It was just a few years ago that The Ataris hit it big with their major label debut, a collection of well-polished punk-pop songs called So Long, Astoria. A cover of Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” yielded an unexpected hit for the band, and MTV brought them into your living room. But, after more than a year on the road and various personal issues, singer and main songwriter Kristopher Roe decided things had to change, starting with the band lineup. After numerous delays, the band parted ways with Columbia Records and released their follow-up, Welcome the Night, on their own label through Sanctuary Records in February.

Welcome the Night is a departure from the band’s previous work, reflecting a heavy influence of early 1990s shoegaze rock and indie bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Kent. “We just tried to write a record that was true to us, where we are today musically and artistically,” Roe says. “As a whole body of work, it is easily our most timeless album both lyrically and musically.”

The band kicks off a fall tour Sept. 5 in Anderson, Ind., Kristopher’s hometown. The tour was booked within one week via MySpace. “I wish that we had all of these online resources to book our tours 10 years ago,” Roe says. “It would have made things a hell of a lot easier; that’s for sure.”

A new sound doesn’t mean they’ve left the past material behind. Roe says that 75 percent of the live set comes from previous albums. “We are a very crowd-oriented band,” he says. “I will always love the unpredictable energy of 100 kids crammed into sweaty basement shows, piling on top of each other, all singing along together. [It’s] such a beautifully unified feeling.”