I'll have to admit, that while I had an excellent, fulfilling time in Austin this year, SXSW sans the kids in TNV, was somewhat a drag. Europe (for the next two months and some change -- GO ATP Pavement), you are the lucky ones right now. You're getting to see one of the most incendiary live bands in the land. Where Times New Viking excel is from the stage. I just sat through a bushel full of start-up bands stealing the kid's flow. Believe it or not, TNV started all this -- or better yet -- Tom Lax re-started all this. TNV just became the mold.
Well, remaining as obscure-by-design as ever, the kids printed up some extremely rare and beautiful CD-Rs of unreleased mayhem, the beginning of their "really high DIY" series. The first, New Times Viking, culls demos and tracks from the Stay Awake sessions, including everything they recorded with Home's Andrew Deutsch in NYC, and elements of "The Fall and Dvorak." But "everything they do is a demo," you say? Not so, hearing their hits in the germ stage is somewhat euphoric. Matador would be right to bootleg this one. Little gems like the bopping, Clean-converse "Influence" and the eternal summer bummer of closer "Sing High!" are priceless really. The sign of a band with too many ideas and not enough understanding. The second collectible is Hello...We Are Times New Viking From Columbus, OH, a live show from where else, but their hometown. This is TNV in their element, and as a bonus it's said that guitarist Jared Phillips added a drunken extra track of shreds in the mix-down. What a wonderful concept. I'll take two Jared's on stage over the normal pap I'm subject to any day of the year. I'm sure if you hound them on their internet spaces, they'll budge and send over some of these. Have fun, Europe.
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