Vocalist Parker Gispert gives a quasi-wry response when asked what can be expected regarding Mission Control, The Whigs’ follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut LP, Give ’Em All A Big Fat Lip, to be released in January 2008.

“The first one was recorded in a house, and the second one was recorded at Sunset Sound in L.A.,” he says. “It sounds like a lot of records I’ve heard. Sonically, you can actually hear everything. Nothing’s really changed [otherwise]. The band still writes songs the same way. It’s just a bit more rocking. We tend to play everything more rock live, and the [new] record reflects that.”

Much has been made of the band’s origins in Athens, Ga., the same original stomping grounds as R.E.M, and the most frequent media comparison is to The Replacements. Give ’Em All A Big Fat Lip does occasionally display a certain nostalgia refracted through a 1990s alternative motif. Gispert’s vocals often resemble the droning of Oasis or the moonings of Guster, while the music ably mixes the 1960s retro sound of Brian Jonestown Massacre with the grungy mishmash of Dinosaur Jr.

The band’s humble roots have been well-documented. Give ’Em All A Big Fat Lip was recorded in a frat house while its customary inhabitants were on summer break, and they bought all of their equipment on eBay (and sold it back again when they were finished). When the album broke, several labels courted the band, but the group was recalcitrant due to the desire of executives to re-record the album.

“The songs were not recorded well, but we liked them the way they were,” Gispert says. “I’m not sure what the purpose was. I didn’t see us competing in the Nickelback radio rock world anyway. Besides, you only grow by moving forward, and we want to be the type of band that makes a lot of albums, not one that just makes four albums and is done.”