When they’re not recording in an empty school in their native Catskills, The Felice Brothers adhere to a relentless touring schedule. With eight albums released in the last seven years, the band embodies the by-your-bootstraps American worth ethic as well as the gritty Americana that’s their hallmark sound. With Celebration, Florida, The Felice Brothers’ ever-evolving sound takes on a dance hall quality that’s a welcome development for a band. Like the experimental city it’s named for, the album looks to the future, entrenched in the last decade’s punk-folk resurgence with a nod to modern instrumentation. Though the band never sacrifices its darkened edges. Of the new album, Stephen Hyden of The Onion A.V. Club said the band has “captured the decay and corruption of contemporary America in dazzling, sickening fashion.”

We caught up with fiddle player Greg Farley on the road before the band heads to the Black Cat tonight.

When did you start playing fiddle? Did you always know that you wanted to play in a band like the Felice Brothers, this type of Americana music?

I didn’t start playing the fiddle until three years ago. I started playing the fiddle because of a girl. I thought she was really cute; she lived in the same town as me. I played guitar at the time, and she had this extra violin and she started showing me stuff, and I basically followed her. I grew up with these guys, and they asked me if I wanted to join the band. I was always hanging out with them anyway. That’s why you see me move around on instruments, fiddle, drums, other stuff.

When did you start working on Celebration, Florida?

We started working on Celebration, Florida the summer before this past one. We got into this old, empty high school in Beacon, New York. They were renting out classrooms. We had three classrooms, an auditorium, a library. We just set up in there and started recording.

The band’s had a prolific run, with eight albums in seven years. Celebration sounds the most different. How did that poppier deviation from the straight-up roots-sound you’re known for. What brought about that change?

I felt like we always wrote poppier songs, but I guess the reason it sounds so different is number one, we were in a different place, and number two, we had different equipment. Over the years we’ve acquired more electrical instruments, like a drum machine. When we first started out, none of us had any money and we just played with what we had, acoustic instruments. That’s just a natural development.

What’s your favorite venue in D.C.?

We’ve had a lot of awesome shows in D.C., I feel like. This time we’re playing Black Cat, but last time we were there, we were at Rock and Roll Hotel. That’s always fun because we play downstairs, and then we go upstairs and there’s something else going on, and it’s super-packed. I like playing with the low ceiling, and all the kids sing along, everyone’s dancing.

At your shows, there are songs like “Whiskey In My Whiskey” and “Frankie’s Gun” that it seems everyone knows the words to. How do you strike a balance between newer material and the cult favorites?

We make a set list every night. We practice all the time, so we can sit down and do that. We always usually play “Whiskey In My Whiskey” because James [Felice] really likes singing that. We’ve created lots of transitions to make the sets go well; we mix it all up and make sure the songs flow well together.

Can you talk about what playing at Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble was like? And The Big Surprise Tour? Those are some legendary lineups you were a part of.

The Levon thing was awesome. The Big Surprise tour was with Old Crow Medicine Show, and those guys are kind of took us we tour with them so much, they’re like our big brothers. We got to play with David Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Justin Townes Earle. Playing with Levon was a crazy experience, because he’s a legend.

You’ve become mainstays on the festival circuit. Who are you looking forward to seeing at Hardly Strictly [Bluegrass, in San Francisco] next week?

Our buddy, Conor [Oberst], and Kurt Vile, he’s pretty sick. Our buddy A.A. Bondy. We backed him up on two songs on his last record, When The Devil’s Loose.

As the seasons change, do your tastes in the music that you listen to change as well? What do you listen to when you’re recording, and touring?

I feel like fall makes you feel more nostalgic, at least for me. I listen to stuff I haven’t listened to since I was really young. When we’re on tour, like right now, we listen to each others music a lot more because we take turns with the car stereo.

What were you listening to on the drive today?

Today, Josh [Christmas Clapton] just put on this interview with Brad Pitt about Moneyball. I put on some Pablo Casals, this cellist I really like. Then I passed out. I’d been driving for six hours. Brad Pitt, Moneyball, Pablo Casals, then I called you. That’s what we were rocking today.

The Felice Brothers headline the Mainstage at Black Cat tonight. Doors are at 8 p.m. Virgin Forest opens. Tickets are $18 and available here