Oldies: Fraternal Fun and Paternal Respect

* * 1/2

DAD FIVE

”. . . in Orbit”

(no label)

Dad Five is a retro-oriented band of Orange County music veterans who keep their tongues in cheek and their fingers right where they belong. The mood is wry, the playing impeccable as the Five, an attraction in local coffeehouses, plays primarily original songs patterned after fondly remembered baby-boomer icons from the ‘60s and early ‘70s.

There’s lots of swinging and twanging a la Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks and several helpings of lightly psychedelic folk-rock that takes cues from the Mamas and the Papas.

J. Floyd Elliot, whose baritone fronted the humorous ‘80s O.C. pop band the Gyromatics, gives Dad Five its deadpan focal point. The lyrics don’t provide belly laughs, but they are fanciful enough to make Dad Five more entertaining and rich in character than such kitschy retro plodders as the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

“Atomic Cafe” is a jazzy, lounge-noir number about a roadside eatery whose exceptional chili owes its kick to fissionable ingredients, and “Brainwash” is a nice bit of beatnik revivalism colored with bongos, flute and smooth harmonies (although the track’s production lacks definition and bite).

Dad Five’s sound hinges on a strong husband-and-wife team of instrumental soloists. Guitarist John Wheeler, another former Gyromatic, is equally at home with rockabilly and jazz swing, country twang and fuzz-tone psychedelic burping. Swan Wheeler’s nimble flute playing is both smoothly inviting and airily offbeat.

*

Karen Hadler Cobb is a strong vocal foil to Wheeler, bringing a dusky alto to the Burt Bacharach torch song “Waiting for Charlie,” and her zingy strokes on autoharp help keep the accent on the off-kilter. On bass is Ty Cobb, Karen’s husband, who never has batted in the big leagues but did play a formative role in O.C. alt-rock as the original, pre-Terri Nunn lead singer of Berlin.

Dad Five doesn’t make the mistake of taking a superior attitude to the music it parodies. The oldie “Jungle Drums” would be easy to torpedo as pure lounge kitsch, but here it’s rendered with appealing sweetness.

Elliot doesn’t overplay the humor in the high-plains Western sendup “Think of Me,” instead investing its mescal-hazed exhaustion with a touch of spooky dignity. And, despite typically wry lyrics, “The Bottom of Your Shoe” unfolds as a sincere nod to the Grateful Dead, as the Wheeler family jams energetically, pausing for a spacey interlude, but mainly dancing with gleaming lyricism to a Latiny Bo Diddley beat.

It would take a stronger comic or satiric vision to make Dad Five distinctive, but its wry attitude backed by seriously good, slightly askew musicianship makes for some tasty moments.

(Available from Jumpin’ Jupiter Music, 811 N. Casa Blanca Drive, Fullerton CA 92832, or [714] 534-7402.)

* Dad Five plays Sept. 6 at the Ugly Mug Cafe, 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, 9 p.m. Free. (714) 997-5610. Also Sept. 20 at the Winged Heart 136 W. Wilshire Ave., Fullerton. 9 p.m. Free. (714) 525-1452.

Ratings range from * (poor) to **** (excellent), with three stars denoting a solid recommendation.