TIMES NEW VIKING

Reject the indie rock crown

By NICK FEELEY

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Times New Viking guitarist Jared Phillips is complaining that there is literally nothing outside their tour van window. "There's really nothing. I tried to buy some socks. I can't find anyplace out here to buy socks." That socks is a problem for someone like Phillips is interesting, given that Times New Viking's music suggests images of reckless youth running barefoot in the streets.

One part pop-music classicism and one equal part DIY static, Times New Viking has been credited with reorienting underground rock away from the dance punk and self-indulgent freak folk that has dominated to a rawer, more immediate sound. Since forming in Columbus, Ohio in 2005 and especially after the release of their first record for Matador (this year's excellent Rip It Off), everyone—from kids who still make photocopied 'zines to MTV—has tried to crown Times New Viking the saviors of indie rock.

Phillips isn't having any of it. "A lot of other bands may be doing something similar," he says. "But you know, for whatever reason we've been deemed the representatives of this gnarly-sounding pop music, which is kind of ridiculous." A recent run-in with MTV at this year's South by Southwest Festival, where the band was asked to wax poetic on the reemergence of the lo-fi aesthetic in indie (or "indie primitive"), seems to illustrate the ridiculous nature that notoriety has brought for the band. "I couldn't stand to watch it," Phillips says.... "I just remember thinking that it was kind of funny seeing that MTV microphone with the little label on it, just thinking, 'This is hilarious!'"

TIMES NEW VIKING

W/ HALLELUJAH THE HILLS

AND TITUS ANDRONICUS

SUNDAY 6.29.08

GREAT SCOTT

1222 COMM. AVE., ALLSTON

617.566.9014.

9PM/18+/$10

GREATSCOTTBOSTON.COM

MYSPACE.COM/TIMESNEWVIKING