Somewhere in between almost missing his stop on the subway, telling his friends to shut the fuck up, and giving his mother a hug, former line cook Meric Long explains how he came to form the Dodos with Bay Area native (and balls-to-the-wall percussionist) Logan Kroeber.

“He [Kroeber] was my first groupie,” reveals the singer-guitarist with a laugh, on his cellphone from his hometown of San Francisco.

The expanded version of the story goes likes this: in 2006, Long, looking to promote his self-released solo EP, Dodo Bird, was looking for a drummer, and Kroeber (at the time playing in metal band Entragian), was looking for a reason to strap a tambourine to his shoe. They met in a bar, sparks flew, and this psych-folk-pop alliance was born.

On the subject of their name, taken from an overly friendly, now extinct bird, Long notes, “It’s kinda tragic, but it’s also kinda funny, and I feel like that’s how I want people to approach our music, you know. It can be taken as dramatic at times, and it is serious, but at the same time it’s like we don’t take ourselves very seriously.”

It makes sense, then, that Visiter, the duo’s latest release and first for the Frenchkiss label, is an orgy of violent acoustic-guitar strumming and soft indie-pop vocals, with a side of blues fingerpicking and a splash of horns and toy piano. Throw in some hoots and hollers and a slap on the ass from Kroeber’s frenetic but solid percussion and you’re left with mixed feelings of contemplation and angst—which makes sense, considering the environment in which the album was created.

“The first year of touring, in which we wrote that entire record, it was like this kind of weird, desperate space,” Long says. “There were a lot of dire moments when we were like ‘What the fuck are we doing? We’re in the middle of nowhere, nobody fucking cares, there’s tornadoes [outside], and we’re gonna die, and I fucking miss my girlfriend,’ or whatever.”

With “GOD?” lyrics like “You lift us up then let us down/We die, we die, we die”, and “Your love might be the last time that I try” from the heartfelt “Winter”, that hopelessness comes through loud and clear.

As inventive as the Dodos’ brand of lo-fi indie-folk proves on Visiter, the band’s live show is where the magic really happens. “We’re a really visceral band,” Long offers. “When people come and see us live it makes a lot more sense. We’re playing our instruments, that’s our primary thing. It’s a very physical thing.”

So, if you’re up for a gentle headbanging good time, take heed of the Dodo resurrection.

The Dodos play the Bourbon on Saturday (June 28).