Go to the Sugar Altar

Go to the Sugar Altar

There's two types of identical twins in the world: thosecontent to star in Doublemint commercials, and those who, because they find different callings and develop at different rates, must carve out separate spaces. The Deal sisters of Dayton, Ohio seem of the latter category. While Kim was helping invent modern rock in the Pixies and then the Breeders, Kelley was learning how to play guitar, taking a backseat in Kim's Breeders, then getting hooked on and busted for heroin. But the prodigal sister has returned, and with her new band The Kelley Deal 6000 she blossoms into a creative force rivalling her more accomplished family member.<P> Her band's 1996 debut, <I>Go to the Sugar Altar</I>, was born out of a collaboration with musician Jesse Colin Roff while both were in a Minneapolis rehab facility. Much of the album, lyrically and musically, sounds informed by Deal's heroin experiences. Songs like the self-effacing "How About Hero" and "Canyon" are anthems to dysfunction, and Deal's brand of eccentric pop bounces between Velvets nod music and Brian Wilson at his most unbalanced. Still, Kelley gets across an easy humor and playfulness that makes <I>Go to the Sugar Altar</I> an even more likeable--if less solid--work than her previous recording appearance, on the Breeders' 1993 breakthrough <I>Last Splash</I>. When, and if, the Deal sisters ever record together again (rumors have circulated both ways), their newfound equal footing as songwriters and bandleaders should activate real Wondertwin power. And if it never happens, we'll be content to double our pleasure hearing the women soar along their separate trajectories. <I>--Roni Sarig</I>