Late in the summer, I paid a visit to my friend
Bobby at KSU. We talked music, video, work, etc. and then I mentioned that, at least at that time, I was considering starting a small record label. He asked me if I was looking for talent and I answered that the label would only handle small reissues. He was a little disappointed but then told me I had to hear this band he had been shooting a video for. We went into one of the computer labs and he punched up the myspace page for the
Tape-Toons and proceeded to play their song,
Mice In The Walls. It was bluesy in a way similar to the
Black Keys but the performance was a lot rawer, and I mean that in every instance of the word. The vocals could have been recorded in a professional studio or on a hand-held recorder, the guitars are beautifully rough as though positioned somewhere between
Kurt Cobain and a brain-damaged
Jimi Hendrix and the percussion keeps you at attention as it gently moves a little off beat only to come back solid as hell. I was excited to say the least!
I asked to hear more, but what Bobby played me sounded like
David Yow from the
Jesus Lizard singing alongside unmixed, out-of-sync multitracks from a noise band. I wasn't sure what to make of that other than to say I was intrigued. Turns out something must have been wrong with the computer because that's
NOTHING like what
Tape-Toons sound like, but it didn't turn me off in the least. I asked him to see if he could get me a copy of their album and a week or two later he brought me a fully packaged and mastered CD. The package was actually created from newspaper with a handwritten track list and a giant stamp imprint on the front with the band's name and that of the CD,
Gravel Love. I asked if this has been made specifically for me as it looked so unique, to which he explained the band wanted all of the CDs to be unique unto themselves so they had created the stamp, used different inks for each cover and created each case from newspaper themselves. I was impressed, but then I listened to the CD. It fulfilled on the promise of
Mice In The Walls, coming across like a personalized performance from the band in your living room. It's by no means overly produced but rather an accurate representation of their sound, loose and beautifully ragged. Tracks like the heavy rave-up of
She Drove A Spike, the slowed-down throwback rock of
Rush To The Cemetery with it's insane drumming, the grungy depression of
CEO Blues, they all got under my skin like so many heartfelt records have before. And then there is their beautiful cover of
Pavement's Grounded. By now, I was reconsidering the whole not signing anyone to the label thing. Of course, shortly thereafter I lost my job and the dreams of a label went up in smoke, for the time being at least, but I knew I had to write about how great these guys are.
The
Tape-Toons are
Andrew Bittaker on guitar and vocals,
Allen Bittaker on bass and
Dylan Gomez on drums. Their album,
Gravel Love, is available for purchase at their live shows with a digital release soon to be issued, and they also have an EP on
iTunes named
Blah BlaH which features two songs from
Gravel Love and four more not on the album. They've got
Facebook and
MySpace pages they update frequently and are performing live at the
Europe Gyro in
Kent, Ohio alongside
The Lorax Tree and
Shank Bone, so you should get yourself there and let these guys blow you away!
And now, for your listening pleasure, with the blessing of
Tape-Toons I've got two tracks from
Gravel Love for you to check out. I've already posted
Mice In The Walls but
Rush To The Cemetery is new to these parts so grab 'em and enjoy! When their album becomes available online I'll be sure to post a link for you to check it out. Now go see them Thursday!
Tape-Toons - Mice In The WallsTape-Toons - Rush To The Cemetery
