MUSIC / LOS GUYS : A Funny Folk Duo : Hey, it’s Jeremy and Harold, poking fun and singing songs at Spike’s Place in Goleta.

“I’m a maniac--I hate fun . . . “--Archie probably won’t make it, but a lot of Santa Barbarians will probably be at Spike’s Place in Goleta tonight. Los Guys are Dos Guys from UCSB, Jeremy Donaldson and Harold Lee, a funny folk duo making friends wherever they go. And they don’t go far, usually playing the Isla Vista and Santa Barbara clubs, where the cover charge is usually cheaper than a beer.

And Los Dudes are right in step with some of their fun-loving predecessors such as the Kingston Trio, Tom Lehrer and the Chad Mitchell Trio. Thus, Los Guys bring the usual wise-guy, off-the-wall, left-field-funny broadsides on the usual suspects: irresponsive government, false patriotism, greedy corporations, yuppie twits, and most everything else people like to blame on the Republican Party.

Conservatism always makes a convenient victim for left-leaning folk singers, just as political cartoonists still secretly miss the easy targets that were Nixon and Reagan.

Like a George Bush speech delivered on Jerry Brown’s back porch, it’s pretty tough for Los Guys to get through a song without being interrupted.

They must know every girl in Goleta as about every other female stops by the stage to get a hug. Guys, too, stop by to pay their respects, or offer a thumbs up. Los Guys could probably get elected to something in Santa Barbara. They’re about as popular as Tom Cruise and Cindy Crawford handing out free pizza.

And Los Guys are about as easy to spot. Donaldson usually wears a pair of thongs, his trademark suspenders and a hat on backward over shoulder length blond hair. Lee wears a pair of combat boots, shorts and a smile. If he had holes in his clothing, like a lot of rock stars, he’d leave little to the imagination.

Lee’s guitar playing leaves much to the imagination, like trying to invent some new adjectives to describe it. He’s probably the best guitarist in the 805 area code. Using an acoustic guitar plugged in, Lee is positively astounding.

While Donaldson was being interviewed, Lee cranked out a 20-minute impromptu classical jam, cruised over to the bar for another glass of lemonade and hugged a few admirers, without missing a lick. You learn things in college besides how to work mom and dad for cash.

“I’m a mechanical engineering major,” said Donaldson. “I’ll be done in December. Harold is a music major. He’ll never get done. He’s a professional student. He doesn’t work. He’s a bum.”

In a way, Los Guys is sort of a low-budget Grateful Dead duo in that they never have a set list, never do the same set twice, in fact, they never do the same song the same way twice. They play about an equal number of originals, written by Donaldson, and covers.

“We have literary songs, or when there are a lot of people talking, we play more up songs,” said Donaldson. “We usually do 10 or so of our own songs on a given night, but it depends on the crowd. I’ll say ‘Harold, new song,’ and he says ‘OK.’ ”

So how best to describe Los Guys music?

“I don’t understand scales or any of that stuff,” said Donaldson. “The only scale I know is the one I stand on in the morning. I call our music ‘rockfolkbluescountry . . . jazzvocalfolky . . . (continued on next line) . . . environ mentalacousticguitarensemble,’ no hyphens, no spaces.” (But this is the L.A. Times, and, at times, we like hyphens. . . .)

Los Guys do rather eclectic treatments of cover songs. For example the Beatles’ song, “Dear Prudence,” now has 800% more guitar solos in it. They do a few Dead tunes plus a number of classic rock songs that they have rebuilt and improved upon such as “For What It’s Worth,” “Mama Tried” and “Wooden Ships.”

They do a great cover of a song popularized by the Dead, written by Harry Belafonte, “Women Are Smarter.”

Los Guys’ originals deal humorously with bad sex, good sex, goofing off in school, beer and all the things students think are important. They even have their own election year ditty.

In “Billy For President,” Donaldson sings about a 6-year-old boy who gets elected President. There won’t be a First Lady because “girls still have cooties.” Wars don’t last too long and naughty generals are sent to bed without their suppers. Billy is succeeded by 8-year-old Betty as politics take a turn for the simple.

Los Guys have been together for about a year and a half. They recently put out a three-song tape, and they claim to have sold all but 50 of the 500 they made. Next winter when Donaldson gets out of school the duo is hoping to do a short tour, maybe even as far south as Ventura, maybe farther. All this from a chance meeting four years ago.

“I was walking by one day and some strange kid was sitting on the side of a hill playing a song,” said Donaldson. “The song was one I knew, so I sat down and started singing--I think it was ‘Sugar Magnolia.’ ”

It was Lee, who, like Donaldson, was a freshman.

“Harold taught me to play guitar in about two months. Then he split for a year and a half, and when he came back, we won a talent show on campus.”