Back in January, we introduced you to Taco Tapes – Pacific northwest duo Jeremy James Meyer and Ben Walden whose music was inspired by the spirit of Garcia and Grisman’s The Pizza Tapes. Mike Davies described their album Trad is Rad as spirited and inventive.
You can hear that inventiveness on their cover version of Michelle Shocked’s tune ‘Black Widow‘. They bring an otherworldliness to the tune which is also reflected in the accompanying video the duo made. Shot in black and white, it had a great Lomographic feel and makes great use of out-of-focus shots. They turn a shoreline walk into a surreal experience…making reality feel strangely out-of-kilter, and for that, we love it all the more.
Ben Walden (Pump Organ, Mandolin, Vocals):
“When I was growing up, my parents loved to listen to Michelle Shocked, a singer-songwriter from the late ‘80s who was folk punk before folk punk was much of a trend. For Trad is Rad we dug deep into our personal archives of obscure covers that would fit well alongside the traditional and original material we chose for the album, and the Michelle Shocked song “Black Widow” surfaced. Jeremy (guitar, backing vocals) and I shot this video ourselves. We were inspired by our mixing/mastering engineer Al Jones, who’s solo project (A.F. Jones) has featured music videos with ominous themes.”
Order via Bandcamp (Digital/Ltd Edition Cassette): https://astrecords.bandcamp.com/album/trad-is-rad
Photo Credit: Sara Kathryn Wainwright