Not many people know who the guys in Dirty Vegas are, but during the summer of 2002, everyone knew what they sounded like. That year, the English electronic trio's “Days Go By” was ubiquitous, its liquid bass line and blissfully lovelorn vocal making the song a Top 20 hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Most folks probably remember “Days Go By” as the soundtrack to a Mitsubishi commercial, one that featured a car full of club kids zooming through the night on their way to somewhere cool. The TV spot made the song huge, and the song helped sell some automobiles. In the download-and-dispose era, that kind of alliance has become the norm.

“When we did the advert it was taboo, but now bands jump at the opportunity,” says Dirty Vegas producer Paul Harris, calling the Straight from his London home. “For small bands now, I can't see how it's possible to make money. If you enjoy playing that's your payment, because in the digital age, music is free. A 12-year-old doesn't buy music nowadays; he doesn't even know you can buy music.”

On the heels of “Days Go By”, Dirty Vegas signed with a major label, pulled together enough material for an eponymous debut album, and then returned in 2004 with a follow-up, One, that the aggregating Web site Metacritic ranks as one of the worst-reviewed albums of the decade. Within months of One's release, the trio—rounded out by singer Steve Smith and guitarist Ben Harris (no relation to Paul)—broke up, seemingly destined for the one-hit-wonder hall of fame.

In 2008, however, the bandmates reunited, lured by a pair of complementary trends in clubland: the revival of vocal-led house music, and the emergence of electronic-rock bands like Hot Chip. According to Harris, those are the styles his band seeks to unite.

“House music is our first love, and it will always be our foundation,” he says. “And more recently, we've become influenced by bands like Miike Snow and Phoenix. Right now, if we had to be pigeonholed somewhere, I'd like it to be between those poles.”

The next Dirty Vegas album, tentatively called Electronic Love and slated for release next year on San Francisco's Om Records, will feature songs in that indie-gone-raving vein, a move the Englishmen hope will introduce the Dirty Vegas brand to a new generation of clubbers. The group has been playing one-off shows this year, adding a drummer to its guitars-plus-synthesizers-plus-computers formula. A DJ in the London scene since the early 1990s, Harris admits there's nothing quite like the rush of playing music the old-fashioned way.

“I guess if the crowd is going mad, it doesn't really matter whether you're deejaying or playing as a band,” he explains. “But a live show is probably the highlight, because you're standing there and people are singing the songs you wrote back to you. In the club, you're playing the new record by [the Swedish producer] Axwell and the crowd might be singing along. I'd prefer them to be singing my song.”

Dirty Vegas plays LIVE at Squamish on Saturday (September 4).