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WHO: Nathan Tucker (songwriting, guitar, vocals), Tim Howe (bass, vocals), Andy Rusinek (guitar, vocals), Asher Groh (drums).
SOUNDS LIKE: Sharing a bag of Doritos with a buddy at a crowded party, then deciding to leave.
FOR FANS OF: Early Weezer, Modern Baseball, Third Eye Blind’s self-titled album.
Nathan Tucker named his band Cool American after Cool Ranch Doritos. But don’t let that prejudice you—he’s actually thought this through.
“That was the idea behind the Dorito-pop thing,” he says from a booth at Maui’s in Northeast Portland. “It’s already kind of stale, and definitely bad for you, but you just keep eating.”
Bassist Tim Howe, next to him, laughs. “Yeah,” he says. “We’re MSG-core.”
Self-deprecating silliness is a familiar trait among pop-punk bands. Thankfully, Cool American’s got a lot more going on than that. The four-piece’s new LP, Infinite Hiatus, is a strapping, muscular-pop release from a young band ready to prove what it’s capable of. Robust guitar riffs often give way to nearly inaudible moments of quietude, while the lyrics turn routine slacker-rock imagery—shitty parties, burrito runs—into tiny epiphanies.
And sometimes, Tucker’s statements become more sweeping without trading their humility. On “Soda Yoda,” the wriggling, frustrated peak of the album’s narrative arc, he sings, “Doing what I love/Won’t always feel the way it should.”
"The big problem in the world for anyone who has anything going on up here," Tucker says, pointing to his head, "is boredom."
But Infinite Hiatus doesn’t convey absolute pessimism—rather, an acceptance of life as fundamentally disappointing—and since nothing matters anyway, you might as well have fun and write some songs about eating Doritos.
“The only way I have found to avoid boredom is making music,” Tucker adds between sips of beer, “because drinking gets boring too, after a while.”
SEE IT: Cool American plays Black Water Bar, 835 NE Broadway, with Post Moves, Riled and Drunken Palms, on Thursday, June 1. 8 pm. $5. All ages.