Behind a thick coating of informality lies a wealth of musical ideas, all ripe with amazing possibility and technicality. They come from the minds of guitarist Ben Gmetro and his fellow band mates in The Dreadful Yawns, a band that goes out of its way to be extraordinarily ordinary.

The Yawns don old, worn sweatshirts and frayed jeans with scarves and ties. In between touring, they work as bookstore employees, music teachers and grocery store clerks, scraping together what cash they can to continue after going strong for nine years.

One day, they hope the band will become the only necessary source of income.

“We want to be touring forever,” said guitarist Eric Schulte.

The Yawns, who are coming to The Billiken Club next Thursday, is a band content with the unpredictability of their music and the comfortable feel of playing in small cafes in small towns sprinkled throughout the country.

Members of The Yawns have been coming and going since the band’s inception, but there has always been a close connection between all its personnel, most of who have come from various areas in Ohio, hallowed ground in the Indie rock scene. And from such varied roots comes a heavily varied sound.

“It’s cool to take a back seat and contribute something better than my singular view of what the band should be like,” Gmetro said. “There’s a lot of variance in the musicianship now.”

The Yawns’ latest album, Take Shape, is the musical culmination of the band’s career. Songs like “Catskills” and “Expecting Rain” feature hints of Neil Diamond, Nick Drake and The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper, an album Gmetro cites as a major influence for the band. It is the band’s first album since Gmetro and Schulte put the band back together after years of lineup changes.

As Gmetro said, it’s “the band’s statement in its most modern form.”

The band tends to mash sounds together and is widely known in the Indie scene for improvising on stage between songs. The Yawns have also continually redefined their sound as well as their image with each album, hoping to explore unknown sound scapes.

Somewhere in the midst of all their experimentation lies a yearning to break free from the monotonous routine of everyday life and the uncertainty of the future.

“I feel like we’re struggling now because we’re working harder, and trying to combine more elements into our music,” Gmetro said. “It seems like Take Shape could be judged as our first album.”

The Yawns have reached a point in their careers where struggling is a normal part of the job, but, in that struggle they have discovered a sound that’s relevant now, even if it may not stick in the future. The Yawns don’t seem to mind.

“What draws people in is the continuous music and songs from unknown territories,” Gmetro said.

The Yawns come to The Billiken Club after stops in Virginia, Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina.

“We’re excited to play at the venue,” both Gmetro and Schulte said. “We haven’t been to St. Louis in awhile.”

For more information about the band and their music, visit http://www.myspace.com/thedreadfulyawns.