Sterling

Like Its counterpart, the caustic, quasi-confrontational, needs-to-be-pummeled A.R.E. Weapons out east, S.A.D. Disorder may as well be the hippest band here in the Midwest. Mild depression has a menacing, and occasionally threatening tonality that grasps at the heart and motivation of every Twin Cities musician. This is, after all, an area where there’s nothing to do during the sweater-tugging winter months but as former local music writer Jim Walsh famously put it, “Drink beer and practice.” Which would explain the plethora of garage bands emerging from the area every year. Finally, it’s early April but the season’s ghosts haven’t quite returned to their sports bar of a resting-place. I assume the members of Chicago’s Sterling feel equally restless, as they chat with me over the phone from their practice space.