Ladies and gentlemen, in today's Shepherd's Dog-eat-dog world of indie-cred name-checking, obscure reference one-upsmanship, and intimidating hyphen-usage, you damn well better know a thing or two about bands like Tapes ‘n Tapes if you wanna fit in at the next Zaireeka Party (hint: Zaireeka isn't a kind of wine).
After all, you don't wanna eek your way through life as "the guy down the hall who was heavy into Pearl Jam," now do you?
I didn't think so.
So, let's start boning up on factoids about one of the most basic pillars of present-day indie's charming little house of cards: the always-classic "blog-feuled-little-band-that-could" (told ya there'd be a lot of hyphens).
Take, for example, exhibit A: the much-balleyhooed Minneapolis four-piece Tapes ‘n Tapes. Let's start out simple and see if you can answer a string of quiz questions about these seminal niche-nestlers and their upcoming sophomore LP (hint: "LP" means "record"... uh, and "record" means "album").
Please Russian Circle one:
1) TRUE/FALSE: Tapes ‘n Tapes play sort of lo-fi, jittery indie-rock with pinches of spaz-country, psych, and sugary-pop thrown in.
2) TRUE/FALSE: Tapes ‘n Tapes' sophomore record will be released on April 8, 2008 by indie label XL Recordings.
3) TRUE/FALSE: This record is entitled Walk It Off and was produced by renowned producer Dave Fridmann, who has worked with such luminaries as The Flaming Lips, Sleater-Kinney, and Weezer.
4) TRUE/FALSE: Walk It Off features 12 new tracks and is the Minneapolis-based band's first record since 2006's widely lauded The Loon, which established the band – Josh Grier (guitar, vocals), Jeremy Hanson (drums), Matt Kretzman (keyboards), Erik Appelwick (bass guitar) – as a "band you'd damn well better find out about before your girlfriend does from that dude that she's in art classes with."
5) TRUE/FALSE: Tapes ‘n Tapes will be performing at SXSW this year and will be announcing Spring tourdates in support of the new album soon (hint: SXSW = South by Southwest Music and Film Festival).
Great! That wasn't toooo hard was it? Now, please score yourself 1-12 based on the following tracklist:
Well? Are you a "Dirty Dirty?" Or at least a "Demon Apple?" You'd better bone up, or you'll never be able to over-use that hyphen key.
