Times New Viking - Biography
Times New Viking is a sublimely loose underground trio from Columbus, Ohio. Beth Murphy, Jared Phillips and Adam Elliott met at art school in Columbus and formed the band in 2003, around the time they finished their studies. Asked by Clash Magazine to name Times New Viking’s formative influences, Elliott cited the Fall, the Shaggs, the Modern Lovers and Half Japanese. In the spirit of the Fall, TNV releases scads of records every year; like early Half Japanese, TNV does most of its recording at home, crudely, and the adjective “lo-fi” is seldom far from Times New Viking’s name in print.
After TNV’s first release, the Busy Making Love + War 7-inch (Columbus Discount 2005), Philadelphia’s Siltbreeze signed the band. Bob Dylan, in a still from the “Subterranean Homesick Blues” film, is the cover star of the debut album Dig Yourself (Siltbreeze 2005). Present the Paisley Reich (Siltbreeze 2006) is generally counted as Times New Viking’s second album even though it takes up only one side of an LP; the enlarged CD release includes the band’s first single and other bonus tracks. TNV signed to Matador Records the following year, releasing the “My Head” single (Matador 2007), as well as a split single with the aesthetically similar Psychedelic Horseshit (300% 2007).
TNV promoted their first Matador album, Rip It Off (2008), by embarking on the Shred Yr Face tour with Los Campesinos! and No Age. Each band contributed one song to the commemorative Shred Yr Face Tour 7-inch (Shred Yr Face 2008), on which TNV cover the Clean’s “Anything Could Happen.” The five-song 7-inch EP Stay Awake (Matador 2008) followed in October. Matador’s press materials for Born Again Revisited (Matador 2009), the band’s fourth album, claim that the master recording of the album is a VHS cassette, and that the LP boasts “25% higher fidelity” than TNV’s previous work. “Move to California” (Matador 2009) was the single from Born Again Revisited, preceding the album by a few weeks.
