Album Review: Times New Viking - Stay Awake EP

Times New Viking
Stay Awake EP
Matador, 2008

I tried, I really did, to come up with a pun to make light of the fact that the music on Columbus-natives Times New Viking's Stay Awake EP is very loud and would, in fact, greatly aid one in staying awake - I'll let you come up with your own, though. The second Matador release from the Siltbreeze alums, this EP doesn't stray too far from the fantastic Rip It Off, retaining their signature sound of ecstatic, largely-indiscernible vocal hooks, cheapo synthesizers and crunchy guitars filtered through a wall of distortion, feedback and tape noise. Where much of the current crop of weird lo-fi pop bands seems to employ noise as a defense mechanism, it makes these five tunes infinitely more infectious and anthemic than they would be otherwise, beacons of soul and charm in a sea of hollow Pro Tools recordings. Well worth your 11 minutes.

[Daniel Giordano]