So you walked in on your older brother having sex. After standing there shocked for a bit and then running away to the refuge of the “What’s Happening to My Body? For Boys” book, you thought, “Hmm, that looked like fun. Maybe I’ll get to do that some day.”

Let the Murder City Devils be the brother, and replace the rumpy-pumpy with the self-titled MCDs album, and you have the Catheters. After following in the Devils’ footsteps on Seattle’s eMpTy and Sub Pop labels, not to mention joining big bro on a tour leg, the Catheters have tried to pop out some pubic hair with Static Delusions and Stone-Still Days.

Comparisons with the Murder City Devils are easy, though not entirely apt. Whereas the MCDs raised a self-consciously silly brand of AC/DC-infused hard rock to an art form, the Catheters take a cue more from the Stooges or the Dead Boys, albeit filtered through decidedly modern thick-guitar production. This in itself is fine.

What’s not fine is that on Static Delusions, the Catheters, too, try to put some art into their pretension. Let this be a note to all aspiring rockers – you can’t mix pretension with a moniker that refers to urogenital openings, unless you’re Pussy Galore. The album cover comes replete with a sticker that warns, “Notice! Contains ‘Art’!”, which is as much perspective as the band seems to get. Honestly, just throw away the packaging, as innovative as it is, and enjoy the big guitar licks and faux-Jon Spencer vocals for what they are.

After all, as any younger sibling knows, you’ll just never be as cool as your big brother.

[DJ Fatkid isn’t a sissy, he just has two older sisters. Okay, he’s a sissy, too]