Times New Viking

Related Content

• Times New Viking Struggles to Follow King Tuff at the Rickshaw Stop
  June 15, 2011
• Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard Gets Straight Up Avuncular on the Warfield's Ass
  October 6, 2010
• Last Night's VVM SXSW Party: Wu-Tang Packs It, Wild Flag Rocks It, and Yelawolf Goes Shirtless
  March 18, 2011
• Cold Cave
  September 2, 2009
• Yuck Trigger Grunge Reflex, Play Bottom of the Hill on Sunday
  February 11, 2011

More About

• Times New Viking
• Brix Smith

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

After releasing two records on quaint indie-noise label Siltbreeze, Times New Viking jumped to the supersized indie Matador, and its latest release is equally ambitious. Rip It Off is an extension of the young Ohio trio's trademark distortion-laden pop; the band's scratchy, lo-fi mayhem comes off more fully realized here than on previous offerings. The damaged gems of "(My Head)" and "Drop Out" instantly stand out — though the latter track's curiously pop-perfect hook outdoes the former — while Brix E. Smith's vocals on "Faces on Fire" evoke a romantically pubescent Beat Happening vibe. Times New Viking also shows songwriting capabilities that go beyond whirlwind two-minute punk; the cloudy jam "Relevant: Now" hints at the tense, off-kilter post-punk of '70s Brits the Homosexuals.

The band does have a musical crutch, however: distractingly blaring keyboards, a notable disservice to the clever guitar riffs that have drawn so many comparisons to the Fall. Still, this disc gets thumbs up overall. Rip It Off shows that the band made a worthwhile move to Matador; so long as its members rely on that sharp, original guitar sound, their promising noisy pop will become an unstoppable force.