“What do you think of the new record?” asked Tripping Daisy bassist Mark Pirro from his Texas home a couple of weeks ago.

An honest reply of “I’ve only had it a few days, so it’s hard for me to say” followed.

“Yeah, you definitely need to listen to it more than a few times to discover all of its different levels,” Pirro responded. “It’s a thinking man’s record.”

Perhaps a more accurate reply to his on-the-spot inquiry would have been “It’s full of mistakes.”

Because … well, it is.

An indie band entangled in a major label world, Tripping Daisy took a rather raw approach to recording its third Island Records release, the creatively titled “Jesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb.”

The band enlisted PJ Harvey keyboardist Drew Feldman, whose resume boasts Frank Black’s “Teenager Of The Year” among other alterna-rock gems, to co-produce the record and capture the “not-so-sharp around the edges” feel Daisy frontman Tim DeLaughter desired.

“Going into it, we were more accustomed to a high quality sound, and that’s a great thing,” Pirro explained. “But with this record, we decided to go to the other end of the spectrum. Some of the best moments on it were first perceived to be mistakes.”

During immediate post-recording critiques, one of the Daisies, which also include guitarist/pianist Wes Berggren and new arrivals guitarist/trumpeter Philip Karnats and drummer Ben Curtis, would point out an error in a song and suggest a re-record.

Feldman’s common response: “No way. That’s awesome.”

“He led us to believe that those moments were important,” Pirro said.

Upon finishing the record, DeLaughter declared “Jesus” the musical masterpiece that defines the band.

Pirro explained: “‘Bill’ sounds like a band in its innocence, not aware of the things going on outside its little world. [‘I Am An Elastic Firecracker’] was about trying different directions — experimenting with different sounds. A band that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. And ‘Jesus’ is a band that has truly discovered itself.”

Daisy’s latest effort is by far its most complex ever. All of the band members share vocal duties for the first time, while the addition of Karnats and Curtis adds a massive depth to the record unheard on the groups previous two radio-friendly pop collections “Firecracker” and “Bill.”

“It was a cool way to make a record,” Pirro said. “There’s so many overdubs it is overwhelming. And Phil is an amazing experimenter of sounds. He does so much with keyboards on this record.”

One element missing on “Jesus” is an “I Got A Girl,” which Pirro considers a novelty tune unnecessary for a group of veteran musicians all neighboring 30.

“But there’s still some very accessible songs on the record that I think will captivate listeners like ‘I Got A Girl’ did,” Pirro added.

“Sonic Bloom,” the record’s first single, is unarguably the most accessible “Jesus” number. Courtesy of DeLaughter’s lush voice crooning diary-style lyrics like “Love gets inside of you/Makes me invisible,” the tune could be called a mature “I Got A Girl.”

Credit for the creativity on “Jesus” can be given to the three-year hiatus Tripping Daisy took from the studio and the one year it took away from music in general.

Fatigue set in on the crew after two non-stop years of touring to support “Firecracker” and the enormous success of “I Got A Girl.”

“We were on the road so long, it’s kind of hard to remember what real life is,” Pirro said. “It was so nice to buy groceries again — it was like getting my life back. I needed a break from anything band related.”

When Tripping Daisy was ready to go back, Island wasn’t. The label was busy promoting other bands and suggested the group fine-tune its new material before recording it.

“It was kind of discouraging,” Pirro said. “We wondered, ‘Will people forget us?’ But it turned out to actually be a better turn of events.”

The band utilized the time to prep DeLaughter’s new songs, but instead of working in a rehearsal space, Tripping Daisy hit the local Texas club scene — only not as Tripping Daisy.

The band played a handful of shows under assumed names and advertised only to loyal fans who frequented the Tripping Daisy Web site. The band’s recently released b-side E.P., “Time Capsule,” was promised as a gift to those who attended the shows.

“We were concentrating on the new material so we did not want to play any old stuff,” Pirro said. “But we also did not want to disappoint our fans. So we came up with this idea and managed to bring in our hard-core fans without pissing people off.”

The assumed-name shows helped the band gauge what songs to include on the 15-track “Jesus.”

“It was a test drive, so to speak,” Pirro said. “Now, I wish we would have recorded all of our records after we toured.”

Gigging has been the emphasis of Tripping Daisy since the band formed in 1991. The group has maintained a DIY attitude about touring and prefers taking unsigned local bands on club tours rather than opening for larger acts.

“We always want to do our own show because it is very visual and when you’re opening for someone else, you’re not allowed to do things like that,” Pirro explained.

Now that Pirro is too old to pretend he’s still a punk rock kid, and is more concerned about a serious relationship than what’s on MTV, touring is a little different.

“You see things in a different light,” he said. “It becomes more of a routine. But I’m still having fun.”

Another rut Pirro and his cohorts weren’t prepared for was the practice it took to bring the extensive sound of “Jesus” to the stage.

Tripping Daisy added a variety of new ingredients to its performance, including a sampler, which would have been considered a sell-out move to a rock band a few years ago.

“The music world is changing,” Pirro said. “It’s exciting. Samples open up so many new possibilities for a live show. All the bells and whistles — you can do that stuff live now.”

Bells and whistles, huh? Not exactly toys of a mature 28 year-old.

Perhaps labeling Tripping Daisy mature was the mistake.

Tripping Daisy will perform at The M-Shop tonight with Flick at 8 p.m. Tickets are still available at $10 for students, $12 general admission.