By Dustin Lothspeich

“I could never decide on my top two albums, but I can give you my two favorite Michaels: Jackson and Jordan.”

It’s fitting that Hideout’s frontman and chief architect, Gabe Rodriguez, can’t really give me a straight answer when I ask him about his favorite records of all time — mainly because, if his band’s debut album, “Rookie,” is any indication, it’d vary widely from moment to moment. But the shoutout to the respective Michaels aside, Rodriguez has some ’splaining to do: What’s the big idea?

Not only did Hideout, which is comprised of longtime friends Rodriguez and Cory Stier (both members of indie pop band Cults), somehow find the time and energy to craft easily one of the best albums of 2014 — but no one really knew they even existed until about three months ago, when music blog behemoth Stereogum dropped their catchy-as-all-hell debut single, “Where You’ve Been.” One minute, we were content just going about our day-to-day business. The next, there they were, fully formed like some indie rock version of Voltron.

But their debut couldn’t have been more cobbled together: “Rookie” is ultimately the result of an unconventional writing/recording process between Rodriguez and Stier — who, when not working with Cults, spends his time as the talent buyer for Soda Bar, co-owner of Thrill Me Records (along with Rodriguez, and Angie Ollman), and drummer in beloved San Diego surf rock band Mrs. Magician. Over the course of several years, the two worked together in their spare time — albeit, on opposite sides of the country.

“I’ll lay down a rough demo and then send it over to Cory,” Rodriguez said. “Then we’ll talk about rhythms and the foundation or meaning — either lyrically or musically. After that, it becomes a matter of when we can meet and actually play together. Because I’m in New York and he’s in San Diego, there’s usually a lot of phone conversations, home recording, and emailing.”

A true 21st century partnership, the two put the musical magic from that long-distance friendship to use with an album that revels perplexingly in cohesiveness. Somehow, a project that spanned at least three years birthed a record that sounds convincingly complete. The duo saunter from art rock, with “Pet Sounds”-esque intricacy and shades of psych folk, to a more subdued version of glam rock (think Bowie’s “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars”) over the course of 38 minutes. Surely, there’s some kind of dark sorcery at play here.

“I’ll have to hand it to Gabe,” Stier explained. “His writing style is very cohesive naturally — unlike a lot of songwriters I know, some of whom I’ve worked with. He’s good at blocking out the noise of everyday life and staying true to himself.”

That “Rookie” has the expansive feel of a band holed up in a recording studio makes it all the more intriguing since, according to Rodriguez, “One of the difficulties of recording was making it sound like Cory and I were in the same room. In actuality, drums alone were recorded in three different locations.”

Regardless of the reality of what actually transpired, when listening to the record, it’s hard not to imagine Rodriguez and Stier as time-travelers camped out in Abbey Road Studios circa 1967, spending unending time behind ancient recording consoles, experimenting with whatever instruments happen to be laying around, and demanding horn-rimmed bespectacled sound engineers push big volume knobs into the red against their will. McCartney would casually drop in — they’d tell him to take a hike. In reality, of course, all that couldn’t have been further from what went down.

“As the record progressed, I was traveling all over and I’m sure that contributed to the sound,” Rodriguez said. “Walking around early in the morning in Roanne, searching for coffee and then going back and recording in a hotel room will definitely put me in a different headspace than I would be in a controlled studio setting. It wasn’t my intention to have the environment affect the sound but due to circumstance, it was unavoidable and I’m happy with the result.

I think [that process] was, and is, very appealing,” he continued. “I would write when inspired, not out of obligation. I didn’t confine myself to one concept or process — it was kind of however I could get the idea down the fastest. The equipment itself also ranged a lot depending on what I could get my hands on at the time.”

Indeed, the instrumentation varies from track to track — tambourines and acoustic guitars jangle about, organs wrestle with fuzzed-out electric guitar solo wrangling, and pianos hammer away dissonantly all while Rodriguez alternately serenades and achingly wails under a blanket of thick slapback echo. It’s a huge, hazy mix of exquisite harmonies, head-nodding rhythms and truly infectious melodicism.

If the duo is nervous about pulling “Rookie” off in a live setting for their first-ever show at Soda Bar on Dec. 27, they’re not letting on. It also doesn’t hurt that they’ll have some help in the form of Mrs. Magician guitarist Tommy Garcia on bass, and Conor Meads (who previously played with Stier in Pistolita) on guitar/keys to fill out the group’s sound. Even so, Rodriguez didn’t seem too concerned about recreating the album note for note.

“Initially, we are going to do our best to make it sound like the record,” he said. “But I think bands should always improvise and not be rigid when performing. My favorite shows have spontaneity and aren’t so concerned with replicating the recording.”

Surely, it’ll be interesting to see how it all unfolds and where, ultimately, Hideout will go afterward. If “Rookie” is just the beginning, the most likely answer is “up.”

—Dustin Lothspeich is a music writer in San Diego. Contact him at [email protected].