience."\nFrom their college home to their adopted hometown, the Dudes feel at home in both, no matter how different they are. \n"Much like Austin, Bloomington ... has more of a supportive feel than a competitive one," says Cross. "I just feel like Austin has a larger, more established scene because of the history. I think ... playing shows in Bloomington during college was just more of a learning experience, and it was just for fun, whereas now in Austin there is more at stake, I guess."\nAwesome Cool Dudes remain inspired by the audience from venue to venue. In return, they strive to make performances energetic, whether it's a crowd of five or a hundred. Attention to the crowd is a necessary part of their repertoire. \n"(Jay) is really great at interacting with the audience, which helps a lot being a touring band that no one knows anything about," said Cross. "It kind of helps calm people and let them get to know us."\nIn addition to costuming themselves and interacting with members of the audience, the Awesome Cool Dudes create their own rendition of the classic synchronization of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wizard of Oz." With the aid of Full House episodes, the band has managed to mesh their music with the likes of Danny Tanner and company. \nGuitarist Cory Plump is the evil genius behind the uncanny presentation.\n"It's sort of a secret code involving the episodes when the Beach Boys are guest stars, the Olsen twins and numerology contained in character Joey Gladstone's lines," said Plump. \nAs a way of making their music more accessible to fans, the Awesome Cool Dudes have made a majority of their songs available to be downloaded free of charge at their Web site, www.awesomecooldudes.com. \n"We'll never understand bands that talk about how hard it is to be on the road," said Cross. "You have to remind yourself that you are lucky to even have the chance to be playing for these people in the middle of Nowhere, USA."\nAs far as the future is concerned, Awesome Cool Dudes express a desire to tour Europe and continue "making better music." With devotion to the fans and a keen sense of humor, the band maintains a positive outlook for the road ahead. \n"We know that sometimes our music can seem like a complete joke to some people," said Cross. "But we want people to hear our music and know that we really do take it seriously and spend a lot of time working on it. I guess we just want people to hear something that they wouldn't expect or something that surprises them in a good way"