The Sister Lovers

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Postal Service look-alikes Camp Camp, a duo composed of Syracuse University students who refer to themselves as K. Erik and Pete K. on their Myspace.com Web page, opened the show with tunes flavored by the robotic twang of an authentic Korg vocoder and an accompanying Moog synthesizer. “Men of Steel,” a tune which mocked the concept of masculinity, embellished the electronic drum machine thumps that supported their set with quirky one-liners on the keys, and intentionally pedantic lyricism.

Next was Chicago-based Mason Proper, a more standard rock band that seemed heavily influenced by 1990s alt-rockers Weezer. Outside after their performance, the group chatted about how their experience in Detroit’s “Rock City” and their touring alongside Birdmonster throughout the past year.

However, Syracuse’s own semi-serious yet satirical The Sister Lovers were given the crowd’s laurel wreath with the constantly in unison vocals of Kevin Burns and Ian Proper. Guitarist Nathan Curtis ripped through quirky but catchy solos, supported by bassist Kevin Quirk and drummer Bryan Schlenker. With the subtle, rambling piano of Emily Jones and more than a hint of influence from modern independents the Arcade Fire, the Sister Lovers put on an artful, amped show.

While most of the crowd cleared out after the Sister Lovers’ set, Birdmonster bassist Jason Tenuto extended his hand into the air, then proceeded to pound on Mezzanotte’s stage right wall in unison with the bass drum kicks of drummer Zach Winter to wake up the late-night leftovers. After Winter ground his forehead into the wall while driving into their group’s set, he seemed to want to literally emulate an image of what a bird monster might be. Winter’s higher-registered bass lines thinned out most of the group’s verse sections, only to allow the floor to drop on them when lower bass notes were allowed to sink into place. Without a doubt, Birdmonster is right in line with the ultra-contemporary trend of rock musicians to use intellectual song forms to their behest.

—Matt Mumau
- Syracuse New Times

If someone was to undertake the task of updating Michael Azzerad's amazing textbook-like nonfiction work Our Band Could Be Your Life for the decade from 1994 - 2004, this writer would have a few suggestions as far as scenes or locales go to look into for pre-production and research: Chapel Hill, NC, Lawrence, KS, the Sacramento valley, CA, mid-state New York and Champaign-Urbana, IL.

The Sister Lovers, a group of quietly brilliant indie rockers, hail from the mid-state New York region; namely Syracuse. And while they don't fit in to the exact decade the book would be discussing as its primary objective, the group would certainly be listed as a major contender for audience approval in the family-tree of music in that very college town.

And we know. Every college town has a sort of "sound" that music critics always want to hark back to. But in these times of genre mashing and renaming of trends in order to reduce any band's music into a single sound-byte-worthy phrase or catch-all, it NEVER EVER EVER does complete justice to the band's musicianship, talent or promise.

The Sister Lovers have all of those things and this writer will not be caught with the upturned-nose and finger-pointing that coincides with "giving it a name". It's just good music. And good lyrics. And the promise that this band may be able to turn "good" into something else. Something other than a day's worth of notice from some blog on the internet with nearly no pull whatsoever.

Oh, and they play Piano's on August 12th.

Godspeed! - thatdudejeff.com

Over the course of their Piano's residency, Jukebox the Ghost was joined by nine different bands on stage. That's a crazy amount of music to catch for only $8 a pop, but for some reason I only managed to catch three of the other acts on stage for some mixture of drinking and socialize took over me each of the Fridays I was present. Last week I managed to catch Wakey! Wakey! and A Brief Smile do their thing, even though I was missing Interpol at the Garden to do so. This past Friday I finally broke down and was a bit adventurous watching a band I heard next to nothing about and who I had never heard a lick of music from. I'm glad I did.

The Sister Lovers are a band that hails from Syracuse, New York, and who you may find running in the same circles as Ra Ra Riot when they are both in town upstate. It's obvious that both bands come from the same school of thought when it comes to their live performances, and that is to leave everything out on that stage. From the very first note the band is exploding on top of you, using their blend of indie pop to lull you into a sense of security while secretly infecting you with their catchy tunes. It's a devilish trick but it works when the songs are crafted that well. At times sounding a bit like Wolf Parade, at others wearing their Talking Heads influence on their sleeves, the band is an absolute blast to be in the same room as.

It's rare to get an opening performance that impresses you, it's even rarer for that performance to stick with you over time, but I have a feeling that the half hour The Sister Lovers spent wooing me on stage will be stuck with me for sometime. Perhaps they are the next band that I would venture out for three consecutive weeks for, I know we'll get another shot to test that when the band hits town for the CMJ Music Marathon next month though. For now I'll be checking out their CD that I picked up on Friday, I've listened once already and I gotta tell you its pretty damn good. - Pat @ Pop Tarts Suck Toasted Blog

"...It wasn't a completely strange transition then when Sister Lovers took stage next, saying something about their hometown of Syracuse, NY. "I didn't know there were bands in Syracuse," I quipped about my youthful paradise, which I think drew dirty looks from the ladies at the far wall who danced throughout the set and were presumably lovers of the band. The sisters, perhaps?

This six piece, my fondness for Arrah's pop notwithstanding, were the evening's highlight and, I'll say, surprise. Two guitars, drums, bass, two keyboards, the sound was full and not just loud, though it was that, too. I was struck, also, by the tempo shifts and key changes. Each song seemed pored over structurally, both by the writer in the late night bedroom and the band together. I thought of the Cure during the set but no one I was with did. Someone mentioned the New Pornographers.

The Sister Lovers rock (used as a verb), it seems, as a matter of course, and it is on top of this that they happen to be into lots of chords and interesting structure and not, say, three chords and two melodies (Not to disparage my beloved three chords and two melodies bands). Maybe the most significant testament to the Sister Lovers' prowess was I wondered, What else is lurking around Syracuse?"

- Jel Leonard Chaffee from stereosubversion.com