Oregon Music News

Cassette tapes championed by local tape labels have helped the industry-obsolete format make a resurgence around Portland over the last several years.

Although the anti-digital, pro-physical format may lack the quality, fidelity and longevity of vinyl or digital incarnations, it retains a portability and an idiosyncratic classicism as the diminutive, teethed spools move tape from reel-to-reel in a ritual manner.  Not quite vintage at this date, but retro in some circles, tapes still brim with nostalgia for all those children of the ’80s and early ’90s when the mixtape was the same format that ignited gangsta rap careers, catapulted DJs from the streets to clubs to MTV, and may have won over Molly Ringwald in your dreams, or even your real life sweetie, with the perfect mix.  Plus, these days all that minuscule magnetic tape can come housed in quiet the variety of neon colors.

Artwork for Mixed Ape 3

As of late, it’s been a conscious choice for Portlanders to establish record labels that serve as manufacturers and distributors of tape-recorded music, and one of the rising players in the current scene, mostly due to their curation and connections, has been Apes Tapes.

One year old this fall, Apes Tapes will celebrate their first birthday and the release of Mixed Ape 3 (a 16-song compilation tape, also available digitally, that features cuts from the below performers as well as Aan, And And And, Support Force, Youth, Rico All The Time and more) at Holocene on Thursday, November 17th with Onuinu, Adventures! With Might, Vanimal (reunion performance), XDS, and Pegasus Dream.  Plus there will be a surprise DJ and three surprise, guerrilla mini-sets from specials guests–one of which we can reveal: DoublePlusGood!

“Continually exploring what it is to be an artist and an artist-run label, walking the fine line between musician and businessperson, maximizing quality and quantity, often with little-to-no money, the label is as much a project as the music itself. It is the epitome of the DIY Portland music scene, and that’s what makes Apes Tapes important.”

OMN spoke with Apes Tapes founder Cameron Spies (also of Radiation City) about the label’s history and future and caught up with a few of the bands featured on Mixed Ape 3 plus performing at Holocene to answer some questions on their involvement as well.  But before that, watch Onuinu’s “Ice Palace” directed by Andrew Sloan:

Give us a quick history of the label. Who started it? What have you done?

Cameron Spies: The label was started by Cameron Spies, Lizzy Ellison, Marc Girouard, Marc Swart, Jessica Boudreaux, Aaron Bikis, and Leviticus Appleton. We began after Spesus Christ released its first EP on tape and got the group of us thinking, “Why not pool our resources and create one banner under which we could promote ourselves?” It was all about creating our own community to further our respective projects while simultaneously helping promote as many artists around town as we could. We’ve released 11 tapes (with digital downloads) and are about to put out our next compilation (the third one in our Mixed Ape series). We have done our best to reach out to bands who aren’t directly affiliated with the label as well. This compilation includes music from 12 bands who aren’t on the label. This is by no means a new thing. Other labels around town, like Tender Loving Empire, have done similar things. We feel so fortunate to be operating in such a vibrant, ambitious community.

Why tape-only releases?

Tapes are cheap to buy in small quantities, they look better than CDs, and we have a special fondness for them, having grown up making mix tapes and trading them with our friends.

How do you dub all those tapes? How has the process changed?

We started out dubbing them ourselves in real time on a chain of consumer tape decks, all of which were purchased on the cheap from thrift stores and cleaned up a bit. For the sake of time, we’ve switched to pro-dubbing at National Audio Company. They do a great job and are not much more expensive than doing them ourselves.

To quote your press release, it seems the mission statement of Apes Tapes is: “This collective wasn’t started to ever make a bunch of money, it was started so that a bunch of friends with a bunch of projects could put out a bunch of music.” How have you stayed true to this mission?

Ha. Well we certainly are still not making a bunch of money. We operate with low enough overhead to make it release-to-release. It’s a good story, but it can be stressful. Part of the piece of mind we should offer to artists is that the product will be on time and looking/sounding great. The ideal behind the label will always be to support artists, not make money, but there is a fine line between supporting an artist at the detriment of the label and doing it in a way that works for everyone. We’ve certainly had to draw that line in the past year and it’s been a reality check to be sure.

What’s the biggest problem you’ve encountered?

The biggest problem we have faced is understanding what we can and can’t do with limited time and resources. All of the people involved with the label are also in bands and many of us have real, money-payin’ jobs too, so it’s a challenge to fit it all in. It’s also been hard to operate efficiently as a collective without it moving naturally to a hierarchy. This has caused a few people to bow out gracefully, but it seems like a typical part of starting a business. When it changes from an idea to a reality, it really separates the people who are serious about it from those who like the idea but dislike the responsibility. Also, obviously, starting a business from the ground up with very little real-world business experience has been tough. It’s fun to learn as we go, though.

What’s been your greatest success so far?

I feel that the local press has really gotten behind us and it’s an incredible honor to be recognized when we are surrounded by so many amazing artists and labels in what I consider to be the best music town in the world.

What’s next in terms of releases?

We don’t have any solid dates but we are hoping to put out tapes for Aan, Onuinu, Rico all the Time, and Radiation City in the next year.

Tell us about the bands playing your first birthday party.  How did you pick this lineup?

They are all incredibly talented, hard-working artists. Generally, they are aesthetically similar (electronic pop music) to enough of a degree to make the show make sense, buy also show a good cross-section of some if the electronic music being made in Portland. It’s pretty exciting to be involved with all of these great bands.

We know there will be “special mini sets by three surprise artists AND a surprise DJ.”  Care to reveal any of these surprises?

I can throw you one of the surprise acts: DoublePlusGood! Woot!

Anything else to add about the party? Or the release of Mixed Ape 3?

Mixed Ape 3 will be on sale for the first time at this show for a low, low price AND special gift bags with a bunch of free music and other cool stuff will be given to the first 25 people through the door.

Apes Tapes party performers also answered a few questions for OMN.

Who are you?

Pegasus Dream: Jt Lindsey (guitar/vox), Andy Carlson (synth/vox), and Jeff Bond (drums).

Onuinu: Dorian Duvall.

XDS: Jesse Hall and John Rau.

Vanimal: We are a Portland-based, 5-piece electronic band that plays their instruments live. We began playing about a year or two ago and have since disbanded. Our members/instrumentation were Andrew Meininger on drums, Tim John O’Brien on bass/synths, Brent Braun on synths, Jakub Jerzy on circuit bending station/samples, and Nicholas Ramsdell on lead vocals/synths/sampler.

Adventures! With Might is a two piece from Portland, Oregon. Marc Swart plays guitar and sings. Isaac Medina is the beat maker/bass and synth player in the band… he’s a fucking musical wizard basically! Great dance moves too…

What’s your sound?

Pegasus Dream: Melodically, the sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but rhythmically the music mixes dance and progressive influences.

Onuinu: Disco-hop, pop, ambient.

XDS: Casios on acid.

Pegasus Dream: We were approached to release a new track for their third Mixed Ape. At the moment we are wrapping up the recording phases of a new EP of 5 songs for SoHiTek. Seeing as though they have strong ties, Erik [of DoublePlusGood] from SoHiTek also was in favor of us pre-releasing a track. The new EP is due out early 2012.

Onuinu: I released a split tape with them in 2010.

XDS: Love connection.

Vanimal: We’ve decided to reunite to play this showcase and as of this point, have no other future shows planned. TJO [Tim John O'Brien] has been curating this show alongside Apes Tapes and we’ll be featured on their new compilation, Mixed Ape 3–a single from our previous EP. I think we qualify as “friends of Apes Tapes.” We got involved by meeting Cameron at a show we played with Adventures! With Might last year. Should we continue, we’ll be limiting our live appearances to a sparse amount of shows. We’d like to be a part of and plan well-curated events with sets that continue to say something new and interesting.

Adventures! With Might's self-titled album

Adventures! With Might: Marc is a co-owner of Apes Tapes. It was just a big group of friends/bands putting together shows for each other and promoting each others’ music. We started putting out tapes and splits and we were all like, “Why don’t we just start a label? We’ve basically been doing it for months now… you know… just without a name or anything.”  Adventures! With Might released a self-titled full length through Apes Tapes last April.

What can we expect from your live set?

Pegasus Dream: We are playing first, but will have a full-fledged visual performance that has been in the works ever since we successfully funded our Kickstarter last Feb. We will also be playing an entirely new set of the songs that are to be released on our EP.

Onuinu: I’ll have a couple of special guests.

XDS: Don’t expect anything and it might be very fun. Thank you Apes Tapes!! oxoxo!!

Vanimal: The live set is a crazy, improvisational, dance-y time. Because we don’t use computers we have the advantage of playing an electronic set that is completely different every time depending on the energy of the crowd. We also like to bring in guest artists all the time; we’ve played a Serious Business song a few times and had those kids come up and sing, and sometimes we play A Gentlemen’s Picnic song and have Devon Duncan come up and sing it.

Adventures! With Might: Well, we just started incorporating lasers and strobes into our live performances, which has been really fun. I think everyone really enjoys seeing lasers… It’s as if each sound being made has its own movement and color. It just makes it a more intense audio/visual experience. I guess the main thing for us is that it’s very important that the audience gets the best performance every time they see us. We want it to be this big sweaty spectacle every time!

Any other news you’d like to share?

Onuinu: I’ll be releasing a record on Bladen County Records in the first quarter of 2012 (most likely sometime in February). It will be self-titled.

Vanimal: Our EP release at Mississippi was supposed to be our last show but we missed each other so now we’re gonna play this awesome show will all our friends and see how it goes. We’ll be putting together a special mix of special tracks for the first 25 individuals in the door at the event on Thursday, November 17th. There will be several giveaways alongside ours so we encourage you to get in on that and attend early.

Adventures! With Might: Right now we’re recording a few songs for a split 7-inch with our friends Pocketknife. That should be ready to release early, early next year! We’re also finishing up a new music video for a track on our full length that we put out with Apes Tapes. That should be ready next month!

Celebrate Apes Tapes’ 1st birthday and the release of Mixed Ape 3 at Holocene on Thursday, November 17th with Onuinu, Adventures! With Might, Vanimal, XDS, and Pegasus Dream.  Plus there will be a surprise DJ and three surprise guerrilla sets from specials guests!  Free music and goodies for the first 25 people through the door. $5, 21+, RSVP here.