DeKALB | There is an idealism in the artistic restart.

Whether it’s the clichéd acoustic wanderings of a rock ‘n’ roll vocalist who wants to un-sell-out or the avant-garde who feels suffocated by just one name, the restart is a documentable phenomenon encompassing solo albums, side projects and supergroups everywhere. The Beatles begat the Plastic Ono Band, the Smiths begat Morrissey, Death Cab for Cutie begat The Postal Service and blink-182 begat Boxcar Racer. Like any human, the artist gets restless to break from the pre-established routine. But what happens when the restart, a project defined by iconoclasm, becomes the new order?

That is where we’ll find I Can Make a Mess like Nobody’s Business, the aging restart of the Early November’s Ace Enders, when it arrives in DeKalb on May 28 at The House Café, 263 E. Lincoln Highway.

You might have missed The Early November, an indie-er punk/pop band that went out with an overwhelming three-disk concept album in 2006.

While Enders was still doing guitars and vocals for the group, he allegedly chopped off his hair (Regina Spektor style) and spawned “I Can Make A Mess…” as his folksy side-project. Emblematizing a rake to counter the Early November’s trademark maple leaf, the self-titled album was said to be an isolated incident of a fresh aesthetic. But it keeps going, releasing a sophomore album, The World We Know, and dropping its third (discounting cover and holiday CDs) album, Gold Rush, on Thursday.

Since its inception, “I Can Make a Mess…” has oscillated between background-noise-laden haunts and bare acoustic tunes.

The real hooks come out when the two poles occasionally come together with a more complex sixteenth-note-fueled drumbeat. Lyrically, it’s kind of “Diet Bright Eyes,” cathartic and slightly cryptic confessionals.

But what makes the band so worthwhile is that, seven years after its original optimistic beginning, I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody’s Business still has the idealistic energy of a restart.