Tapes ’n Tapes

The Minneapolis quartet are the latest product of Internet hype. Don’t hold that against them

(L-R) Erik Appelwick (bass), Josh Grier (vocals, guitar), Jeremy Hanson (drums), Matt Kretzmann (keys, euphonium, percussion, backing vocals) Courtesy of Beggars Japan

You know things have come full circle in the record industry internet wars when companies start encouraging fans to videotape shows and post footage online. The Grateful Dead realized decades ago that encouraging tapers might increase goodwill toward the band and, yes, even boost record sales, but it’s taken this long for record companies to put the ’net to good use.

This is the reason that the new Japan branch of England’s largest independent record label, Beggars Banquet, is encouraging fans to record and post footage from the upcoming Japan debut of US indie act Tapes ’n Tapes. The move follows the popularity of the band’s MySpace site and YouTube video, which are credited with bringing the group to a mass audience in the way the web recently did for the Arctic Monkeys.

But all this is academic to Josh Grier when I catch up with him by cellphone in a van in the American heartland on his way to his next gig. “In the last eight months we’ve gotten pretty used to being on the road,” says Grier with a sigh. “It’s never fun to leave home, but at the same time it’s a really good opportunity and you’ve got to take advantage of it while it’s there.”

The last year has been a whirlwind for Tapes ‘n Tapes. Formed only in 2003, the quartet self-released their full-length The Loon in 2005. On the strengths of a favorable review from influential website Pitchfork Media and the interest generated by MySpace and YouTube, the band became one of America’s most-hyped indie acts. This spring, following a bidding war at Austin’s famous South by Southwest music convention (where they played nine concerts in four days), the band signed worldwide with Beggars imprint XL Recordings, also home to M.I.A. and Basement Jaxx.

Named after a local deli where the band “used to get chicken heroes after we practiced,” The Loon powers off the launch pad with a kinetic, lo-fi thrust that’s earned them comparisons to bands like the Pixies and Pavement. Grier has mixed feelings about the props. “I’ve listened to
a fair amount of both those bands and they have influenced me, but so have so many other bands,” he says. “What I see with the comparison to the Pixies is I tend to sing rather urgently, and Frank Black has a similar type of singing. We figure, we don’t really hear it, but when you’re a new band people are going to need a reference point, and at least they’re bands that we all like.”

Other points of reference are the angular indie-rock of the Shins, the intense, neo-post-punk of the Futureheads (with whom they’ve toured) or the alt-country of Wilco, typified by the song “Insistor,” which they played on Late Night with David Letterman in their July nationwide network television debut.

Tapes ’n Tapes songs have a schizophrenic feel and seldom stay in a groove for any length of time. This is on purpose and is explained partly by the band’s name. “Before we formed the band we used to play together and mess around,” recounts Grier. “We would come up with little songs and record them on my four-track, and they would end up being these 30-minute jams which would be the most boring thing ever.

“So after a while we started using a kitchen timer to limit ourselves to two or three minutes, after which we had to move on. So we did that and after a few nights we had tapes and tapes worth of songs, and then unbeknownst to the band I bought the domain name tapesntapes.com and designed a website. I was like, we’re a band now; we have a website.”

Coming from Minneapolis, Tapes ’n Tapes also inevitably invite comparisons to Hüsker Du, the Replacements and Soul Asylum, bands that emerged from the city’s indie-rock heyday in the ’80s. “Growing up I didn’t know much about the Replacements or Hüsker Du,” says Grier. “But then when I got to Minneapolis people were like, dude, you’ve got to hear these guys. They are indie-rock. Then I got really into them, and I’m now a big fan. We actually recently played at a festival here with the reunited Soul Asylum with Tommy Stimpson on bass, we all sat on the side of the stage and were like, wow, there’s Dave Pirner, wow, there’s Tommy Stimpson.”

While giving themselves the proverbial pinch on the cheek to remind themselves they’re awake as they contemplate the good fortune of upcoming tours to Australia and Japan, Tapes ’n Tapes are hanging onto their day jobs (“I work in a cube doing data analysis, very glamorous,” quips Grier). But by signing on the band for its first “Beggars Night” in Japan, and encouraging fans to film, Beggars is hoping they’ll soon be able to clear out their cubicles.

Grier for one isn’t thinking too far ahead. “It’s still slowly becoming a reality. We’re at such a young spot in our career, it was less than a year ago that we put out our first full-length. In those terms we still have a lot to prove. Maybe in ten years I’ll sit down and be able to say, ‘Oh that’s where things changed,’ but now we’re still so engrossed in what’s going on, and we’ve been on the road so much, that it hasn’t sunk in.” Unit, Dec 4.

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