Times New Viking

If Lou Barlow and Sebadoh’s output in the ’80s made horribly hissy lo-fi production on cassettes seem warm and inviting, aesthetic progenitors Times New Viking have bridged the gap in bringing charmingly dissonant storms of static plied with melodies on mp3. Now a member of the Merge Records family, the band keeps most of its sounds out of the red on the new Dancer Equired. It’s a move toward more accessible sonics, if not songcraft—tracks like “No Room To Live” and “Ever Falling In Love” amble around within the band’s off-kilter pop sensibilities and the record’s desert-dry production. It’s a record that’s far from radio-ready—though those sweetly skewed boy-girl harmonies would sound great on a busted boombox. 

Updated 05/24/2011