This guy is everywhere. I suppose such omnipresence is inevitable when one maintains three concurrent musical projects. Nevertheless, I recall a simpler, more innocent time (read: three months ago) when bloggers oft puzzled over a possible connection between Weird Tapes and Memory Cassette. Were they the same band? The brainchild of a single individual? European? Merely affiliated in some tangential way? The release of Memory Tapes' excellent "Bicycle" confirmed a great many suspicions as to the interrelationship between the two, and now you get what we have here: an artist seemingly on everyone's radar.
Forfeited inscrutability aside, it's a pretty good time to be Weird Tapes/Memory Cassette/Memory Tapes aka Philadelphia's Dayve Hawk (formerly of the defunct metal-dance act, Hail Social). First the P4K Rising tag, and now he manages to make a Peter Bjorn & John song from arguably this year's most disappointing release interesting. Admittedly, "It Don't Move Me" was one of the stronger tracks from the Spin-loved Living Thing, but Mr. Hawk's version is a fairly deft, tasteful and ebullient retouching that bears little resemblance to the original; not entirely unlike something Axel Willner (The Field) might do in his most straightforward of moments.
But don't take my word for it. You can download the Weird Tapes version of PB&J's "It Don't Move Me" here. You should also check out the Weird Tapes re-working of Memory Cassette's "Surfin'" via the completely free Calls & Responses Remix EP issued to celebrate the 7/24 release of the Call & Response EP (out via Acephale). Memory Tapes' LP Seek Magic drops this September via Acephale/Something in Construction.
And, as always, if you would like to hear more Weird Tapes/Memory Cassette/Memory Tapes tune into the One Man in a Small Room radio broadcast this Tuesday (7/28) from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. on WLUR 91.5.
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