Tapes 'n Tapes earns hype

It's impossible to imagine that on Tuesday night, between 8:30 and 11, anyone could have averted his gaze from the Democratic primary battle in Philly.

But Tapes 'n Tapes tried to get your attention.

The Minneapolis ensemble stole some election-night thunder when they - and another favorite of the blog world, White Denim of Austin, Texas - packed First Unitarian Church.

The band might have had less hype than Barack Obama coming into Tuesday, but only slightly less: Indie-music-blog aficionados can attest to the powerful buzz surrounding T'nT.

Make no mistake: With its snarling yet otherworldly atmospheric garage pop and irrepressibly odd lyrics, Tapes 'n Tapes' first album, 2006's

The Loon

, bristled. But the blogosphere giveth, and also taketh away. And some critics have found T'nT's new album,

Walk It Off

, a wee bit of a letdown.

In performance, however, stripped to its crunchy core, Tapes 'n Tapes' new songs chugged along. Take "Hang Them All," for example, which had an almost hollow spaciousness in the sound of its jagged guitars, reminiscent of Brian Eno's early albums or even the sound of Pavement. "Conquest" was rugged without losing the new record's atmospheric fussiness.

That repetitive chug made some of their tunes, like "Blunt," sound the same. Singer Josh Grier's breathlessly wiggy screams - even at their most off-pitch - added necessary messiness to some dull songs. And the slow waltzing "Manitoba" with its cool jazz break and deep swelling bass (the last, a big part of its live sound) came as a lovely break amid Tapes 'n Tapes' fast tracks.

The Austin trio White Denim lived up to its blog hype by spewing forth raw, powerful garage punk infused with big, soulful vocals and touches of swing. While curt, gritty tracks like "Darksided Computer Mouth" and "I Can Tell" were filled with nervous Presley-like verbal tics and sloppy guitars, their rhythms were impressive, each tune punctuated with a rumbling tom-tom sound that would have made Gene Krupa smile.