They may rock a slightly academic, even geeky look, but the first thing to know about New York band We Are Scientists, is that they aren't.

Cool? Yes. Funky? Yep. Clever? You bet! But scientific? Frankly, this lot could barely change a lightbulb.

"The name We Are Scientists came from the lips of a man at the U-Haul company where we rented a moving truck," says bassist Chris Cain.

"First he asked if we were all brothers because we all look kind of similar. We said 'no'. And then he asked if we were all scientists.

"We had to regretfully admit that we weren't, but minutes later we realised gold had been struck... titular gold."

The indie dance-rockers, who are gearing up for a set this week at the Oxford Academy followed by a main stage appearance at next weekend's Reading Festival, have been playing together since meeting at university in 2000.

Chris and guitarist Keith Murray first met when the latter came to a showing of Dawson's Creek in Chris's room ("which immediately lowered my opinion of him," says Chris). The group's first drummer, Michael Tapper (who quit last year), was already in a band with Keith. After graduation, the friends moved to California, where in a pub one evening they wrote a list of song names on a serviette.

A year later they settled in New York - thanks to Keith's grandparents, who had a house where the three friends could live for free. And here the story gets interesting.

Take their first real gig: "It was at a metal club in Brooklyn called L'Amour," remembers Chris. "It was definitely not an indie rock club. I think we had one fan and she was Michael's girlfriend.

"We intentionally started with a venue-inappropriate ballad that I sang, and anyone who might have stayed made for the door. At the end of our set the owner clearly felt like punching us. His voice had this edge to it and he was being really curt and holding his hand up in a balled fist!"

They managed to learn from the experience, however, and shift up a gear. "We're more into having an engaging, energetic live show than delivering something that's simply the album played live," says Keith.

"When things go wrong - when equipment fails or the drums fall over or I slice my hand open - we love it!

"We have gotten mosh pits - I'm not sure that it's terrifically appropriate, but it's happened."

As for their songs, they admit they evolved from jokey, "crime-fighting team" songs into more lyrically enigmatic but musically punchy stuff.

"I definitely like lyrics that are ambiguous," say Keith, "So someone listening might not know exactly what they're about and therefore end up filling in a lot of blanks. That said, the people who are the subjects of the songs tend to know it almost immediately and become angry."

And how exactly do they write songs? "I'll write what I think is a complete song that I'm perfectly happy to live the rest of my life with," says Keith.

"Then I bring it to the band and it gets kicked around and torn apart and turned into a different, more interesting song. So the songs are legitimately written by the band as a whole, even though my ideas are the best."

Chris differs: "My ideas are the best."

"Different members of the band have different ultimate interests in what we're doing with music, in a way that is tremendously helpful," says Keith, diplomatically.

"It engenders a lot of sweating and hair-pulling and sneers and vows to quit the band, but ultimately it produces catchy pop songs that have an unintuitive twist to them.

"It's a point of pride with us to recognize that, had another band written the same song, the instrumentation wouldn't be terrifically similar."

Their 2005 debut With Love & Squalor, shocked and impressed in equal measure - and sold over 150,000 copies in the UK, largely on the strength of dancefloor faves Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt; It's a Hit and The Great Escape.

The band claim to have spent last year at "weight-loss camps, alcoholics' dry-out facilities, and a race car school," yet still found time to pen, record and road-test exhilarating follow-up Brain Thrust Mastery.

And how would they describe their fans? "Lucid, discerning people," laughs Chris, "with amazing taste... and salacious physiques!"

No wonder they're winning so many of us over!

The band play the Oxford Carling Academy on Wednesday, and the Reading Festival the following Saturday.