Our annual Summer Stars series features a variety of groups making the rounds on the festival circuit. Today we feature Holy Ghost! We’ve also checked in with Alt-J, The Brothers Comatose, Lord Huron, Django Django, The Revivalists, Emancipator, Zoogma, Foxygen, The Flaming Lips, Allen Stone, Shovels & Rope, Passion Pit, John Scofield, The Lumineers, Futurebirds, Tea Leaf Green and moe..

New York duo Holy Ghost! – comprised of Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser – are hitting the road this summer as a lead up to their sophomore album, which is expected in the fall via DFA Records. The disc follows the group’s 2011 self-titled debut and, according to Frankel, it’s “like a man to a child” when compared to its predecessor. “The first record took a long time and we were figuring stuff out,” Frankel says of the album, which was completed in late March 2011. “I wouldn’t say that we’ve become pros at recording, but we certainly are more self-sufficient now. It was a more natural, easy process for Nick and me.”

The musicians feel that the disc – which they recorded in their home studio as well as DFA’s West Village space – expands on the first album’s synthpop-electro sound. They’ll showcase that sound on the road this summer by intermingling new and old songs during their live sets. “Alex and I are really close to the new music,” Millhiser adds. “So by virtue of the fact that we made it, we think it sounds like us. But it definitely feels different in a lot of ways. Sonically and aesthetically, it’s an extension and an evolution of the first album.”

The band, who have been rehearsing seven days a week in a Brooklyn studio to prepare for tour, plan to spend the next year on the road, continuing their tour dates once they release the album in the fall. “It’s like basketball practice without full contact,” Frankel says of rehearsals. “Half contact practice to walk through the songs with the band. We’re building up to inserting them into our regular set. I’m sure it will change a lot as we get started playing shows.” *

Album for a Hot Summer Night: Nas, Illmatic.

Summer Drink: Water.

Festival Stops: Bonnaroo, Governors Ball, Sasquatch!, Sweetlife, Electric Forest, Mountain Jam, Osheaga, more.