When you’re a kid, the possibility that your teacher exists as a real person outside of the realm of chalkboards and math books doesn’t really enter your mind, so it’s particularly startling to run into your instructor somewhere as normal as the grocery store or post office. Imagine how bizarre it is for Randy Randall’s students when they see their teacher profiled as part of Los Angeles art-punk duo No Age in the pages of glossy music publications all over North America.

“I had a student post on MySpace once: ‘Hey mister, is this you?’,” says guitarist Randall, on the line from Washington, D.C., where he and drummer-vocalist Dean Spunt are enjoying a late breakfast at a popular vegan bakery before heading to the next show on a hectic 17-day tour.

Currently on a sabbatical from his full-time gig as a high-school special-education teacher, Randall jokes when asked about the perks of being in a major buzz band.

“We just bought two inflatable air mattresses, so now Dean and I, and our two friends who are touring with us doing sound and merch, take turns sleeping on the floor of hotel rooms,” he says. “It’s great. We’re not looking for caviar and champagne—the bare bones is what we need.”

Maybe so, but the idea of caviar and champagne isn’t all that outrageous considering the hype surrounding No Age’s latest record, Nouns, recently released by iconic indie label Sub Pop. The follow-up to 2007’s Weirdo Rippers, the critically acclaimed Nouns unleashes a stunning and varied soundscape of distorted lo-fi punk.

Drawing on the droning riffs of My Bloody Valentine and the ingenuity of Daydream Nation–era Sonic Youth, the album’s 12 tracks offer inventive pop spiked by deafening and disorienting barrages of feedback.

From the riotous “Teen Creeps” (where Spunt’s monotone vocals serve as a counterpoint to Randall’s frenzied riffing) to the spacy lullaby of “Things I Did When I Was Dead” (which pulsates with electric hums and squeals), Nouns is an often-thundering exercise in chaotic, punk perfection.

“Nouns was such a fun collection of songs,” Randall says. “We were just trying to sit down and make a record that flowed together and was well polished. We’re really psyched on it.”

And how could the experimental pair not be psyched when fans, so enamoured of Nouns’ jagged-edge pop, are starting up No Age cover bands? “They were covering our songs—and I say ‘cover’ with big quotation marks,” Randall says with a laugh about the New No Age tribute project recently created by fellow Los Angeles musicians Josh Taylor and Kyle Mabson.

“They asked me if I wanted to play with them, but the way they played the songs was so far different from how the songs actually sounded that I had a hard time keeping up. It was pretty surreal having someone else play your songs but not very well.”

No Age plays Richard’s on Richards next Thursday (July 24).