Pitchfork

The transition from the Times New Viking of excellent lo-fi noise-pop albums Rip It Off and Presents the Paisley Reich to the Times New Viking of their live performances requires giving up one of the most instantly noticeable things about the albums: all that hissy tape. When Times New Viking stopped into Daytrotter's Midwestern studio for a live session, they showed once again how it's their sharp, catchy bursts of song, not just their veil of analogue ambience, that has grabbed the ears of Siltbreeze and Matador. From last year's Presents the Paisley Reich, "Teenage Lust!" still gets played at every show, according to the band's Daytrotter blurbs. And jeez, it should be: It's one of their best songs. Possibly the best.

Described by the band as a "love/hate song about the complacency of the Midwest," it's a two-minute rush of keyboard, hi-hat, boy-girl vocals, and bristling proto-punk guitar. It's where they're from, it's where they wanna get away from, and it's their most memorable credo: "I don't want to die in the city alone." Drummer Adam Elliot, who shares vocal duties with keyboardist Beth Murphy, closes the song with a remark in the cadences of the Fall's Mark E. Smith-uh: "Pissed Jeans is NOT up next-uh," he declares, slightly changing things up from the album version. So I guess those Allentown, Pa. noise rockers will have to drive out to Ohio, where Times New Viking make teenage lust sound like paranoid teenage kicks. Check out the full four-song session over on Daytrotter's site; they don't wanna die.

MP3/Stream:> Times New Viking: "Teenage Lust!" (Daytrotter Session)
[original track from Presents the Paisley Reich; out now on Siltbreeze]