Sitting powwow style on the deck at Great Scott (frontman Joe D’Agostino and I sat on the floor because the chairs were all chained together. Ah, Allston.), Gab and I joked around with Staten Island-based up-and-comers Cymbals Eat Guitars.

We had no idea what we were in for. For our first interview flying solo (Hil is totally the old pro at this stuff) Gab and I sat down with The Motion Sick at the back of the Middle East for some beers and quite a few stories. They may joke around a lot, but these guys are the real deal– They were named Best Local Rock Band of 2009 by The Phoenix and featured as a Band of the Month in Spin Magazine.

The three of us were sitting in the back of Shay’s in Harvard Square facing three members of the band formerly known as Baker, and a bright blue spiral notebook was on the counter next to Steve’s sweating glass. After cracking jokes about how the stack of paper revealed the answers they had prepared for our impending interview, the reality was that Conan, Steve and Andy were gathering that night to come up with a new name for their band, and a list of potential names took up a few of the notebook’s pages.

There’s no denying it: The Antlers are indie darlings and have been since the release of their first album, Hospice, this past March. The band may be based in Brooklyn, but Pete, Mike and Darby have hardly spent any time recently in New York’s hipster haven: When we caught up with them before their Sunday set Upstairs at the Middle East a couple of weeks ago, Jessie and I were faced with three content, though slightly bewildered, guys who were making the last stop on a memorable jaunt about the country.