Tapes 'n Tapes "Outside"

I recall this band receiving favorable press for their debut EP back in 2004 during my last stint as a "community volunteer" DJ at WPRK.  I probably played a single track one week to satisfy the "new" requirement of the station's format, but it didn't grab me.  But I've seen continued positive reviews for them over the years, so when "Outside" dropped in January, I decided to spring for it, hoping to find a domestic (Minneapolis, MN) indie rock band for me to wonder loudly why I hadn't picked up on them before.  Ah, but it just didn't work out that way.

There was much to like in the music; short, quirky, guitar-based pop songs with a splash of keys and other unique instruments, ie. a glockenspiel and castanets.  In my audio notes I told myself I heard some David Byrne, and then I called it a ying to LCD Soundsystem's yang.  I really don't know what that means, but most reviewers put T'nT in the Shins/Cold War Kids/Broken Social Scene scene, and my sentiment towards those bands is the same as I get here, there's a lot to like but I don't quite get the whole of it.  I am going to mine three tracks from "Outside" for my Snippets folder, one being track 8, "The Saddest of All Keys", which harked of an old Animals & Eric Burdon style, manic drumming and all.  But I offer the official video here for "Freak Out", which hints at the undercurrent of humor I felt while listening to the record (be sure to watch through to the end...I went back to the beginning afterwards to make sure I got it!). 

Finding this video opened up a new chapter to me in the never-ending saga of "free music".  VEVO is an enterprise of three of the big four music companies, and I was unaware of its 16-month existence until today.  If you look at some of the comments on the above video link, not everyone likes the idea of advertising or the big corporate presence on YouTube.  Me?  I was happy to find that the artists are being paid for views.  Remember, I buy most everything I post here, with the occasional exception of someone loaning me a recording they think I may enjoy...yeah, the old-fashioned way.  I don't Torrent, Limewire, Kazaa, etc., and you shouldn't either.