The Rogers Sisters

Amp Camp - Invisible Deck Review - 09/12/06

The 80s are back. The thick-rimmed white sunglasses. The leg warmers. The new wave sound. And yes, the “me” decade’s ethos.

Rogers Sisters may pack more punch than your average Neigborhoodie t-wearing urbanite twenty-something with a keytar and a Casio drum pattern. But they slide right in to lockstep with familiar guitar-rock and lyrical sentiments on serving me, myself and I.

Those are not criticisms or value judgments. Just statements of fact. More facts: Rogers Sisters hail from that Mecca of all that is hip in 2006, Williamsburg. They boast two strengths: the two vocalists. Their melodies mesh well with the interesting guitar lines. They deliver a fresh sound in a quickly stultifying scene.

What we have here is booty shaking, floor-moving rock ‘n roll. It’s the kind of music where you can hear the sweat and smell the shriek. Bands of such life-throbbing ilk are best experienced in the wild: the wall-perspiring clubs and spit-soaked bars across the land. In rare cases the energy translates to disc (or mp3). Rogers Sisters demonstrate themselves that unique specimen.

On Invisible Deck, the trio heaves thick slabs of well-warmed rock riffs onto firm beds of taut, spastic rhythms. Slather on the engaging, hook-heavy male/female vocal juxtaposition and the musical concoction is complete. Indeed, we hear an au courant sound with roots running clear through to the late 70s; Brooklyn boasts fallow ground for such bountiful Strokes-stoked rock crops. These Sisters sprout beyond the chaff.

The songs are urgent, frantic and spartan. You can hear it in the anthemic “Why Won’t You” and in the female-fronted slow burner “Never Learn to Cry.” It’s in the epic, single-worthy call to multi-watch covered arms, “Money Matters,” as well as the herky-jerky stop-start sputtering like a car about to stall song “The Light.” It rocks, it’s fun and it sounds as good as those Nike Dunks look on you.

Phil the Slidewhistle
Amp Camp