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The number of people who appear to be actively mourning the death of 20th-century-style lo-fi indie rock has been on a steady decline for a number of years, now that it’s been firmly established that a little studio sheen can yield lucrative licensing deals and wide-scale success without the band sacrificing much in the way of indie credibility. Three young Ohioans, though, who go by the name Times New Viking are, to paint a positive picture, holdouts, or to paint a slightly less positive one, throwbacks. Rip It Off is their third full-length, and their first for indie behemoth Matador. It features 16 songs, only one of which manages to crawl past the three-minute mark, most of them instead coming to a (literally) screeching halt somewhere around 90 seconds. At the heart of their material is an undeniable pop sensibility: boy/girl harmonies, sugary sweet melodies and an undying respect for simple song structures — more a formula for timeless indie pop than specifically 90s-style indie pop, admittedly. It’s the sound of the guitars that put such an unmistakable time-stamp on it: they’re incredibly loud, they lack distinct definition, and they’re played through blaring, overdriven small amplifiers that give way to feedback without warning. It’s the urgency with which the songs are recorded. And it’s the sly nod to 90s indie rock greats in ‘Times New Viking vs. Yo La Tengo’. But more than anything else, it’s that if you’re not willing to listen closely, you’ll miss everything these songs have to offer.
