For the Hush Sound's singer/guitarist Bob Morris, the past few months have consisted of a series of totally unlikely experiences.

Take, for example, his band's first-ever tour: a surreal month of arena gigs on Fall Out Boy's Black Clouds and Underdogs trek. Or the months he spent in the studio working with FOB's Patrick Stump on Hush's new album after having recorded the group's first LP on the fly. And then there's the time he almost blinded Panic! At the Disco frontman Brendon Urie in a heated game of pre-show hoops.

"We were playing basketball at a radio show, and on the very first play of the game I poked Brendon in the eye and gave him this really huge black eye," Morris laughed. "It was a total accident, like he was guarding me and I just followed through on a pass and clocked him. But that's sort of how I play. I just go insane out there."

While Morris' b-ball skills may leave something to be desired, his songwriting prowess is not up for debate. On the Hush Sound's new album, Like Vines, he and singer/pianist Greta Salpeter create a world that's equal parts whimsy and Web log, infusing songs like "We Intertwined" and "Out Through the Curtain" with details both magical and deeply personal.

"For the past couple of years now, Greta and I had been writing songs for these movies we'd have in our minds," he said. "We'd sit around in the dark, with candles lit and be like, 'OK, this song is going to be for when the guy comes into the room with a gun.' We knew we wanted to tell people stories, to sort of make up these fairy tales. So that's what we did on Like Vines. We sat down and said, 'OK, let's tell some stories.'

"But there's still a lot of songs that are about events that happened in my life, like, about stuff that I wasn't able to write about for years," he continued. " 'Out Through the Curtain' is about me not going outside for five years because I was afraid of this bigger kid beating the crap out of me. So it's miserable and embarrassing, but ultimately empowering."

Recorded with the help of Stump -- he co-produced, and sings on "Don't Wake Me Up" -- Vines grows off the foundations of the Chicago quartet's first album, the quickly recorded So Sudden, which it released just last October. It's full of atmospheric instrumentation, jaunty beer-barrel pianos and twinkly mandolins. By turns sweetly melodic and darkly dissonant, it's a fully accomplished sophomore effort.

It's also an album that feels totally out of place on FOB bassist Pete Wentz's Decaydance imprint of label Fueled by Ramen, which is home to not only Panic!, but the Academy Is ... and Gym Class Heroes.

"It's an honor to be on the label, because something is happening here," Morris said. "And it's because of Pete. When Jay-Z started signing acts, people listened to them because they respected that guy, and in the case of Pete, people know he doesn't sign sh---y bands."

So with an opening slot on Panic! At the Disco's current headlining tour (see [article id="1527584"]"Panic! At The Disco Announce First Headlining North American Tour"[/article]), a spot on one of the hottest labels around and a video for Vines' first single, "Wine Red," about to hit the airwaves, what's next for the Hush Sound?

Why, working on album number three, of course.

"I'm really lucky to be in a band with a bunch of musicians who are never happy about performances and never satisfied to rest on what we've accomplished," Morris said. "Everyone in this band will get up early and start writing new songs on an acoustic guitar. Greta's, like, a songwriting machine. It'll never stop. I mean, I have a bunch of songs that didn't end up on this album, so I may just record them myself."