In every press picture, the ladies of The Organ look like they could kill you. They frown, they hunch and they either avoid eye contact with the camera or stare at it with blasé menace. In some photos, the lead singer totes a gun.

"We do smile for the camera as well," insisted Katie Sketch, the fire-armed front woman. "The photographer will come and take two hours of photos and they'll choose. If we had pictures of people giving each other rabbit ears, though, I don't know if it would suit the music so much."

True. The Organ's music isn't quite what you'd call for on a sunshiny day. The Vancouver-based, all-female quintet is as dark as a band can get while still embracing that catchy-as-heck pop riff. And despite melancholy lyrics about dying a sudden death and being cold and alone again, Sketch is, well, pleasantly cheerful -- at least on the phone. Even amongst a chaotic moment of sliding around in a backseat in a car lost in Manhattan on the trek to a show with a driver who Sketch swears almost killed them 25 times, Sketch managed to sound truly excited about playing tonight's Roustabout!, where The Organ will shake up the weekly rockfest with what Roustabout! chieftain Jeff Van Fossan promises will be the "Yo La Tengo-level event of the semester."

The 21-and-over show, also featuring perennial favorite The Bullet Parade, will get hopping at 10:30 p.m. at The Darkhorse Tavern, 128 E. College Ave. Cover is $4.

This will be the last Bullet Parade show of the semester, guitarist/trombonist Chuck Ramsey said, before promising that the band will be around all summer. So dry those tears.

The Organ may not be a household name on par with The Bullet Parade around these parts, but Van Fossan promised the band's on the cusp of "something huge." They've toured with Hot Hot Heat and the New Pornographers; a track off their current album, Grab That Gun, was included on the season two soundtrack to Showtime's The L Word; and they've been praised everywhere from the New York Times to Pitchfork, with publications constantly trumpeting them as a cross between Joy Division and The Cure, fronted by a singer who sounds like Morrisey's kid sister.

Does that sound right to Sketch?

"I guess that's more or less accurate," she said. "I hear it all the time so it's hard for me to separate myself from it at this point. I've also heard Debbie Harry and stuff like that, but to be honest, I don't hear Debbie Harry at all. I think it's due to the fact that we're both women. But I understand it. I don't get sick of. I get sick of going to the bathroom in gas stations while touring, that's what I get sick of."

Before founding The Organ in late 2001, Sketch was in another group with current bandmate, organist Jenny Smyth (you didn't think they'd name the band The Organ and not have an organ, did you?). But in that band, Sketch was at the drum set rather than at the microphone.

"Whenever you first start singing in a project and you're the front person, it's a difficult transition," Sketch said. "Being a vocalist can be very intimidating because you're not hiding behind anything. You're saying words that are supposed to mean something to you, as opposed to playing notes that can be taken less personally. I'm starting to feel comfortable on the microphone now, but certainly in the beginning I wasn't."

Right now, The Organ's full-length CD, Grab that Gun, is available online and through its Canadian label, but finding the album in the States can be a bit of a challenge. The band has yet to sign with a U.S. label, but doesn't really care.

"It's a matter of finding the right label," Sketch said. "We're not in any huge rush. That's not our goal. We always have plans for the future; it's just that we're not dependent on anyone else before we can carry on."