Tapes ‘n Tapes are very cool copycats
4:00 AM
Tapes ‘n Tapes
TAPES ‘N TAPES. “Walk It Off” (XL Recordings)
Everything sputters and whines in the music of Tapes ‘n Tapes. Jittery guitars, fidgety synths and pointy bass parts rattle around the agitated tunes, making every T-N-T song shake.
Crucially, the band knows how to make these neurotic little outbursts catchy. Unfortunately, a lot of other groups figured that out first.
It’s impossible to hear T-N-T’s second album, “Walk It Off,” without thinking of the Pixies, Pavement or Modest Mouse. That is, when you’re not thinking about their antecedents in creative abrasion: Talking Heads and Sonic Youth.
Essentially, T-N-T strikes a fun, fleet but too familiar mean between the classic reference points of noise-pop. Small wonder “Walk It Off” sounds like a compendium of pre-existing strategies, even if they’re undeniably well applied.
Certainly, the group knows how to make potentially irritating music winning. The CD’s opening track, “Le Ruse,” spins out busy little guitar riffs so compelling it anchors another ax devoted to total dissonance.
It’s the balance between the memorable and the difficult that made Tapes ‘n Tapes stand out from the start. The group formed in chilly Minneapolis in late 2003, led by guitarist/singer/lead writer Josh Grier (otherwise known as Tapes 1). They went through a host of personnel changes before releasing their debut, “The Loon,” in late 2005. The disc drew raves in the blogs, no surprise considering the sound had something in common with two other bands hailed by that blabby world: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and the Arcade Fire.
Like Clap and Arcade, T-N-T has some of the shaky distraction of early Talking Heads. But on the new album, TNT hones its riffs and tunes to find something more pop than either. “Time of Songs” features a liquid guitar that could have fallen off a Bread single from the ’70s. “Hang Them All” has a jerky backbeat you’ll have to move to.