Alice in Wonderland goes all rock chick again...Lewis Carroll turns in grave

Tapes n Tapes at Dingwalls, Camden, 30th August 2006

I guess it's the last tryst of summer, the final attempt to spread merriment in the home camp; make hay whilst the British summer wanes and dies its sordid little death (the death of the invalid long out of sorts). Anyways, Tapes n Tapes, the Minnesota boys, will help us out.

French horns, cowbells, an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, drummer, tons of ear-thumping school of rock guitar action (apologies for the amateurishness of my description, I wish I could be more technical but I can't). Great music, great band, great venue ('the steps, the steps, all I see are steps, I think I've been transported to Russia in the twenties'). The band are a bit more grungy- less flamboyently mannered than other favourites, but the honesty of the music shines through, and at points, shreds your worldly exterior to the point of solitary madness (in a good way).

I've been going for novelty turns like Gogal Bodello recently (although obviously authentic in his own way), together with a dose of eighties-tinged ska revivalists like Larrikin Love (love the boy). So this is entirely different. I saw The Walkman back in May, and didn't like them at all, thinking them far too muscular and aggressive (I was actually cowering in a corner of the Barfly at one point), but the Tapes seem a bit more complex- less frightening to the unitiated. With the Tapes you get something more approachable- a little bit country, a little bit Spitalfields/a little bit all their own.

Get tough, play rough (but don't hit the fat kid), get Tapes n Tapes. GSG.