Damaged Good$

If
The Cool Kids

were from Texas, they might have put out something like this. European transplant and Big Dada newbie
Xrabit

laces well-layered booty-shaking dance beats for duo
Dmg$

(
Damaged Goods)

to get loose over. Hello World is a decent listen, an overall good time of a record, but fairly predictable and at times a little too juvenile.

For every unfortunate boast like, “I’m so dope call me
Amy Winehouse’s

piss test,” there’s another more grounded one, “I’m the captain of the Radio Raheem regime.” And to balance out the abundance of bragging about sneakers and other played-out topics, there exists a banger like “My Stereo,” a finely executed stutter stepping beat tied up with the amusing refrain, “They calling me a hipster, but your girl’s still blowing up my beeper, check the message and it reads come and get her, now we south bound listening to Weezer.” “Follow The Leader” is another highpoint that has those Texas boys’ riding Xrabit’s throwback slaps like the candy dipped ‘Lacs they’ll be booming from this Spring. But again, for every dope cut there’s an antidote, and the self-explanatory “Party In My Pants” is a skip-worthy low.

All in all, Hello World is what it is, a good party record full of ass-shaking beats and loose-lipped boasts that should promote plenty of drinking and dancing, good for around 1a.m. on a
Friday night

. It might have been more tightly-knit as an EP, with a few tracks left to the editing room floor, but it’s about to get warm and maybe introspection is best put on hold for the moment. Now g-g-g-git it girl…

- Jeff Artist - okayplayer

Hipsters are gonna crazy for Damaged Good$. (Taylor Emanuelson)

It's not everyday that you get two born and bred Texas dudes cranking out psychadelic, futuristic tracks the way the guys in Damaged Good$ do. If you had to compare them to anyone, think Andre 3000 with a bit of Kanye West on "Stronger." Check them out...

Bonus mp3: Damaged Good$ -- "You That's Righteous (A1 Bassline Remix)"

...then read their story after the jump.

Coool and Trak Bully were teammates on a basketball team at the University of the Ozarks in Arkansas. United by an affinity for Daft Punk, they immediately clicked, happy to find someone to relate to on a team of otherwise "shady cats."

They took turns bugging each other out with their music tastes. Coool, from Oak Cliff, and Trak, from Tyler, were shocked to have found common ground in their non-mainstream preferences.

Damaged Good$, though, evolved out of Trak's overwhelming frustration with things on his mind that he didn't know how to express. Coool, a long-time lyricist, encouraged him to write a few verses. Their first collaborative effort was less than stellar, but their second attempt, "Housewife," earned mixed reviews on Myspace. They decided to keep going and eventually earned the kudos of Arkansas crowds who would have otherwise been listening to Waylon Jennings.

The duo was approached by producer Xrabit to remix a track of theirs called "Killin' Em." Though apprehensive at first, all worries were thrown out the door when the result came in and floored the duo. As a result, they continued to work with him-and, eventually ended up receiving a contract offer from Big Dada Records (home to Diplo, among others).

Trak, forever the skeptic, challenged the label CEO to fly them to London for a face-to-face if they were serious. When it panned out, they were sold--and immediately began working with collection of European producers who "got" their sound.

Damaged Good$ is currently working on a tour schedule that is tentatively scheduled to kick off before the beginning of the new year--around the time their debut record is expect to be released. For an instant dose, catch them tomorrow night at the Fall Out Lounge for the D-Town Booty Bounce show, along with DJ Fishrpryce, Prince William, Click Claack and Scuba Team Go. 835 Exposition Park, doors open at 10 pm. --Quia Querisma
- Dallas Observe