Ryan Reidy, Brian Allen, Mark Tester and Tony Beemer of Sisters.

Click here to watch a video of Sisters performing and being interviewed for Off the Record

Ryan Reidy moved to Indianapolis with a mission.

The 24-year-old guitarist graduated from Ball State University with songs, but no band. It didn't take long for a plan to come together for Reidy, a fixture in the Indy scene from his time with the defunct band Ari.Ari.

"I had known Tony (Beemer) for a while from Those Young Lions and he told me at a party that he didn't have a band anymore and I said, 'That's great -- I need somebody to play drums in my band.'"

Around the same time, longtime musician Brian Allen had returned to Indianapolis from Chicago, and, he says, "playing music wasn't really even on my radar anymore." But the 28-year-old bassist got the itch and called Beemer, his friend and former bandmate.

The two were fiddling around one afternoon at home when Reidy arrived to play the songs he had written. "We got three songs done that first practice and we've been going a thousand miles an hour since," Allen said.

The final piece of the puzzle came in the shape of Mark Tester, another former member of Ari.Ari. The 24-year-old plays rhythm guitar and auxiliary percussion. The band, Sisters, was named in tribute to a Sonic Youth album and a song by Velvet Underground. It appeared from nowhere to secure spots opening for a handful of buzzworthy touring bands and was a last-minute addition to March's prestigious South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

"Dodge (a.k.a. Craig Lile) from My Old Kentucky Blog helped us meet the people we needed to meet," Allen said. "We got CDs in the hands of people who want to hear the kind of stuff we're doing. It's hard to do much on that short notice, but it was a really positive thing for us to go down there and hit the ground running really fast."

Promoting a band is always hard work, but it's easier to distribute recordings and book shows when a band's members bring a decade's worth of connections to the table.

"People wouldn't help us if they didn't like us or our music, so that's gratifying," Reidy said.

The Internet has made it easier to promote a band as well, but it's not without pitfalls.

Gone are the days when a band could develop organically, recording, playing out and growing into whatever potential they had. Now, in the age of cheap media and instantaneous, free worldwide distribution, a band's first recording might make or break it.

"You better bring your A game immediately or you're gonna get knocked, and it's hard to get back up after that," Allen said.

Regardless of the risks, Reidy focuses on technology's upside: "I think the flow of information is a good thing."

In the living room of a south Broad Ripple home that doubles as its practice space, Allen, Tester, and Beemer laughed. "We support the Internet," Allen said.

Hear Sisters here.