As students, we have our shares of stress: making ends meet, seeking out that perfect potential job or internship, trying to catch the bus in time for the next class.

But what about driving to New York City and back in time for your 9 a.m. class the next day just for the sake of performing a single set? Or finishing your very last final in time to sign your record deal?

These were the tribulations of The Whigs about two years ago – and even in the time since, the trio has changed shape, solidified its sound and been forced to refine its focus in the face of unexpected yet conquerable roadblocks. Now, thanks to well-timed breaks and exceedingly genuine musical sensibility, The Whigs are experiencing a different kind of graduation as America embraces the promise that Athenians have already celebrated for years.

The Whigs are now part of the elite class of Athens artists to make a mark on a national scale. After accolades from Rolling Stone for being 2006′s “best unsigned band in America” and subsequently inking a deal withDave Matthews’ ATO Records later that year, 2008 is off to a sweet start with the release of “Mission Control,” the follow-up to the self-produced and re-released breakout album “Give ‘Em All A Big Fat Lip.”

It’s only January, but the critical mass already is concurring that the band is making a rewarding run for one of the year’s strongest rock records with deliberately delightful choruses and engaging garage rock grandeur.

For “Mission Control,” the band traded in the sweltering heat of a Southern summer in an abandoned fraternity house for the Beach Boys-endorsed good vibrations of a Los Angeles recording studio, working with high-profile producer Rob Schnapf of Beck and Elliot Smith fame to retain the raw energy and rising refinement of its sound.

Lead singer Parker Gispert feels as if the left-coast recording sessions were an unburdening time in which he was able to thrive and push the band’s deceptively simple formula forward.

“It freed us up,” he said. “We didn’t have to worry about recording in a place that you normally don’t record in and finding power and all those things. We really worked with the sound we wanted to get and how we wanted it to come out sounding sonically.”

The journey to Los Angeles began in 2002 when Gispert finally moved from Atlanta to Athens, following the path of long-time high school pal and future Whigs drummer Julian Dorio. His underlying appreciation for the Athens community is a proponent in the band’s success, even down to how the band’s members initially met in a typical college town fashion.

“I met Hank at a party, and the next night I came up to Athens and we went to a Stephen Malkmus show at the 40 Watt,” Gispert said. “That was the first time the three of us hung out.”

The trio bonded over the love of their influences and spent time investing in bands such as Pavement and The Replacements, Gispert giving great credit to the Elephant Six Collective and even more so to The Glands, his self-professed “favorite band of all time.”

The Whigs debuted soon thereafter at DT’s Down Under in May 2002 gathering a strong reputation for their impassioned live performances and sugar-high of a show. As for the diverse draw of their crowds, Gispert makes sense of it all.

“There’s kinda students, and there’s kinda townies, but what all those people have in common is that they go out, go to concerts, go to shows, and like to have fun,” he said.

The trio set up shop to record “Give ‘Em All A Big Fat Lip” over summer 2005, and as much as they worked tirelessly to make the album, they were “touring a hell of a lot,” Gispert affirms.

In the next few months, people were rapidly beginning to take notice, most notably the press. After the validation from Rolling Stone and Dorio’s exciting underdog crowning of Esquire magazine’s 2007 Drummer of the Year, the band’s ATO distribution and the relentless time out on the road set them up for an onslaught of grassroots success and support.

“We weren’t really shopping any labels,” Gispert said. “We put the record out ourselves and things were going well. ATO was the first label that came to us and said ‘we love the band, we love the album, we just want to put it out as it is and help you make another one.”

Not long after, a curve ball put a kink in its best-laid plans.

“Hank can’t explain exactly why he left, that’s more him,” Gispert says respectfully. “No one was angry or upset. We were just happy everyone was happy and the next day we were back at practice writing songs for the record.”

Strictly from an outside perspective, the timing could not have been worse. But Sullivant’s absence transformed into the chance of a lifetime for Gispert, as well as an Athens all-star showcase for the making of “Mission Control.”

“For us, it worked because we got to play with people we would have never got to play with otherwise,” said Gispert, the first of whom was none other than Craig McQuiston from Gispert’s heroes The Glands. Soon to follow would be Iron Hero’s Sam Gunn and Adam Saunders of local pop-rockers The Pendletons before the band eventually settled on local musician Tim Deaux to take Sullivant’s spot this past fall.

Thankfully, the result of all this time and toil is another understated work of greatness and the perfect pick-up point post-”Fat Lip.” With songs that run at a borderline breakneck punk rock pace, “Mission Control” re-emphasizes that The Whigs retain the rare ability to leave a lasting impression on a wide range of listeners in a punch-packing 37 minutes.

Short on time but big on brevity, the album does a great job really exemplifying why the band is deserving of their due. “Mission Control” confirms The Whigs’ ability to write a pop-sugary hook, diversely strewn against rigid guitars and voluminous vocals with a charming splash of slow Southern drawl.

Above all, event lick of the album relies on The Whigs’ attraction to elements of creative and musical purity: passion, posterity, poise and positivity.

Parker Gispert is a profound principal who knows this is true, preferring to harp on happiness and anytime he discusses the dynamics of his music or its presentation.

“I’d say we’re pretty positive people and when something seems like a negative at first, you turn it around and make it a positive situation.”

Athens has had a great deal to do with this positive perspective.

“The musical history here is pretty unbeatable,” Gispert said. “It’s a fun and active town, which for a town this size is normally not the case. I love the idea of lots of activity, but at the same time, I don’t wanna live in Brooklyn, you know?”

However, the band will be across the bridge from the borough in Manhattan on Monday as it makes its national television debut on “The David Letterman Show.” Gispert cites this opportunity as one of his most surreal life experiences thus far, but not the one he most anticipates in the near future.

“I’m looking forward to touring as much as possible,” he said. “Doing that every night sounds just great.”

Whether you are a math major or a rising rock star, every day is made up of missions to profess your promise whether large or small. Gispert’s survival tip for the University student body?

“Do the crossword,” he said without hesitation.

He’s serious – and constantly creative at the same time.

“That could be our new song – you know, like, do the crossword,” he said. ‘The new crazy dance!”

In the end, which is truly just the beginning for The Whigs, Gispert’s graces leave us assured that his band will be around for a while and that “Mission Control” is confidently cleared for takeoff. However, the jury is still out on whether or not the Dogs will be cranking that crossword between the hedges next season.