Photo by Lenny Jimenez | Porter's Tap (Hammond, IN) 03.28.09

Rock music has always skewed toward worship of the ones who exude cool. Chicago quartet the Maybenauts hope audiences discover that dorks have more fun.

“We don’t want people to think we’re cool; we’re total nerds,” said Leilani Frey, lead singer of the Maybenauts. “Being cool is not cool. Being a dork is cool.”

Wander into any Maybenauts show and you will find that all eyes fall on guitarist Vee Sonnets dressed in a space suit and panda mask.

Dressing the band’s only male member as a panda was not a preconceived idea but one that fell into its lap.

Bassist Ellie Maybe purchased the panda mask to protect her face while biking during Chicago’s brutal winters. As a joke Sonnets wore the mask during a radio interview with Vocalo.org and it stuck.

“Some people like it; some don’t get it,” Sonnets said of wearing the mask on stage.

Maybenauts guitarist Vee Sonnets at Lincoln Hall on Jan. 28, 2010. | Photo Credit: Audrey Leon

Frey believes Sonnets’ panda costume helps to break the ice with their audiences while Maybe said it gives the audience something to latch onto.

“Even if they (the audience) don’t like the music or may not want to see a band they haven’t heard or they showed up for their friend’s band, they think, ‘Oh, I have to watch this for a minute.’,” Maybe said.

The space panda gimmick aside, The Maybenauts are actually very capable musicians with a flair for pop harmonies and a lead singer that can belt it out with the best of them, despite the fact that the band has only been in existence for a year.

Prior 2009 the band has worked together in several capacities after meeting at various Live Band Karaoke events. “[Live Band Karaoke] was a community of awesome people and awesome Chicago kids,” Frey said. “You got to live your rock star dream.”

Leilani Frey of the Maybenauts at Lincoln Hall on Jan. 28, 2010. | Photo Credit: Audrey Leon

Frey remembered first seeing Maybe at Live Band Karaoke while she was sitting at the bar even though she was underage at the time. “She was 20, drinking, and had a look on her face like she was the most pissed off, divorced 40-year-old woman I had ever seen,” Frey said. “I thought, ‘this girl is fucking cool. I gotta talk to her.”

Maybe and Maybenauts drummer Emily Agustin became fast friends after singing a duet of the Journey classic “Don’t Stop Believing” even after Maybe burned Agustin with her cigarette. “[Emily] was really tall and really gorgeous,” Maybe recalled. “She scares me but I love her.”

While the ladynauts, a nickname the group uses to refer to the women collectively, performed karaoke at Live Band, Sonnets was busy playing in the live band.

The ladynauts soon formed a band with Agustin’s brother Mike on guitar. They performed their first show as Bikini Kill at the “Cover for Covers” benefit for women’s homeless shelters produced by Chic-A-Go-Go hostess Miss Mia. The group was short-lived according to Frey and Maybe. “Mike didn’t want to be in a pop band and we didn’t want to be in a noise band,” Maybe said. “Emily was fine either way.”

Ellie Maybe of the Maybenauts at Lincoln Hall on Jan. 28, 2010. | Photo Credit: Audrey Leon

Frey and Maybe could not fight the urge to work together, though, and the Ellie Maybe Experence (yes, there’s no I) was born with Maybe on bass and lead vocals, Frey on backing vocals, Sonnets on guitar and Eric Yoder on drums.

The group put out one album Meet Ellie, which was named one of the worst album covers of 2009 by Time Out Chicago, which Maybe considers an honor.

“I wanted to get on the Onion’s worst band name’s list,” Maybe said. “But I got one better (the Time out Chicago list).”

After Yoder left the Experence, the band changed things up with a new name, the Maybenauts, and recruited Agustin to be on drums.

The lead single, “My Head is a Bomb,” from their forthcoming EP Big Bang contains a dash of 60’s girl groups mixed with a little bit of punk rock and driven by a unforgettable guitar solo.

The song was produced by Travis Kasperbauer and Jane Wiedlin (of the Go-Gos) in a session that included four other songs, which have since been scrapped according to the band. Of working with Wiedlin, Maybe said it was interesting to get someone else’s take on the songs but ultimately the year-old group felt the material would not work as it’s first release.

Via email Maybe said that the Maybenauts decided not to go forward with the other songs from the recording session because the band felt its performance on those tracks wasn’t up to par. “We were still developing our sound,” Maybe said.

“From the time we recorded with Travis and Jane to now we’ve totally honed in on our sound,” Frey said. “We’ve played so many shows in the five months since that stuff gets figured out and we get more comfortable.”

Guitarist Vee Sonnets and singer Leilani Frey, of the Maybenauts, perform at Lincoln Hall on Jan. 28, 2010. | Photo Credit: Audrey Leon

The Maybenauts will celebrate their one-year anniversary at the Abbey Pub on 3420 W. Grace St. The band asked fans via its blog and MySpace to bring a gift – the first anniversary is paper – to the show for a special surprise.

The show is just one way that the Maybenauts are reaching out to fans. The group uses social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to keep in contact with fans.

“I spend an hour or two a day answering emails and responding to comments,” Maybe said. “It’s time consuming but it’s important to build a relationship.

“If you don’t have a way of communicating with your fans, then you don’t have fans,” Maybe said.

Maybe would like for the band to get more interactive with fans by staging contests once the fan base grows larger while Frey wants to see the group’s YouTube channel host more original video projects.

“[Social Networking] is a way for your fans and friends to be a part of the band as much as you are,” Frey said.

Fans can interact with the Maybenauts at their shows on Feb. 11 at the Abbey Pub and Feb. 27 at Quenchers Saloon on 2401 N. Western Ave. Tickets are $8 and $5, respectively, and both shows are 21+.