Tapes ’n Tapes is the biggest little band in Minneapolis, but unlike their indie forbears—Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, Soul Asylum—they didn’t follow the traditional progression: new-band night at the 7th Street Entry, signing with the Twin/Tone label, then a national label and national press and radio play. In the iTunes era, a musician has to understand how to plug into both an amp and the blogosphere. In that regard, T ’n T’s secret weapon is manager Keri Wiese (who’s married to frontman Josh Grier). Wiese didn’t break the band from a stinky club or a polished corporate boardroom, she did it from an Apple desktop at home, posting T ’n T MP3s on rockgeek blogs like Music For Robots and BrooklynVegan. That drew label attention—the band was courted by London’s V2 before signing with another English label, XL—and eventually got a rare positive review for their 2006 album, The Loon, on pitchforkmedia.com, the modern-day hipster kingmaker. Now, mainstream mags like Spin and Rolling Stone are covering Tapes ’n Tapes. We’ll see if they can brave the notoriously backlash-infested waters of the Internet with their new record, due out early next year.
