Riding in a van on their way to a gig in Kansas City, Mo., the members of Tussle seem a bit shell-shocked that their music is catching on and that critics are giving their new album enthusiastic nods.

Their surprise is understandable. When roommates Nathan Burazer and Jonathan Holland, who live in Greensboro, N.C., picked up a bunch of secondhand instruments in 2001, they only played them as a way to amuse themselves.