Say what you will about hot-zone music communities of Nashville, New Orleans, Austin, Brooklyn and Seattle. Vermillion, South Dakota, ain't doing bad, either — at least based on the fresh and hooky sounds of post-emo poppists Paradise Fears. Their excellent and just-out third album, "Life in Real Time," is their first for the innovative DigSin label, and the band celebrated with a unique junket.

Fans who'd pre-ordered copies of "Life in Real Time" were eligible to enter a contest; 27 winners in 13 cities across the country were treated to intimate private shows and actual hang-time with the band.

A formal release party will take place in New York City in the near future, and Paradise Fears kicks off 2016 with a free show Sunday in the Mohegan Sun Wolf Den.

"Life in Real Time" boasts 12 tight tunes whose choruses and riffs will bounce through your skull like a pinball, and the effortless fusion of anthemic rockers and melodic introspection seems, on first listen, to suggest some grand thematic blueprint.

"It was actually the total opposite," says vocalist Sam Miller in a post-Christmas interview. "We wrote just to write, and then we hit a certain point with a certain number of songs we loved — and said, 'Okay, now we're done.'"

Along with Miller, Paradise Fears includes vocalist/rhythm guitarist Cole Andre, lead guitarist Jordan Merrigan, keyboardist/vocalist Michael Walker and bassist Marcus Sand.

And, as far as Vermillion being a musical hotbed, that's not exactly true, either. In fact, Paradise Fears essentially became the town's entire music scene just by virtue of the fact they formed a band together. While that might suggest a lack of influences and experiences a young artist might have in Austin, for example, Miller says they made the most of it.

"There wasn't really any music scene, and it was rough that there weren't a lot of other bands around to play with or venues, even, of templates for success or support systems," he says. "But it was also good because we weren't corrupted by example and we immediately knew that, in order to find a larger audience, we had to hit the road. And that's ultimately what gave us our start."

For four years, PF traveled anywhere they could perform, wrote and recorded, worked the social media, and built a significant and decidedly enthusiastic following.

In order to get their music to the next level, the band signed with DigSin, a Nashville label masterminded by Jay Frank, a former executive at Country Music Television. The label's focus embraces new music strategies rather than the old-school distribution network, and focuses on a subscription service that targets individual tracks as well as full-length albums.

Paradise Fears were introduced to Frank by mutual friends, and the band was impressed by the label's visionary strategy.

"We hit it off (with Jay) right away," Miller says, "and there was a mutual admiration for what each other was doing. For a band in our position at the time — with a touring history that we built independently — the traditional label route didn't make much sense. DigSin is a label that will come in, offer tremendous and modern expertise without taking over or getting in our way. That makes sense."

Paradise Fears, 7 p.m. Sunday, Mohegan Sun Wolf Den; free; 1-888-664-3426.