Times New Viking

Matador's final (official) new signing of 2006 are the veterans of 2005's most exciting debut album and what will hopefully be one (or two) of 2007's most anticipated 2007 releases. We're as pleased as a Carmelo Anthony sucker punch to announce the signing of Columbus, OH's TIMES NEW VIKING to a longish, global pact.

The trio of drummer/vocalist Adam Elliot, keyboardist/vocalist Beth Murphy and guitar virtuoso Jared Phillips came to our deficient attentions last year when their first album, 'Dig Yourself', emerged as the first release in years from the pioneering art punk imprint Siltbreeze (former home to crucial early works by Guided By Voices, the Dead C., Sebadoh, Strapping Fieldhands, Harry Pussy and other giants). Those skeptical to the how's and whys of a seminal American indie coming out of hibernation had their cynicism obliterated with one listen to 'Dig Yourself', an instant classic that recalls multiple generations of that nebulous thing known as "lo-fi" while still being packed with a sensibility undeniably TNV's own.

Through their national travels --- both as a headliner, and in league with such characters as The Country Teasers, Mission Of Burma, Endless Boogie and Psychedelic Horseshit, Times New Viking have achieved near mythic status in the US undieground, and we fully expect it is just a matter of time before they become the favorite band of exactly the sort of people you can't stand to hang around with.

Said efforts will be helped along in no small part by the release of their upcoming 2nd LP/CD, ''present the paisley reich' (Siltbreeze) in February '07. We expect the band to celebrate their lame duck status on Siltbreeze when they commence recording of their first Matador long player sometime next year.

If you're in the New York area this Friday, Times New Viking are playing the Cake Shop at 11pm.

thank you,

Gerard

"What does it take to bring the '90's avant-rock ultra indie label Siltbreeze out of retirement? A clattering trio of Ohio art-school nerds who unfold swell maps in search of the perfect anti-fi pop tune. Adam Elliott's dunderheaded drums and Beth Murphy's wheezing keys trade random yammer abotu skulls and fashion, and Jared Phillips' guitar clearly violates the amp's warranty. Yes, they're guided by voices, but those mumbles are a perfect sound forever. " - Joe Gross, Spin

"The apostrophe-spurning Times New Viking have precociously absorbed the lessons of English post-punk. Obvious points of reference include the Fall circa 1982, The Blue Orchids and Swell Maps, but in characteristically American style these influences are filtered through a prism of pop melodicism which references Pavement and wild cards like Smog and Pussy Galore. Live, they are said to recall the art-damaged hardcore intensity of Harry Pussy. This particular range of influences is apparently in the Ohio water, perhaps as result of decades of industrial decline --- in any case, TNV pick up all these as though they were simply the most obvious hand of cards to holding in 2006, and bet heavily on them. The results are frankly intoxicating, like spending too long gassing up your diesel SUV on a hot day." - Bruce Russell, The Wire

What makes Dig Yourself largely successful is Times New Viking's penchant for asking the big questions while burying any possibility of an answer in rudimentary pop songs that are coated in sheets of grime. These three beg the listener to peel back layer upon layer of reference and hiss, ultimately revealing basic sentiments and urgent, impatient hooks at the core. Bands with a hundred times the recording budget can buy studio time with no problem; sincerity like this, on the other hand, is harder to come by. - Michael Crumsho, Dusted

In the crazy world of fonts, Times New Roman represents the tried and true, the default "I-expected-as-much" way it's always been done. Viking, on the other hand, while deceptively appearing a little "olde english", represents something a little more bent & deliberately retarded, a shifty font that just might sneak up on you & win your shriveled heart if you're not on guard. The there's this new band TIMES NEW VIKING. "The way it sounds," drummer and vocalist Adam Elliott explains in this Columbus Alive article, "it's the idea of creating a drudgy dark sound while singing pop songs....". Well Mr. Elliott, that really is the way it sounds, except way more frantic and maxed-out than you're giving it credit for. Take some of the more cacophonous moments during "Sister Ray" -- maybe about 1/3rd of the way in, when it's still a rock song, and liberally shmear it over a sputtering quarter-inch tape full of very raw male/female organ grinder pop. That just might sound like Columbus, OH's Times New Viking. Wouldn't you know it, our friend MIKE REP dipped his calloused but healing hands all over this thing, and made it even more ruff-n-bleeding than it might otherwise have sounded. Who knows if the band are better for it, but it sure didn't hurt. The band do a superlative job trading off shouted vocals and caking everything in a warn glow of fine crud, yet it's almost as pretty and friendly as THE MATES OF STATE or something -- but far better. Pick of the litter is the the sing-along "Not High", ostensibly about a trip to Amsterdam & with lyrics so abstract I can't figure out if they're praising the martyr Theo van Gogh & my heroine Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or just barking about all the righteous pot they didn't smoke. No matter how you cut it, it's plump and juicy and full of life. A really, really great debut, and one that's been captured by a revitalized Siltbreeze Records. - Jay Hinman, Agony Shorthand

By the late '90s, with the rise of cheap computer-based recording, "lo-fi" as a genre bit the dust before anyone could get eBay value from a discarded four-track. Lately, though, lo-fi is showing signs of life in the warbling folk of Devendra Banhart, the AM-radio blender of Ariel Pink, and, most excitingly, the in-the-red rock of Columbus, Ohio, trio Times New Viking. The band's Dig Yourself debut spits out hoarse, crashing music so feverish that it even awoke Siltbreeze, one of the best lo-fi labels of the '90s, from its recent slumber.
Tape hiss and grimy distortion fit Times New Viking so well because the band's frantic, tooth-decaying hooks are inherently raw. Dig Yourself most resembles the caffeinated bounce of early Superchunk, full of bashing cardboard drums, sloppy riffs, and hyperactive male-female yell-alongs. "Lion & Oil" chops raucous chords into fuzzy mush; "Dance Walhalla" charges through the speakers; and "We Got Rocket" sounds like a Clash anthem caked in Fun Dip. Like its ancestors, Times New Viking may ultimately clean up its act, and its punchy tunes will likely survive. But nothing will sterilize the vigor of Dig Yourself, a blurry snapshot of a group with untamed ideas oozing from its greasy pores. - Marc Masters, Baltimore City Paper

discography :
We Were High, We Were Not High CDR, 300%, 2004
Dig Yourself CD/LP, Siltbreeze, 2005
"Busy Making Love & War" b/w "Hiding In The Machines", 7" Columbus Discount, 2005

musica :

http://www.timesnewviking.com/media/wegotrocket.mp3

web presents :
http://myspace.com/timesnewviking

http://www.timesnewviking.com/

(btw, this might be the greatest wikipedia entry any of our artists have received) :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_New_Viking