aaamusic | On 22, Jun 2011

“We’re just five nerds looking to make music,” Scott Wheeler says of his carefree, you-just-can’t-help-but-dance-to-it band Cuckoo Chaos. They’re not nerds in the traditional, pocket protector poindexter sense, though. In the high school-like music scene of San Diego, where everyone knows each other but cliques are well-defined and accepted, the boys of Cuckoo Chaos are kind of like those cute quiet boys who could hang with the jocks sometimes, smoke behind the school with the freaks every once in awhile, play video games in a dark basement after school and kiss the cheerleaders at the party on Friday night.

Cuckoo Chaos has created a kind of hybrid sound, one part super hip, polyrythmic pop and another part rooted in a musical education with hippies at the helm. You might say, “the message is in the groove,” and the thing that unites these parts in perfect harmony, is that you won’t be able to stop moving your feet and shaking your hips, hours after the show has ended.

With their debut 7”, Jesus Flag American Fish, available July 26th via Lefse Records, Cuckoo Chaos explores the ins-and-outs of being in love with the girl of your dreams, who maybe you’ll never get to kiss, while recognizing that there’s still something fun about unrequited love. “It’s all about one girl,” Wheeler says, “it’s almost embarrassing, like an open journal.” First single “Jesus Flag American Fish” is about that lull we all experience, when you forget to notice what’s right in front of you, and then just have to tell yourself to get up. With a tenderness reminiscent of Paul Simon’s Graceland, Wheeler creates a groove that’s sweet and gentle, but also strong and brave enough to shake anyone out of a rough patch.