Random Spin::Tapes 'n Tapes

Apparently, some band from Minneapolis heard me disparaging American rock music and decided to take action. Wait, Minnesota is not in Canada is it? No? Alright! Thank you American Jesus. (Canadian Jesus, you had your chance.)

Whatever country this magical land composed entirely of lakes (from what I understand) is located they've finally returned fire in this northern border war that is indie rock music. If you read the Amazon reviews of this album you'll hear a lot of words like 'derivative' bandied about. Yes, Tapes 'n Tapes uses guitars, drums, and keyboards like many other bands out there but it doesn't necessarily make the music derivative. What I enjoy about many of these bands is that they take the traditional guitar, keys, drums paradigm and make something new and interesting out of it. Well, interesting at least. If it's not new that doesn't necessarily make it less enjoyable and The Loon qualifies as an enjoyable rock record.

My dog Thena absolutely loves it when I play air guitar to the bombastic off-kilter hook of 10 Gallon Ascots. The syncopated non-rhyming lyrics, marching cadence snare drum, and one-off harmony of a track like Omaha is not as easy to throw together as the guy sitting next to you in the Starbucks with Chucks, black t-shirt, and perma-frown would like you to believe on his blog. Lastly, it's just cool when on a track like The Illiad you take a straight-forward acoustic guitar strum and add what can only be described as a whooping crane playing a counter melody with the recorder you used in that excuse for an outfit that you called your 4th grade class "band."

Yeah, not all of the songs are eminently listenable but at least now Canada knows that our northern border is not just patroled by the musical equivalent of Barney Fife.