Forever, I thought music was supposed to sound like that.

'Naturally, our records are going to sound like that. 'I've listened to them since I was 13,' the drummer said. Yet the group most often linked to Times New Viking is the Dayton-bred Guided by Voices, which began to release album after album of brief, handcrafted pop songs interlaced with homemade sound effects in the early '80s. Their approach to recording echoes that of the Sex Pistols, the Velvet Underground and 'post-punk' bands such as the Fall. 'Whether the album costs them 5 bucks or $5,000 to record is their business,' said Gerard Cosloy, who has operated Matador since 1990. Rip It Off - recorded in the basement of Phillips' rented North Side house using a crusty eight-track recorder with seven functioning tracks - cost nothing to produce but pleased Matador. 'I told those guys when I first got involved with them: 'There's going to be people who love you or hate you, and it might take them a few years to figure out which.' ' The music is not conducive to immediate digestion. When he heard the music, Hummel said, 'I thought they were writing really good songs, even though they were really noisy and challenging to listen to.

The result takes the form of ultra-scuzzy 'lo-fi' production: Squalls of feedback envelop every track on the new 16-minute album.Ĭentral Ohio musician Mike 'Rep' Hummel, who has produced tunes for Guided by Voices, tweaked the songs for Dig Yourself, the 2005 debut of Times New Viking. 'There's not many chords there's not many notes there's not a lot really going on.' 'We've got a minimal setup - guitar, drums, keyboards,' Phillips said. Times New Viking subscribes to the idea that lessons, career plans and whiz-bang technology serve as impediments to pure art. 'How many guitar lessons have you had, Jared? Two?' 'I'd thought about being in one, but I'd never played keyboards or sung anything.' 'I had never even played in a band before we started this,' Murphy said. Ladder-climbing pop musicians, take note: Usually, the best plan is no plan. On a recent weekday afternoon in Cafe Bourbon Street, the group members gathered to share their sound and vision. When we started the band, it was the idea of we'll play in a band because we're friends and we have these art ideas and whatever happens with the music will happen.' 'Every step of the way has been like 'Are you sure? Really? Us?' ' said Murphy, 25, 'but that's how it's worked out.

Viking recorder music