For musicians with day jobs, the natural order of things is you dress up to work and dress down to rock. But that's just one of many unusual things about Chapel Hill's The Old Ceremony.

By day, frontman Django Haskins dresses casually while teaching guitar and songwriting; and by night, Haskins and his bandmates dress sharp in coats and ties, and they play even sharper.

"Yeah, we're the opposite," Haskins says. "Part of the idea of The Old Ceremony is that it's fun, but there's also a level of seriousness to it. That's part of the suit thing, which isn't us trying to be retro. It's more showing respect for the audience and the music. People used to do that in Sinatra's day, and it fell by the wayside. So that's why we do it, rather than to mimic any particular era or style."

Appearances aside, The Old Ceremony's elaborately arranged "pop noir" brings Rufus Wainwright, Randy Newman and Ben Folds to mind (especially James "The Kid" Wallace's stellar piano-playing). While it doesn't sound anything like the late great Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Old Ceremony is that group's logical heir in one important respect: Like the Zippers, TOC puts on performances that feel like events, not mere shows.

"Theatrical" in the best possible sense of the word, TOC's "Our One Mistake" (Sonablast Records) sounds like a dozen mini-movies in which each song tells a story -- the doomy mood piece "Reservations," the lover's plea "Talk Straight," the jaunty declaration of independence "Papers in Order," even a song sung in Mandarin Chinese ("Bao Qian"). It's impossible to hear "Reservations" without thinking of video possibilities with Haskins dressed up like a bellhop or a maitre d' at a fancy establishment.

"I've always liked bands that create an atmosphere around the music," Haskins says. "When we were forming the ideas that came to define the band, we came back to people like Astor Piazzolla, who wasn't an actor. But he had a lot of drama in his music, some darker aspects."

The group's formula started coming together about two years ago, when Haskins formed The Old Ceremony (named after Leonard Cohen's 1974 album, "New Skin for the Old Ceremony") during the final stretch of his previous group International Orange. A self-titled 2004 debut was promising enough, but "Our One Mistake" hits at a much higher level with far better writing and playing.

"In terms of writing, I tried to focus on being more direct and open," Haskins says. "That's why opening with 'Talk Straight' made sense -- that song is partly to myself. Playing live, the most direct songs have been the most satisfying. The other thing is that the band has really come into its own. There's a lot more cohesion to the arrangements because they happened more organically. I'd bring in a song, and the band would really put it through the ringer, make it better."

As cinematic as "Our One Mistake" is, it's also fitting that the album has an indirect connection to the movies. It's been released on Sonablast Records, the label owned by movie producer Gill Holland (whose credits include "Loggerheads," "Dear Jesse" and other films).

"He came and saw us play on somebody's recommendation, and that night he said, 'All right, let's do it,' " Haskins recalls. "Which worked out great. We knew we were going to record and we'd even booked the studio time, but we didn't know how we were going to pay for it. So it really came together.

"There does seem to be some sort of strange, strong momentum to this. With this record, we do feel like The Old Ceremony has been getting the benefit of some forces beyond us, which we're grateful for. It's tough to tour on $3-a-gallon gas."