Times New Viking was an American

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate stylistic ch ...

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band from

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

. The lineup consists of guitarist Jared Phillips, drummer Adam Elliott, and Beth Murphy on keyboards. Murphy and Elliott share vocal duties. Their name, "Times New Viking," is a play on the popular typeface

Times New Roman Times New Roman is a serif typeface commissioned for use by the British newspaper ''The Times'' in 1931. It has become one of the most popular typefaces of all time and is installed on most personal computers. The typeface was conceived by Stanl ...

. They have released five albums: 2005's ''Dig Yourself'', 2007's ''Present the Paisley Reich'', and 2008's ''Rip It Off'', which ''NME'' gave an 8/10, and 2009's ''Born Again Revisited''. ''Rip it Off'' reached No. 17 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Heatseekers chart. The band was formerly signed to Siltbreeze and

Matador Records Matador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of mainly indie rock, but also punk rock, experimental rock, alternative rock, and electronic acts. History Matador was created in 1989 by Chris Lombardi in his New York City ap ...

. In January 2011, they announced that their fifth album, ''Dancer Equired!'', would be released in April via

Merge Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

in the US, Wichita in Europe, Pop Frenzy in Australia and Big Nothing in Japan. Following the release of the ''Over & Over'' EP in 2012, the band went on an extended hiatus that saw the trio relocating to different corners of the US, and did not play live for four years. In 2016, they reunited to play 4th and 4th Fest in Columbus. Each member continues to make music and art in various mediums to this day. Murphy has released solo material as The Girl in Times New Viking, and formed the duo Married FM. Elliott joined Ohio band Connections before forming his own group, Long Odds. Phillips has released music with Counter Intuits.

Music

Times New Viking have been noted for their

aesthetic, recorded to cassette, which (along with their Ohio home) drew comparisons to

Guided by Voices Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band formed in 1983 in Dayton, Ohio. It has made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard. The most well-known lineup of the band consisted o ...

' early material. They were considered part of the "shitgaze" genre, alongside contemporaries such as Psychedelic Horseshit,

Sic Alps Sic Alps were an American garage rock band from San Francisco, California. Formed in 2004 by Mike Donovan and Adam Stonehouse, they released music on Siltbreeze, Drag City, Woodsist and several other independent record labels. After signin ...

and Eat Skull. Notable features of their songs include shouted vocals, distorted drums and loud, trebly guitars in addition to tape hiss and brevity. The tracks on Rip It Off were mastered to a RMS -db value of 0 (or near to) making them comparatively as loud as possible. Their lyrics are generally sloganistic and feature pop culture references. With 2009's ''Born Again Revisited'', the band recorded the album to VHS and commented the recording fidelity had increased by 25%. In 2010, the group released a 7" single available on their tours opening for

. The single, featuring "No Room to Live", displayed cleaner production, a result of the band utilising proper recording studios for the first time – namely Musicol Recording studio and Columbus Discount Recordings. It has been reported by Merge Records that ''Dancer Equired!'' will also feature this production style.

Discography

Albums

*'' Dig Yourself'' (2005) *'' Present the Paisley Reich'' (2007) *'' Rip It Off'' (January 22, 2008) *'' Born Again Revisited'' (September 22, 2009) *'' Dancer Equired!'' (April 26, 2011)

EPs

*''Dead New Viking EP'' (2005) *''Stay Awake EP'' (2008) *''Over & Over EP'' (2012)

Singles

* "Busy Making Love and War" (2005) * "We Got Rocket" (2005) * "My Head" (2007) * "Call and Respond" (2008) * "No Time, No Hope" (2009) * "No Room to Live" (2011)

References

External links

Times New Viking Discography and Images
at SoundUnwound
Synconation Speaks with Adam Elliott of Times New Viking
{{Authority control Indie rock musical groups from Ohio Lo-fi music groups Musical groups from Columbus, Ohio Matador Records artists Merge Records artists Wichita Recordings artists Siltbreeze Records artists 2005 establishments in Ohio