You Guys Just Sit Around Doing SuperCool All Day

Artist: Sisters
Album: Ghost Fits
Year: 2010

Short Review: Like a better, more accessible No Age. This could totally be two dudes you know making fun, fuzzy, punky dirt-pop.

Long Review: At its worst, Sisters do nothing more than ride the current fuzz-rock trend of rehashing the best parts of the underground from the 80s and 90s. At its best, the duo’s debut album, Ghost Fits is a fun, easy blast of accessible guitar crunch, not unlike a low-fi, no-impact version of Superchunck, or a less bullshit-y Sonic Youth.

Recalling the straightforward thump of Japanther, the band get by more on its charms and taste for melody than it does on originality. Opening track and album highlight “The Curse,” which starts with some chunky strumming, wouldn’t be much more than a mid-tempo basement punk song if not for a killer second guitar part that highlights just how much can be down with few chords.

And so the album goes. Every song is held together by a simple beat, a straightforward guitar part and some kind of additional keyboard or guitar melody (see “Glue,” “Sky”). On a track-by-track level, not every song works. Overall, however, the album is a fun diversion for people who think the underground has gotten too artsy.

Perhaps Sister’s biggest strength is its charm. The album is refreshingly free of any subtext or deeper meaning beyond “Hey, how cool does this guitar solo sound? How fun is that drum beat?” This is not a homework project or a great artistic gambit: it is two guys from Brooklyn who probably fell in love with Dinosaur Jr. and Japandroids at some point and decided to make rock music in their basement. The real secret triumph of Ghost Fits then, is how good a job these two amateurs did imitating giants.

Key Tracks: The Curse, Sky, Glue, Highway Scratch

Buy, Steal, Skip: Buy, for sure.