Ohio trio Times New Viking have had a plenty of buzz around them for sometime now, and not always for the best of reasons. Having released two albums on Siltbreeze Records, they've found a new home at Matador. Those two albums are notorious for their distorted, lo-fi sound which some find completely unlistenable. Yes, the production is that bad. However, that does appear to be half the charm of Times New Viking. At times, anyway. If you watch the embedded vid then listen to the mp3 below, you might sort of understand what I mean.
I'm not a big fan of the intentionally mediocre recordings but I guess that's now a bit of a gimmick. They haven't polished their sound since moving to Matador, as new album 'Rip It Off' shows. If you can detect the tune when listening to one of the tracks, you'll find that it's actually quite good. Overall, however, the jury's still out.
Times New Viking - Drop-Out [Yourfilehost download]
Yesterday, we had new Vice Records signees Dark Meat and today we have another new addition to the Vice Records roster, King Khan And The Shrines. The confusion begins almost immediately, with there also being a band called King Khan And The BBQ Show. And this band also seem to have gone by the name King Khan And His Shrines.
But the music is more important and listening to KK&TS is like stepping back into the sixties. Names like Hendrix and James Brown pop in my head when having a listen to the band but I'm no expert on music from that era.
Now some people might like that, others might wonder what the point is in emulating music that has already been done so well. I really enjoy it and they seem to have achieved some critical acclaim, placing #33 in Pitchfork's Top 50 albums of 2007. Not bad going.
Their new album is called 'Supreme Genius Of King Khan And The Shrines'. They probably thought that was hilarious, I think it's a bit arrogant. Better than false modesty I guess though. I'm sure it's a pretty great album, anyway.
King Khan And The Shrines - Torture [Yourfilehost]
'The Supreme Genius Of' will be out in the States on June 17th, followed by the first ever King Khan And The Shrines US tour in July/August.
Finally, we've got some friends of mine and definately a band that will completely polarise opinion and embody the concept I've been discussing. They're a collective (I say this, simply because their line up seems to change every 2 months) from London called Joy-Rides. If you like The Fall, I suspect you might like Joy-Rides. I don't really like The Fall.
But that's more Mark E Smith's fault rather than music. So I can have an appreciation for Joy-Rides. Although that appreciation more stems in the fact that they are awesomely unpretentious, full of chutzpah and their live shows are shambolic brilliance. The unintiated look on in awe or disgust. Never indifference. And that's surely a good thing?
For some reason, I'm namechecked in their demos or something ('Self Saam'?!) but if you have a listen they could sing about all their friends and every blogger in the universe and you still wouldn't have a clue as to what was coming next. They might make you laugh, they might make you cry but they honestly don't seem to care. They know they're never going to sell out Wembley, they just want to have fun and entertain. And that should be applauded.
Joy-Rides - Drum Beats [Yourfilehost]
Joy-Rides play London's Legion venue on Old Street this Sunday, see their MySpace for more details [link], where you can also download more (distinctly lo-fi) demo tracks.
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If you missed my second podcast way back in April 2007, just a warning that it will be disappearing forever very soon. So I suggest you give it a download and have a listen. Featuring the likes of Bat For Lashes, This Et Al, Look See Proof and Gay Against You, head [here] for more details. If you want to know what's going down in 2008, check my March 2008 podcast [here]. Cheers!
We're a collaborative British music, film and TV blog. "Trying to find the perfect match between pretentious and pop."
