The Rosebuds - Ivan Howard and wife Kelly Crisp - and their backup musicians will perform at Radio Radio April 30. (Submitted photo)

When North Carolina indie rock band the Rosebuds broke onto the scene in 2003 with its album "Make Out" (Merge), it was cited for its exuberant sound and sweaty live shows.

But even then there was a lyrical darkness to some of frontman and songwriter Ivan Howard's work.

He formed the Rosebuds -- which will perform at Radio Radio April 30 -- with his wife, keyboard player and vocalist Kelly Crisp, shortly after they wed in 2001. Since then, they have operated as a duo, with a rotating roster of touring and recording members.

Since "Make Out," the band's sound has continued to evolve on the albums "Birds Make Good Neighbors" (2005) and "Night of the Furies," the latter with subtly foreboding lyrics about crisis. ("Sweet Beats, Troubled Sleep," a remix of "Furies," is now a free download at www.MergeRecords.com.)

Indy.com talked to Crisp via phone from the couple's home in Raleigh, as the band prepared to hit the road.

How did you get the idea for "Sweet Beats"?

... (Friends) wanted to do a remix just for the fun of it. And then we said, maybe we should send it to other people in the music community ..... We had a contact who knew Roger O'Donnell from the Cure, and Roger said he loved ("Furies"), so we told him to pick a song to remix if he wanted to.

You can't deny that (the Cure album) "Disintegration" is just all Roger O'Donnell. I fell in love with "Disintegration" and I fell in love with the Cure .....

That's got to be nice for you to have one of your idols remixing your song.

It was awesome. When I listened to it I was like, 'This is me deconstructed and rebuilt in Roger O'Donnell's mind.' He stripped away all the tracks except for just my voice.

On "Furies," the lyrics are kind of dark. Was that your way of talking about what was going on then?

I think so, yeah, because we had just had Katrina. ..... we had just played New Orleans. Then, the very next tour we did, we kept running into people from New Orleans that had been to our show. And they would just start crying, saying, "The club is destroyed; the last thing we did in New Orleans was go to your show."

Also around that time, I was taking care of my grandma, who was dying.

Where does the name the Rosebuds come from?

We were looking for a name that sounded fun, and the Rosebuds is the first name that we thought of, and we just kept it.

- By John Staton / Indy.com correspondent