Prayers and jams at Club Cafe

Teenage Prayers Club Cafe 56-58 S 12th Street 412-431-4950 Thursday, 10:30 p.m. Tickets $7 21 and over

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The New York City-based Teenage Prayers takes everything you’d expect from an independent sound and turns it on its head. Prayers’ second album, Everyone Thinks You’re The Best, slated for release March 18, is a heady combination of skill and passion, a sonic romp through ever-changing landscapes.

Although all of the band’s members work full-time day jobs, Prayers has still managed to write, produce and publicize two albums while remaining entirely self-represented.

“We’ve flirted with major labels, or more appropriately, they’ve flirted with us,” front man Tim Adams said in a recent telephone interview. But the band has decided to remain label-less.

“All of this is for the love of the game,” Adams said, citing self-booking, self-producing, self-publicizing headaches and no financial compensation.

Teenage Prayers was formed in 2001 by the cavalier Adams, and it is comprised of family members Kyle Chrise (Adams’ cousin) and Terrence Adams (Adams’ brother), as well as friends Kyle Willis, Steve Espinola, Remy Webber and Adam Schatz.

Teenage Prayers started as an apartment band, outfitted with two guitars, a bass, keyboard and a four-track recorder. Before long, the band started playing shows throughout the city.

It picked up its name from the Bob Dylan song “I Am Your Teenage Prayer,” which band members found on a jukebox at Lakeside Lounge, a favorite dive venue of the band.

The Prayers’ first album, Ten Songs, reached its conclusion with the help of music giant Solomon Burke.

“The whole Solomon experience was insane,” Adams said. “It all started because I had a chance to interview him for a TV piece I was doing.”

Having brought along the Prayers’ four-track demo CD and his cousin Chrise, Adams handed Burke the demo after the interview.

“He could not have been more gracious,” Adams said. The cousins were invited to join Burke at Joe’s Pub for a show he was playing that night. Enjoying the music, the two men were taken aback when Burke called out to the audience at the end of the set, “Where are those TV guys at?”

Suddenly, Burke’s people were at their elbows, leading them onstage, where they were handed instruments.

“That would have been enough,” Adams said, but the next time the band played a show it recorded its version of one of Burke’s songs, “Goodbye Baby,” and sent it to him as a thank you.

“A couple of weeks later there was a voice message waiting from [Burke] that said he wanted us to come to Los Angeles,” Adams said fondly.

The production of the band’s second album, Everyone Thinks You’re the Best, was facilitated by another of the band’s musical heroes, Steve Wynn.

“He’s not a hands-on producer, but he sets a vibe within the studio that’s all about capturing moments live,” Adams said.

Wynn’s approach was a fitting complement to Teenage Prayers’ own style, one that is full of energy and given to evolution.

“You start out with this little song, and it’s in your head,” Adams said about the songwriting process, “and then you’re playing it with a full band, and it changes. It has all of these other fingerprints on it.”

Listening to Teenage Prayers is an experience akin to watching ice skating – breathless, you wait for something to go wrong, for the sound to drop, but it never does.

“Every band has to define itself by sounds that came before,” Adams said. “It’s always been difficult for us to do that.”

Taking an unlikely path, the band cites the cast album of Cabaret as one of its influences.

“Cabaret has those random changes that get a little scenery chewy,” Adams said, “and what we all responded to the most was the idea of overarching drama.”

The Prayers’ theatrical sound is irresistible, kaleidoscopic in its approach. No doubt the sincerity of its tracks springs from the band’s singular dedication to making music.

“Maybe we’ll luck out and maybe we won’t, but at the end of the day we love what we do, so we’ll keep walking the walk,” Adams said.

Teenage Prayers will walk the walk onstage at Club Cafe Thursday night.