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When I ask Noah Danos if he and Sam Anselmo can meet me on the Rasputin balcony for an interview, the keyboardist for Reception Is Suspected has no idea I'm talking the hip new downtown club dripping with uber-modern furniture and attitude.

"We're nerdy studio kids who haven't ventured outside in over three years," he tells me without a trace of irony.

It's funny because it's true. This month, Danos and drummer Anselmo release The New American Etiquette, a record that had been gestating in the digital form of keyboard loops, patches and laptops ever since the former hosts of KLSU's Saturated Neighborhood kick-started the electro-rock duo almost spontaneously in March 2002.

Figuratively, Etiquette serves as a rebirth for the band. Literally, the wait is over for their fans. The boys are back.

Reception's album lands at a time when the outside perception of the U.S. is less than optimal. Nearly 60% of Americans disapprove of their own president. As Reception points out, positivity is passé.

"It's the negativity, you know?" Danos says with probably a thousand words running through his head but only a few of them coming out. "It's getting down. We're trying to change that."

Fair enough, but why snuggle up with Emily Post?

For the same reason the band mates wear neckties on stage. People have become desensitized to having fun and making a big deal out of things, Danos says. Reception wants to make each show an event. In the '60s these were called "happenings."

One of the best compliments the band can get is their shows are different each time. A techno band can know exactly how long each preprogrammed song in the set will last, but Reception's tunes are for the most part performed live, which allows for improvisation.

For two button-down nerd rockers sporting ties and sweating their glasses off in front of mobs of fans bobbing and shaking to songs that sound like a Commodore 64 took a big bite out of Led Zeppelin, it's the details that make the night special. Details like new track Junasyn that features perhaps the biggest shock Reception can pull at this point, Anselmo's vocals climbing through loopy ringtone buzz, unfiltered and jarringly human.

How does Anselmo feel about the album? "It's finally finished! We've never had anything completed before." The band is now simply looking forward to playing live again, a good excuse to introduce Etiquette to new audiences and old friends.

But don't expect Reception to cut and paste the recording note-for-note into the live show. "We can hardly cover other people. I don't think we'll be able to cover ourselves."

Photo Illustration by Britt King