Tim Hughes gets a sweaty run-around courtesy of the high-kicking, eclectic Gym Class Heroes.

Believe it. Knockabout baseball cap sporting freaks Gym Class Heroes look like a bunch of freaks — and they are as nuts as they seem.

Punchy, bombastic and funny, their high adrenaline mix of alternative hip-hop, rock, soul and punk would probably get them banned from the Olympics, but is going down a storm with their fans.

And it is seeing the strangely loud-mouthed Americans (now there's an unusual concept!) selling out venues wherever they tread. That includes Oxford's Carling Academy, which they play a week tomorrow.

The show comes as the guys release their hotly-anticipated third album The Quilt (on Decaydance/ Fueled By Ramen Records). The album is the band's first outing since 2006's gold-selling As Cruel As School Children, which spawned monster hits The Queen And I, Clothes Off and the massive Cupid's Chokehold (Breakfast In America) — which stayed in the Top 10 for more than eight weeks.

It has always been Gym Class Heroes' refreshing hybrid of styles that set them apart in an overcrowded scene, and the new album sees the band step up a creative gear or three — not only expanding on their unique blend of hip-hop-based mayhem, but transcending it.

Just look at who they roped into collaborating on it — names like producers Cool & Dre, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy, UK soul sensation Estelle, Busta Rhymes, and Hall and Oates co-frontman Daryl Hall — one of Gym Class singer Travis McCoy's musical idols.

They make an odd bunch, and no mistake, but the results speak for themselves. Despite this, McCoy claims that they're still just getting started.

"I think the day we're satisfied or content with where Gym Class Heroes is, is the day we find something else to do," he explains.

"Once we feel like we're not hungry any more, it's time to find something else to do. But right now we're just as hungry as we were four or five years ago... in fact we’re starving."

One of the big hitters at the forthcoming Carling Academy date is sure to be butt-kicking anthem The Queen & I.

"It's a personal song," says Travis. "It's about girls who fancy alcoholic beverages, girls who like to have too much of a good time.

"I have weird underlying issues with females and alcohol. This song is kind of like closure, though you'd never get that vibe listening to the song.

"It's fun to do things like that, make music that's fun with a really poppy vibe, but when you listen to the lyrics, it's like, 'wow, listen to what that dude just said!'

"If you're not paying attention, you think it's just another radio ditty that sticks in your head. But then when you really listen you see it's a whole lot more."

Gym Class Heroes play the Oxford Carling Academy on September 20.