Unlike the band?s previous releases, like 2002's Send My Regards to the Sunshine, the EP was recorded entirely on the four-piece's own time using a digital 16-track. "It was the first thing we did all by ourselves. We didn't have anybody recording with us?We took as much time as we wanted to," Peter says.

The extra time worked to the band's advantage. "The time helped because we got really really anal [about what goes on the record]," Peter says.

The attention to detail shows in the final product. For example, "Wake" appears on ?Carry the Wood? twice: Once in the regular tracklist as a delicate, gauzy ballad, and later as a jingly-jangly bonus track at the end of the record. The song's double appearance is a result of the band's switching preference for both versions. "We recorded the fast version, then I didn?t think it was that good. So we recorded a slow version, and that was good. But then we liked the fast version again," says Peter. Eventually, The Teeth?s shilly-shally was solved by placing both renditions on the EP.

In just the six tracks on Carry the Wood, The Teeth manage to thoroughly explore their multi-faceted sound. It's easy to nail the quartet down as "quirky"; after all, the songs sound like the best cuts from Mark Mothersbaugh on a Wes Anderson film soundtrack. The band plays on the very hinge of structure, drawing influences from the best elements of great and not-so-great bands of past and presence.

The Teeth prefer to leave other musicians who helped carve their sound a mystery; however, one can venture to guess what bands were in the mix. Opening track, "So Long" and its boisterous chaser, "Oh Bessie!", pay subtle homage to the garbled croon of Roxy Music?s Bryan Ferry, and the closing track, "Mercy Mercy Pudding Pie", hints vaguely at Elvis Costello circa This Years Model. Yet, it's what The Teeth do admit to being influences that could be the source of their unique sound. According to Oesterle, these include "Natural phenomenon...Artificial phenomenon...Sometimes buildings."

The Teeth's uninhibited aesthetic and unusual sound isn't lost in translation in their live shows. Instead, the quartet's sound only intensifies during their live sets when the MoDavis brothers bounce from microphone to microphone and Ashby joins them in the disorder onstage.

"We try to rock out as hard as we can, no matter what the situation; If there's a lot of people there, you can feed off that. If there's not a lot of people there, you just try to do it anyway, you know. It's like, when we're playing, I usually feel pretty good about it. I just like to look at people and be like, 'Here?s what's happenin'. It's going down right in front of you,'" Oesterle says.

And this summer, audiences outside of The Teeth's fanbases in Bethlehem and Philadelphia are able to see what's happening when the band tours to support Carry the Wood. The four piece has scheduled shows covering everywhere from the Deep South to Chicago. "We're going across the top, then down to California, Arizona," says Ashby.

The band claims to be nervous about their impending first major tour, but if Peter's barometer for what designates good music is any indication, then The Teeth have nothing to worry about. "I usually shave to [our music]. That's how I pick a good song. A haircut or a shave," he says. Well, America's hipsters better sharpen their shears because Carry the Wood is going to result in a lot of trims.