Pitchfork

Holy shit, a jammed-out 16-minute prog opus! Nah, just kidding. Columbus, Ohio's Times New Viking stick with the brevity and lower-than-lo-fi fidelity that's worked well for them before on new song "Drop-Out", posted over at the Matador blog. As with recent double A-side "(My Head)" / "R.I.P. Allegory", the noise-drenched boy-girl rockers' latest offering suggests their forthcoming Rip It Off is poised to be even more sonically abrasive than last year's excellent Present the Paisley Reich-- possibly catchier, too.

The bedroom scraggliness of bands like Swell Maps persists, but the balance between punk's simple, fuck-you release and the track's artier squall also makes me think of reigning Los Angeles ambient-punks No Age. The crackling shouts of Times New Viking keyboardist Beth Murphy and drummer Adam Elliott don't offer any insights as immediately great as "I need more money, 'cause I need more drugs," off of "(My Head)", but you might need a few repeats to make sure. Which is OK, 'cause you can listen to the whole thing 10 times in less than 11 minutes. And I didn't find that out using my multiplication tables.

MP3:> Times New Viking: "Drop-Out"
[from Rip It Off; due 01/22/08 on Matador]