When describing his band’s musical style, Dovetail Joint frontman Chuck Gladfelter doesn’t hesitate.

“It’s rock, dude. Nothing more,” he said.

After writing material for two albums for the past six years, meanwhile playing local rock shows in Chicago, Gladfelter and company are elbowing their way out of the Windy City.

Consisting of Gladfelter on guitars and vocals, drummer Joe Dapier, lead guitarist Robert Byrne and bassist Jon Kooker, Dovetail Joint has exploded in Chicago and is beginning to take its act national.

While the members of Dovetail were temporarily residing in Los Angeles to master their latest album, “001,” Chicago DJ Alex Luke got a- hold of an unreleased demo version of the infectious, riff-laden track “Level On The Inside.”

After Aware Records founder/president Gregg Latterman played him the track, Luke threw it into heavy rotation. The song soon became one of the station’s top late-summer hits.

“A lot of the people in my office were big fans of the band early on,” Latterman told R&R. “They used to drag me to the clubs a couple of years ago to see these guys. And while they really rocked live back then, at first I didn’t hear any songs. The song ‘Except When You’re Late’ made me realize that these guys can write great songs. That’s when I started taking them seriously.

“What cemented everything was having Will Botwin [Columbia Records general manager] see them at the NEA Extravaganza in Nashville in early 1998, and he loved them. That was all I needed.”

Since then, Dovetail’s popularity has spread around the Chicago area.

“After being on the radio, Chicago has been pretty responsive,” Gladfelter said. “But it’s not about that. More than anything, Chicago is an extremely competitive scene. There are so many talented musicians here that everyone is somewhat competing for the same space. You can’t be an average band and get noticed. You really have to be exceptional, or at least good in one facet or another, to step up and get noticed. It’s also a great scene to put together a band for that very reason.”

Formed in 1994, Dovetail has roots that stretch over a decade. Dapier and Gladfelter had been playing together since they were 12 or 13.

“He and I have literally been at it for quite a while — almost 15 years now,” Gladfelter explained. “We have always had about the same musical idea about what it is we wanted to do.”

In 1994, Byrne joined the band and rounded out the sound. The next year, Dovetail Joint put out a record and started getting label and management interest.

“We couldn’t really make it happen until late 1997,” Gladfelter said. “After our song snuck onto Chicago radio, it just kind of took off. Everything kind of snowballed, and the next thing we knew, they were working on playing our song across the county.”

Doing very little touring until six months ago, Dovetail Joint focused on songwriting and studio skills, hitting occasional festivals out of town.

“We never went out and pumped it out for a month straight,” Gladfelter said. “We’ve never really had a show every night. This year is really our first time doing it.

“We were just like, ‘Let’s just stay here and work on writing more.’ We played live shows around here and there. But if it’s gonna happen anywhere, it’s gonna happen in Chicago. I don’t know if that was the best decision for our band. But I do know that it made us work longer for three years at home, and I think that was a good thing.”

If Dovetail Joint would’ve gotten signed in 1995, Gladfelter said the group wouldn’t have been ready and would’ve folded under the pressure.

“I think that it was a good thing that we did just stick to our guns, and I’m actually kind of thankful that we didn’t get signed back then,” he said. “I think it’s helped us in the long run. But we’ve learned a lot from each other in the last couple months just from playing live.”

Dovetail’s decision, along with a little patience, has paid off. Columbia Records’ sister label C2 has chosen the band to be its first act to take to the radio.

The recent release of the band’s second album, “001,” has proven to be a success in the making. Recorded at Funkytown studios in Minneapolis, produced by John Fields and mixed by Jack Joseph Puig (Hole, Semisonic and The Black Crowes), the album is the next step in Dovetail’s songwriting evolution.

“It’s a rock record,” Gladfelter said. “The record that we put out in 1995 was a little bit longer and more drawn out. There were more five-and six-minute songs, whereas the new album is a more poppy record with three- and four-minute songs. It wasn’t an intentional thing, it’s just an evolution of the songwriting and what the band has been doing.

“[Fields] was an absolute blessing. He is such a fantastic musician, and we really just locked instantly. We went up there with the song ‘Level on the Inside’ and recorded it in 11 hours, and that was the version that ended up being on the record. We didn’t even know if this whole thing was gonna work out, and then we got together and 11 hours later we were totally satisfied.”

Gladfelter tabbed part of the album’s success to being on a major label.

“We have found a lot of the myths that people say about majors not to be true,” he said. “The label has not been all over us and telling us what to do. You know, stuff like ‘You gotta change this part,’ or ‘You’ve gotta move this chorus.’ It just hasn’t been like that.

“They really have basically let us do what it is that we want to do. Very little creative involvement on [the label’s] end. It’s really been a really fantastic relationship; they’ve really worked their balls off for us. We’ve been really impressed with how much effort they’ve put in to make this band break,” Gladfelter added.

Included with the perks of being signed on a major label is a tour with the Goo Goo Dolls set to kick off in Ames. Having only played outside of Chicago for six months, the tour will be one of the band’s first efforts outside of the Midwest.

“We’ve never played with the Goo Goo Dolls before, but the prospect of playing in front of 5,000 or more people each is a super cool thing,” Gladfelter said.

Dovetail Joint will spend two to three weeks with the Dolls, heading from Ames to tour the Southern United States. Both groups are slated for a few music festivals that will include several national acts.

“Touring is great,” Gladfelter said. “You get to get out and see the country, you know. You get to play with other bands and see what they do. I mean, you already know how you put on your live rock show, but you look and see what they do. You can learn a little bit off of each other.”

Dovetail Joint will bring its Chicago-based alt-rock show to Hilton Coliseum Friday to open for the Goo Goo Dolls and the New Radicals at 9 p.m.

Tickets are $7.50 for Iowa State students and $15 for Iowa State community members and student guests.