Tapes 'n Tapes Finds Xl The Right Size

Mere days after Minneapolis quartet Tapes 'N Tapes self-released its debut album, "The Loon," last November, the band received an unexpected call from Capitol Records.

"It was really bizarre," lead singer Josh Grier says. "We were just like, 'What? What's going on?' "

Much to the disbelief of the quirky art-rockers, whose sound is rooted in '90s alternative acts Pavement and the Pixies, the instant blog buzz following the release of the album led record labels to express interest right off the bat.

"We kept getting contacted by labels, and it was like, 'Oh crap, this might actually be going somewhere,' " Grier says.

After fielding calls from labels big and small, Tapes 'N Tapes signed in May with XL Recordings, which will rerelease "The Loon" July 25.

The decision to sign with a label arose after the band's grass-roots operation grew unwieldy. Like other Internet-hyped bands such as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Tapes 'N Tapes experienced an explosion in popularity quicker than anyone manning the band's bedroom office in Minneapolis could accommodate.

"Signing with XL was really more of a business decision," band manager Keri Weise says. "We were designing the Web site, making our own T-shirts and doing all the distribution—every single aspect of it. We couldn't function anymore."

As Tapes 'N Tapes worked out a deal with XL, the band partnered with the Coalition of Independent Music Stores for temporary distribution. "They were about to do a national tour and needed records in the right stores," CIMS president Don VanCleave says. "We were able to sell thousands of copies into indie retail. Everyone feels it was a successful partnership."

By the time Tapes 'N Tapes reached a deal with XL, the independent release of "The Loon" had sold more than 12,500 copies, 3,000 via iTunes. In addition to a swarm of media attention, the band was one of the highlights at this year's South by Southwest festival, wowing crowds at no less than eight shows in four days.

The band says that, ultimately, XL best enabled the band to remain independent while taking its current operation to the next level.

"The whole reason for us signing to a label was so that we could extend our resource base. [XL] has great resources," Grier says. "They have a great roster of really diverse artists who all have an amazing amount of artistic freedom, which for us was really important. So it was kind of one of those things where you get the benefits of having the built-in resources and support of a label, but at the same time you're still allowed to do all the things you had been doing beforehand."

Although the new release of "The Loon" is slated for July 25, XL label manager Liz Hart says 400 stores across the country already have the new edition in stock. "We wanted to keep [the album] commercially available," she says, adding that sales have seen a steady growth from week to week. To date, the XL edition has sold 5,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Because the XL version does not contain any new tracks or extra features, it is being targeted toward first-time buyers. "I don't expect [current owners] to want to purchase it again. I just want them to go to shows, tell their friends about it and hopefully people who don't have it are going to want to buy it," she says. "That's probably terrible to say from a business standpoint, but we just want people to hear it." ••••