INDIE

On hearing the words ‘eclectic’, ‘experimental’ and ‘intelligent’ to describe a US indie act, one would generally imagine their CDs more likely to be tucked away on a dusty import shelf rather than David Letterman demanding they make their first TV appearance on his show. Minneapolis quartet Tapes’n’Tapes however, did just that. Whereas previously it would have taken an act of their ilk months of college radio rotation to even gain a place in the queue, such is now the influence of the internet on the making or breaking of bands that their jump to prime time television appeared to take a mere matter of months.

Lead singer Josh Grier is uncomfortable with the idea of being slapped with the same ‘overnight success’ label as other acts like Arcade Fire and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah that have recently leapt over the Atlantic. ‘It did happen pretty quickly but then again we have been a band for three years’, he says. He is still quick to acknowledge the role the internet has played in shaping their fortunes. ‘The blogs started to catch on in December, then we got a really good write-up on the Pitchfork website in February but things just built on each other as opposed to one big thing happening all of a sudden.’

One ‘big thing’ that did come along though was a request by the most famous chat show host in the United States, who had become smitten after hearing their debut, ‘The Loon’. ‘Doing Letterman was a crazy experience’, says Grier. ‘It happened to be the same day our album was re-released in the US so we saw a jump in sales but I would like to think it didn’t really change that much’. Still, if you live by the internet you can die by the internet, especially for a band seen to be sauntering down Easy Street. ‘We’re waiting with bated breath for the online backlash’, says Grier. It’s hard to imagine the bloggers clipping their wings now though.

WIN TICKETS!

To win a pair of tickets to see Tapes’n’Tapes, courtesy of PCL, simply send you name and a contact telephone number to [email protected] by noon on Friday 3 November. Usual List rules apply.