Upon finishing the record (this is before they'd retained a professional booking agent, publicist and manager), and out of sheer excitement, the band hastily, navely started e-mailing the record to anyone in the industry they could think of — friends, bloggers and perfect strangers. It was unconventional DIY publicity blitz worth applauding for its balls, even if it lacked sincerity.

"We had this plan where we'd kind of suck people's dicks for a bit, then give them the record," Ryan says. "I'd write to, like, the guy who runs My Old Kentucky Blog: 'Oh, I love your blog, man. I read it all the time.' That's total bullshit. So we sucked My Old Kentucky dick for a bit. Then I'd mention something like, 'I like Sufjan Stevens too! And did I mention I also write music and have a band? Here's the record. Seriously though, you don't have to listen to it. In fact, don't listen to it. But if you do listen to it, I'd love to know what you think.'"

In chimes his brother: "Then he wrote a blog post about the band, something like, 'Hey, these Prussia guys love me, they love my blog — and, also, they happen to make awesome music too.'"

The blog-dick-suck technique worked. But so did doing it the old-fashioned way, hitting the road, plowing through blizzards. The band hit the Midwest and East Coast twice last year, once this winter, and a spring tour is right around the corner.

In the meantime, they're shopping Poor English and already have six songs written for their next record, which Pressley says will sound more light and more folk. "We're just now latching onto the trends of 2005, when everything went folk," he says, fighting a smirk. "We're really just setting out to do something passé."

Prussia plays Blowout on Thursday, March 3, at the New Dodge, with Zoos of Berlin, Man at Arms and Child Bite.

> Email Travis R. Wright