The debut release from Tan Vampires cements their status as a Seacoast icon.

“Do you hear that music in the morning?”

So begin the lyrics to “I Can Hear them in the Dark,” the hauntingly hypnotic pop-rock anthem by Dover-based band Tan Vampires. It’s become one of the group’s signature songs, a consistent crowd pleaser at live shows, whether performed solo by front man Jake Mehrmann or by the whole five- to six-piece ensemble.

It’s also the second track on Tan Vampires’ debut album, “For Physical Fitness,” which they’ll celebrate with LP release parties at Bull Moose in Portsmouth on Sept. 20 and The Barley Pub in Dover on Sept. 21.

Years before Mehrmann was playing the song for packed audiences in bars and clubs, he was recording it alone for the 2007 RPM Challenge. At the time, Mehrmann’s former band Data (also featuring Tan Vamps bassist Mike Filitis), had recently broken up. Mehrmann decided to take a shot at RPM, recording an entire album in the month of February. The resulting CD was titled “I Can Hear Them in the Dark.”

“The band that Mike (Filitis) and I had been in previously broke up and I was kind of unsure what to do,” Mehrmann explained. “I heard about the RPM Challenge and was like, ‘Let’s see if I can do this.’ It turned into something that felt like it maybe deserved a little more time.”

More than four years later, Tan Vampires is one of the Seacoast’s top bands. They won the 2009 Spotlight Award for Best Alternative Act and, a year later, were named best new band in New Hampshire by the Boston Phoenix. The new album further cements their reputation as a gleaming regional gem.

In the band’s early days, Mehrmann played with a rotating cast of musicians. The current lineup solidified early in 2009, featuring Filitis on bass, Nick Phaneuf on guitar, Mike Effenberger on keys, Jim Rudolf on drums, and Chris Klaxton on trumpet.

They’re all familiar faces (or familiar beards, in the cases of Effenberger and Rudolf) in the Seacoast music scene. Phaneuf, Effenberger and Rudolf play in folk paragon Dan Blakeslee’s band. Effenberger also plays with favorites Gnarlemagne and Martin England, as well as Portland’s The Royal Hammer. Effenberger and Rudolf are both members of Jazzputin and the Jug Skunks and ftet, while Effenberger and Phaneuf collaborate in fiveeightthirteen. Phaneuf is also a past member of Elsa Cross’s band, as well as the former pop-rock group The Texas Governor. Klaxton, who shipped off to school in Miami last year, has lent his horn to many of these acts at one time or another.

Mehrmann’s music has benefited from the motley supporting cast.

“The initial batch of songs, like the RPM ones I did, were songs that I wrote on an acoustic guitar and that I could play on an acoustic guitar by myself,” he said. “These guys are all capable of doing things that I just can’t do, and that definitely opens up lots of different possibilities. Having five or six people to toss ideas around produces different results than just me sitting in my room with a guitar.”

The range of those possibilities is evident on “For Physical Fitness,” which the band recorded in March at Rocking Horse Studio in Pittsfield. From the jangling opening riff of “Digital Rot” to the melancholic lament of “Secret Carnivore,” the seething undercurrent of “Sweep Up the Pieces” to the blissful simplicity of “I Found a Body,” the pulsating swell of “Leaves” to the plinking rhythm of “Threads,” Mehrmann’s emotionally charged vocals are gilded with instrumental brushstrokes that subtly illustrate the aural temperament of each song.

The band members deliberately confined themselves to a single week in the studio, thereby avoiding months of meticulous overdubbing and re-tracking. They wound up recording most of the material in just three days.

“We limited the time intentionally to prevent us from dithering about it for years, like we are prone to do,” Effenberger said. “We tried to get it out the door pretty rapidly.”

The CD first emerged in June, but the band is celebrating its official release this month and will soon offer the record on vinyl.

Tan Vampires has been playing some of these songs for years, and yet the studio versions offer new sonic touches, like the mesmerizing trickle of percussive keys that adorn the submerged opening drone of “I Can Hear Them in the Dark.”

While Mehrmann is the primary songwriter, he encourages his band mates to bring their own unique skills to the table.

“Jake’s pretty open-minded,” Phaneuf said. “The more we change (a song) from what he brings in, usually, the more he likes it.”

“But he’s also up front when he doesn’t like something,” Rudolf added. “Partly because we’re coming from somewhat different backgrounds and we like a lot of different music, I think we all hear something a little different, and so it’s interesting to try to fit what everybody’s trying to do together.”

Mehrmann still frequently performs solo, including a recent slot at 3S Fest when rain sent the show indoors to The Press Room and Mehrmann took the stage prior to sets by Mike Doughty and Fountains of Wayne. Stripped to their guitar and vocal roots, the songs often have an entirely different character. The band members like to joke that Mehrmann hates playing guitar, preferring instead to writhe and dance as he sings. But, in fact, Mehrmann is capable of evocative, nuanced guitar work.

“I think Jake’s guitar playing is way more interesting than you might notice first listening to the music because there’s so much other shit going on,” Phaneuf said.

Effenberger pointed to the song “Customer Satisfaction Survey,” which culminates on the CD in a wild cacophony of instrumental clatter.

“On the record it’s noisy and angular and weird and fairly hostile, but there’s also an acoustic guitar, finger-picking and voice version of it,” he said.

The band rehearses every Monday night at “South Pine Manor,” the Dover house where Phaneuf and Effenberger live (Effenberger: “It’s not what it sounds like.” Phaneuf: “It’s way more gross”). But various gigs and side projects often disrupt the weekly schedule. On Aug. 29, for instance, Mehrmann booked a last-minute solo show at The Red Door with Soft Swells and Worried Well. Phaneuf and Rudolf, meanwhile, traveled north to back Blakeslee at the Ogunquit Playhouse.

Even with sporadic rehearsals, the group has reached a comfort level that translates into magnetic performances onstage and in the studio. Despite their diverse musical pursuits, the instrumentalists feel at home with Tan Vampires.

“I definitely feel like I play the most like myself in this band out of anything I do,” Phaneuf said. “When I play with Blakeslee, I play the music the way his music sounds like it’s supposed to be played. But I don’t feel like I have to do that in Tan Vampires. I play whatever I want.”

Asked what the band hopes to accomplish next, Filitis summed up their immediate goals: First, sell the CD, he said, and then record a new one.

The band hopes to be back in the studio with a new batch of songs by late winter or early spring.

They’ve got a handful of tunes that didn’t make it onto “For Physical Fitness,” and other new songs are in development. Phaneuf half jokingly suggested that part of the trick is getting Mehrmann and Rudolf to agree on things.

“Every song has, like, a bell curve of Jake liking it and Jim hating, or Jim liking it and Jake hating it,” he said, provoking nods and laughter from the others.

Meanwhile, the band is busy booking shows to promote the latest album. Upcoming Tan Vampires gigs include an opening slot with Yo La Tengo at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord on Sept. 22, a show at Sally O’Brien’s in Somerville on Sept. 23, and a spot at the Nor’easter Festival in Burlington on Sept. 25. With a solid following on the Seacoast, the band is expanding its following to regional hubs like Boston, Portland and Burlington.

Locally, bands like Tan Vampires and Gnarlemagne are at the forefront of an incestuous local community of musicians who are keeping the scene energetic and fresh.

“There is a noticeable lack of rivalry, which I think is awesome,” Mehrmann said. “Probably every band around here, one of us is friends with somebody or knows somebody in that band.”

As for long-term goals, they’d ideally like to quit their day jobs and make Tan Vampires a full-time enterprise.

“I would like to make a middle-class living playing in this band. I would love for that to be the case,” Phaneuf said.

But dreams of signing a major record deal and traveling by private jet is less likely than ever for most bands these days, and that’s OK by Tan Vampires.  

“The people who really care, they’re going to buy the record,” Mehrmann said. “They’re going to support you, they’re going to come to shows, they’re going to tell their friends. One person like that is hugely valuable, more so than 50 people in a room who don’t even give a shit, at all.”

Still, Tan Vamps have reason to aim high as the band continues to consolidate its talents and refine its infectious sound. As Mehrmann sings in “Sweep Up the Pieces,” “Don’t tell me I can not have everything, ’cause I want everything now. / Don’t tell me I can’t have it all, when I want more and more and more.”