Cuckoo Chaos

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

3...according to our Dave on Wed 12 Oct, 2011.

Fusion chops ahoy!! These Sacramentonians are quite a good looking bunch, whose musical jams and cuts are almost as natty as their dress sense. Their album “Woman” is a polished uptempo affair, with sharp hooks and upbeat, driving songs. I guess you could say (if lazy journalism's your thing) that these fresh faced fusion rockers sound like a more rocking Vampire Weekend. That is lazy, but they do sound like they were raised in a posh suburb somewhere, with nothing to do but drink sodas, whack each other off during long hot summers and listen to Paul Simon's “Graceland” on repeat. Some of the tracks on this album are pretty good. As I have only a promo CD and a slight case of amnesia I can't actually name any of said tracks but rest assured some of them will totally get toes tappin'.
Some of the other tracks in my humble opinion sound a bit too much like WU LYF (aka THE WANKEST BAND EVER!!). But you can skip these tracks with the aid of a remote control. You should check 'em out though, if your thing's a slightly afrobeat rock/pop group. An honest sounding effort...

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* Lefse has previously released records by the likes of How To Dress Well, Neon Indian, Ganglians, Tape Deck Mountain, Dominant Legs etc. etc...

* With a release date set amidst the still flickering embers of a fading summer, it would be easy to take Woman – the debut LP of San Diego five-piece Cuckoo Chaos – as a document of the warm sense of familiarity and memories of hazy high season romances and hi-jinks that so often pervade the mind during those final sun-tipped weeks. Indeed the five-piece do, on the surface, imbue all that’s ever been approximated of the sun-kissed beaches, the lush Technicolor atmosphere and carefree nature of their native surroundings, guitars trill with exoticism, tightening and loosening like a yoyo string.

* Based close to the beach, Cuckoo Chaos blend lo-fi indie punk, chillwave, mariachi and reggae to create an album that brings to mind 'Remain In Light' period Talking Heads and Paul Simon's 'Graceland' / Vampire Weekend. *Yet it’s not quite as breezily carefree as all that, though lead singer Scott Wheeler is happy to admit his group are “just five nerds looking to make music,” there’s a deeper undercurrent to the seven tracks that make up the record. “The theme throughout the album is the reason for its title,” explains Wheeler, “most of these songs deal with a relationship I was going through at the time. They're actually very visceral stories.” Closer inspection proves that this is true enough; ‘Slut barf,’ for instance, subverts its whimsical title and tight afro-pop leanings to describe the fragmentation of Wheeler and his partner’s intertwining emotions. Meanwhile, opening track ‘Jesus Flag American Fish’ - described as being “about the inability to recognise what you have in front of you” – has short, punchy polyrhythms that give a tougher edge to its tropical indie-pop whilst their vocalist laments “I’ve been so tired I’ve been sleeping my life away.” Ok, so it’s not heart-on-sleeve anxiety but, like this year’s Kiwi breakthroughs The Phoenix Foundation, there’s a definite sense of recognising the negative so that they can move on to the positive.

* Cuckoo Chaos formed in 2008, though Wheeler had initially met childhood friends Jeremy Scott and Jackson Milgaten in 2005, Dave Mead and Garret Prange then joining in subsequent years. Such staggered membership has led to an eclectic brew of tastes that have distilled together to create something that, while bursting with hooks, never quite lets itself sit still. Such eclecticism is also indicative of the San Diego scene which has spawned them.