New bands can take several paths to hit the big-time.

Some get pretty, land a well-connected agent, and sex up the act a bit.

Increasingly in recent years, others use the Internet to build a buzz themselves, becoming a phenomenon even before they've released a record.

But there's another way: Work your tail off, take advantage of limited exposure, and ride a wave of word-of-mouth.

Minnesota's Tapes 'n Tapes clearly have taken the latter route.

The band's frantic SXSW schedule--eight shows in four days--is indicative of the group's work ethic and, given the recent response from journalists and music bloggers, well worth it.

At the tail end of a lengthy tour, Tapes 'n Tapes came through the Bay Area last Friday, playing at Café du Nord in San Francisco. Looking rather beat, the band opened its set unassumingly, nonchalantly launching into "Just Drums," catching most of the audience off guard.

Unfortunately, the energy was fairly lacking early on and it took a few songs for the tired Tapes to fully unwind. The current tour saw the band hit both coasts and play 19 shows in 23 days just a week after playing a handful of dates in the UK.

Thankfully, the Tapes' superior songwriting made up for their mileage. The Loon, the band's debut LP, is full of epic songs crammed into four- or five-minute packages. The constant tempo changes are held together by more bridges than those that span Minnesota's land 'o lakes--yet the music never sounds herky-jerky or trite, and echoes those of early Pavement or vintage Pixies.

But Tapes 'n Tapes still seemed a bit flat, until midway through "Ten Gallon Ascots," when they hit full speed. Keyboardist Matt Kretzman bounded back and forth, and frontman Josh Grier screamed the chorus over his buzzing guitar. Each successive song rang in with just as much energy, the best song of the night being the schizophrenic closer "Jakov's Suite," which also ends The Loon. This was the band that everyone expected to see--it just took about six songs for them to show up.

While Tapes 'n Tapes needed to warm up before showing their true colors, opener Cold War Kids took only a song and a half to give their own sounds its full flavor. The youthful Southern California quartet sounds much like Tapes 'n Tapes mixed with a dash of The Walkmen and infused with blues-rock. The excellent "Hang Me Out to Dry" showed off a talent that is mature beyond their years but mixed it with a youthful energy that had band members bouncing around the stage in a game of musical microphones.

Though both bands are well on their way to moving beyond the adoring world of indie-music-bloggers, the timing of the concert showed that the Tapes seem to have worn down after repeated plays and the Cold War Kids are just heating up.