The Virginmarys: Three-piece brings energy and "urgency" to the stage

The Virginmarys' sound check session is loud. Loud enough to remind you to bring ear plugs the next time. These guys like to rock.

The English trio took the stage -- for real -- three hours later at The Studio in New York to a packed room of fans, bopping their heads and tapping their feet to the music emanating from the small stage, located beneath the Webster Hall's main room.

With Nirvana, Joy Division Neil Young, Foo Fighters, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin as influences, the Virginmarys' music features a mix of punk and good old-fashioned rock and roll.

"It's quite garage-y," said drummer Danny Dolan of the band's sound. "I think when we met the first thing we did was just play for hours. Just jammed and jammed over one riff. That's basically what it is -drums, bass guitar in one room."

"There's a lot of urgency to it. A lot of energy," added vocalist/guitarist Ally Dickaty. "We always wanted to maintain that realness."

The realness comes through on "King of Conflict," the Virginmarys' debut release on Wind-Up Records, which follows a series of self-financed EPs.

Dickaty told CBSNews.com that the songs originated on an acoustic guitar. He then plugged in when he hit the studio with Dolan and bassist Matt Rose in the practice room. "It can go from a folk song, to something really frantic," said Dickaty.

For the album, the guys spent two weeks in the studio hammering out tracks and recording them live. "It just worked for us. So we wanted to record the album as live as possible to try and capture what we are as a band live," said Dolan.

Formed in Macclesfield, England, the three-piece group notes that late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, who was also a Macclesfield native, has been an influence, too. "It's just about 20 miles away from Manchester, so it's in Machester's shadow really," said Dickaty. Dolan noted that Macclesfield is small town where "everybody knows everybody."

But the members of the Virginmarys won't be spending much time in their hometown this year. They have tour dates lined up from now through July -- and likely more to come.

While on the road, Dickaty has a feeling he will spend time working on music for the band's next project. "I've been writing a load of lyrics. I just bought this iPhone and it's been like a revelation in my life," Dickaty said. "I've always had one of those things those things that doesn't work and I couldn't save anything on it."

New phone, new record label and new album -- sounds like a decent recipe for good things to come.