Review Summary: Abrasive blasts of lo-fi recording meet surprisingly catchy bursts of pop. Something's got to give.
I’ve never, at any point in my life, thought it would be particularly cool for someone to assault my ears until they actually bled. I’ve never really wanted to carve up my little cochlea myself either. I just don’t swing that way. Now, of course, I realize corporeal punishment and sadomasochism have their advocates (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but personally I prefer comfort and things like warm baths to pain and things like screwdrivers shredding the interior of my skull. It’s just the way I am.
At the risk of speaking for the majority, I assume that most folks are actually similar to myself in this regard. I hope for their sake that this is one of few regards that match up with my preferences, but nonetheless most intelligent people avoid pain whenever possible. It would seem kind of strange not to. Given this, it should follow that I, or anyone else for that matter, should not, under any circumstances, subject themselves to Times New Viking’s latest album, “Rip it Off.” On “Rip it Off” the energetic, wildly forceful trio from Ohio take the lo-fi aesthetic that dominated so many indie records in the 90’s and push it to its most extreme, abrasive limits.
The result is, as you might expect, a mind-numbingly difficult record that is absolutely not for everyone. Even those well-versed in the cheap 4-track tape hiss of Guided By Voices’ “Bee Thousand” or even Pavement’s “Slanted and Enchanted” (Times New Viking’s most obvious influence) will likely find themselves slightly taken aback by just how grating and damn near impenetrable the fuzz of the horrendously low quality recording can be. It doesn’t make it any easier on the listener, either, that Times New Viking like their blend of punk-rock and impossibly catchy melodies played as loud as possible. Imagine, if you will, the Go-Team’s style of mind-infiltrating call and response chanting, add some furiously strummed, distorted power chords, and top the whole thing off with a large dose of bowling ball sized testicles and you have a general idea of how Times New Viking can sound. Now filter that sound through the absolute worst recording equipment you’ve ever heard, make sure all those vocals and genuinely pleasing hooks are scratched and clawed until they bring to mind a playground full of rowdy kids with laryngitis, and you essentially have “Rip it Off.”
Defying all odds, though, “Rip it Off” is a surprisingly wonderful listen. This can probably be attributed to excellent songwriting throughout the entire album. “Teen Drama” and “(My Head)” kick the album off with brilliantly simple gems that are so undeniably warm and catchy you can’t help but plow your way through the all-encompassing tape hiss in an effort to get closer to them. Once you get over the fear that listening too closely will actually cause your head to implode, the details of the songwriting (borrowing the organ from “Sister Ray,” as well as atonal, blasts of feedback) make the experience even more enticing.
Fortunately, Times New Viking are also smart enough to cruise in and out of quick-hitting pop gems before any ill effects from the abrasiveness of the whole thing can even be felt. The most instantly memorable song on “Rip it Off” is “Drop-Out” which stomps through a trade-off of male-female verses in just a little over a minute. Likewise, the rest of the album almost entirely caps out at two and a half minute songs, with the whole affair rounding out at an even half-hour.
In the end, it’s just about impossible to wonder what “Rip it Off” might sound like if Times New Viking were to strip away the layers of hiss which are basically the cheap sonic equivalent of a giant “screw you!” from the band. Might “Rip it Off” reveal itself as a power-pop masterpiece? Might the album actually lose its appeal if the songs are too closely available for direct scrutiny? We may never know, but it’s really all beside the point. The fact remains that Times New Viking have self-imposed these constraints and that no amount of second-guessing will change the fact that “Rip it Off” is the type of album you can listen to over and over again without feeling like you have, or ever will, burn out on the material. Of course, you have to prepare yourself for the non-stop bombardment of white noise that is to come, but if you give Times New Viking’s lo-fi a chance, it’s unlikely you’ll turn away for quite some time.
