Ballpark figure

>> Minnesota’s Tapes ’N Tapes
step up to the plate

IN THE SWING OF THINGS: Tapes ’N Tapes

by ERIK LEIJON

Critically acclaimed jangle-rockers Tapes ’N Tapes have yet to record any material for their long-awaited follow-up to 2005’s The Loon, which they hope to release later this year. But on their latest tour, sponsored by video-game publisher 2K Games (a tie-in to their new release Major League Baseball 2K7), the Minnesota four-piece will be testing out seven or eight new songs. The Mirror spoke with lead vocalist/guitarist Josh Grier to find out why the hell they aren’t in the studio right now.

Mirror: Why do another tour?

Josh Grier: We just finished a nice three-month break since December. During that time we’ve been working on a lot of new material, so this is the tour where we get to road-test our new stuff. It adds a breath of fresh air to touring because we can add new songs. Then after the tour we’ll enter the studio.

M: Do the new songs sound different from The Loon?

JG: Right now, mixed in with the live set, it’s going to be along the same lines because of the instrumentation. When it comes time to record, I don’t know what it will end up sounding like. It’s the same style of music as before, it’s nothing crazy-different.

M: Your fellow Minnesotans the Hold Steady recorded a cover of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” for the Twins’. Are they bigger Twins fans than you?

JG: We’ve been in contact with the Twins sound guy for a year now and he was asking both us and Hold Steady to do a cover of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” and they beat us to the punch. Craig Finn is a native Minnesotan so he has longevity going for him.

M: I liked how the most sombre song on The Loon was “Manitoba.” What happened to you there?

JG: I’ve never been there, actually. The only reason that song came about was because there was a giant billboard five blocks from my house in Minneapolis that was an advertisement for the Manitoba tourism board. It showed this sunny, tropical beach that people were getting tans on and I thought it was funny because they were even more north than we were

With Ladyhawk at le National on
Tuesday, May 15, 8 p.m.,
$18, all ages