Awesome Cool Dudes

You can be thankful that members of Awesome Cool Dudes don't think their band name is that great, either. "We just got really drunk and tried to pick the worst possible name that we could come up with," says singer and guitarist Cory Plump. The band kicked off in Indiana in 2003, when its four members met in college, and has since recorded seven albums as well as a new seven-inch titled Disco Trees in the Breeze, available at the group's shows. "Some of us dropped out and we ended up just making songs together," says Plump. Influenced by bands like Talking Heads and Nirvana, as well as some hip-hop, Awesome Cool Dudes use real and synthetic drums to create a style that's part dance and part rock, with a laid-back, Jimmy Buffett-influenced overtone Plump likes to describe as "beachy." "It's just fun," he explains. "Who doesn't want to be at the beach all the time?"