Times New Viking - Born Again Revisited

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5...according to our Brian on Wed 16 Sep, 2009.

Times New Viking I've always thought as a real grower of a band. For a start, they record everything in a distinctly, stubbornly no-fi fashion, making sure there's ample room for distortion & overload to compensate for the lack of bass underpinning their fuzzy, feral pop nuggets. Because of this their songs aren't quite as immediate as they would maybe normally be. You have to peel the messy, sludgy layers back and hear the sum of their influences IE primitive Fall, Stereolab & Sonic Youth, esoteric NZ underground stuff & all those fabulous bands from the early 90s such as Wingtip Sloat & Pavement's "recorder grot" style 4 track distorta-thons. 2 blokes & a sassy lassie making some genuinely great psycho pop that sounds like a scratchy, nihilistic garage band with a secret party pop fetish recording inside a rusty metal sewage tanker! Seeing them live is a total treat 2, you can hear the songs a bit better & by about halfway through their set you can guarantee a smile will be plastered all over your face & you won't be able to stop grooving to their infectious drums, guitar & keyboard based chimprock. New album 'Born Again Revisited' takes a couple of listens like all their records but is yet another winner. If yr a convert then you'll be delighted to know this is as far from a "sell-out" as you can get - no compromise, no surrender. Ltd LP & CD in no fancy packaging whatsoever!! Through the ever reliable home of quality US alterna-rock, Matador!

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Times New Viking are not a font but a rather audaciously talented trio from Columbus, Ohio.
Known for shrouding their three-cornered pop constructions in clouds of tape hiss
and buzzing noise, the combined talents of Adam Elliott (vocals / drums), Beth Murphy
(vocals / keyboard) and Jared Phillips (guitar) have taken inspiration from sources as
diverse as British art-school DIY of the late 1970s, Guided By Voices, Pavement and
the Beatles.

After two albums for Siltbreeze, Times New Viking signed to Matador and tripled their sales
with 2008’s ‘Rip It Off’.

Following the critical success of ‘Rip It Off’, the band quickly returned to the studio and
released ‘Stay Awake’, a five-track 7”-only EP of brand new songs.

The trio also found time to play on the hugely successful inaugural Shred Yr Face tour (with
Los Campesinos! and No Age) and have toured with the likes of Super Furry Animals,
Deerhunter and Yo La Tengo.

Whereas the master recording for ‘Rip It Off’ was delivered on a cassette, ‘Born Again
Revisited’ was delivered on VHS, demonstrating that the much-maligned, oftforgotten
format is still very much alive and kicking. The band have also promised that
this fourth studio album (the second for Matador) will feature “25% higher fidelity”.

Far more layered and varied, ‘Born Again Revisited’ is a slow build, from the rousing ‘No Time,
No Hope’ to the anthemic, Yo La Tengo-influenced ‘Move To California’. Through it all their
raucous sense of joy shines through unencumbered.

Tracklisting:

Martin Luther King Day * I Smell Bubblegum * City On
Drugs * Born Again Revisited * Little World * No Time, No
Hope * Half Day In Hell * Something Moore * 2/11 Don’t
Forget * These Days * (No) Sympathy * High Holidays *
Hustler, Psycho, Son * Move To California * Take The Piss