DURHAM - Any budding rock band sporting a moniker as verbose and ironically grandiose as The Future Kings of Nowhere can't be afraid to speak its mind.

And if you've heard "Like a Staring Contest," the college single from the band's 2007 self-titled debut, you know that's certainly the case for singer/poet Shayne O'Neill, who fills that track to the brim with metaphors that demonstrate nearly anything -- doctors, motorless airplanes, a team of shovel-wielding rabbits and badgers -- can be compared to a breakup.

"When I first started writing songs, it was whatever randomly occurred to me," says O'Neill, reminiscing on the cozy couch of his North Durham home with drummer Mike Hacker and recently added bassist, Jonathan Kornicki. The band plays at The Pour House in Raleigh tonight.

"A lot of times I had to just make [words] up so that it would rhyme, but I think, as I got better control of the words, I was able to inject more and more truth into that whole thing, as well as the feeling behind it."

Those lyrics, some of which refer to heartaches from as far back as 2002 ("Never"), are injected into the bombastic rattle of threaded acoustic guitars that thrash along steadily bouncing bass lines and the occasional saw melody for added atmosphere. In fact, in the vein of The Mountain Goats or old Violent Femmes, the Kings' brand of "acousticore" is a prime example of why you don't always have to set an amplifier to 11 to get a listener pumped.

"I feel that our band is a quest for that punk rock energy with a quest for something a little more intellectual, so this is what you listen to when you grow out of punk rock just a little bit -- not totally, but just a little bit," O'Neill says.

All in all, O'Neill's troupe has included about a dozen local multi-instrumentalists, including members of Eberhardt and Southern Culture on the Skids. It's only now, with the recent return of Hacker from Seattle and the addition of Kornicki, that the Kings have a firm core.

"I don't shut up all through the songs, and it's because I used to be like 'wow, I've got to fill up all of this space,'" says O'Neill. "Now, I think 'cool, there are other instruments that can do that.' But I think the lyricalness of it won't change; it'll still be balanced with the music."

Whatever this solid lineup holds in store for the band's sound down the line, O'Neill enthusiastically admits that members of the Durham arts scene have had a crucial impact on his sound, especially Midtown Dickens, the Future Kings' sister band.

"Durham is like Chapel Hill was in the '90s. I was around listening to this stuff, I didn't know the bands, but it feels like the Durham scene is so much friendlier and supportive and community oriented," O'Neill says.

As for the Future Kings' future, the band members say the lyrics to "I'm Still Waiting" still best sum up their best-case scenario:

Suffer me up into brilliance, until no one doesn't know my name.

"Someone recently said that sounds like the theme song for what we're doing, and I'm about to say a really nerdy thing here, but it's like an evocation to the muse," O'Neill says, smirking.

"It's kind of a description of what it would be cool to see happen."