‘It was like absolutely nothing changed’: The return of Times New Viking

When Times New Viking returns to the stage Friday, it will be the Columbus indie trio’s first time performing together in nearly a decade. The reunion could have happened sooner, though.

“People think we’re a standoffish band,” drummer and singer Adam Elliott said. “But they just never ask, you know?”

The initial inquiry came from Outline Festival, a series that presents several brilliantly curated concerts per year at the Knockdown Center in Queens. Times New Viking will play there March 6 with scrappy kindred spirits the Spits, Prison Affair, Snööper, and Cincinnati’s own the Serfs. The next night, they’ll head upstate to play the widely respected Kingston venue Tubby’s, again with the Serfs. And the next month, the band will trek to Chicago for an April 24 show at Empty Bottle.

But first, TNV will play Columbus. Appropriately, the band’s first gig since 2016’s 4th & 4th Fest will take place at their old home base of Cafe Bourbon Street, with support from their legendary forebear Ron House and the city’s current breakout band, Golomb. TNV’s longtime pals Kevin and Tina De Broux will deejay under the name DJ Fuck the Police Scented Candle.

Elliott is looking forward to getting back on stage with keyboardist-vocalist Beth Murphy and guitarist Jared Phillips at a bar that hosted so many of their greatest shows.

“It’s amazing because the drop ceiling that we fucked up back then is still like that,” he said.

During Times New Viking’s original run from 2003 to 2012, they became underground sensations and local heroes performing inspired pop songs with raw, primitive urgency and recording them in extremely low fidelity. TNV released albums for the revered indie labels Siltbreeze, Matador, and Merge, toured around the world with groups like Deerhunter and the Clean, and were graced with a Best New Music review from Pitchfork for 2008’s Rip It Off, when such a designation could launch a band to fame.

But whereas many indie bands in those days were embracing a more accessible sound fit for TV shows and car commercials, TNV opted for abrasion, sometimes to an almost comic extent. Their approach proved polarizing, though Elliott said some people who decried their aesthetic choices misunderstood their intent.

“It’s like, of course it sounds like shit, that’s the point,” Elliott said. “There’s also lyrics and art and melodies and inside jokes.”

Eventually the hype cycle passed, and the relentless grind of touring and promotion with minimal return became exhausting, which led to Times New Viking ceasing to be an active concern after the campaign supporting 2011’s Dancer Equired. But the bandmates have not been creatively dormant in the interim. 

Phillips, now based in Cleveland, played in Counter Intuits with House and has more recently been gradually working on an album that will feature himself on lead vocals for the first time. Murphy released music as The Girl From Times New Viking while living in Memphis in the 2010s. Upon her return to Columbus, she formed Married FM, a band with Emily Davis from Ipps and Necropolis. Elliott leads the band Long Odds, who have a new album in the queue.

Visual art was always a huge component of Times New Viking, which formed at CCAD, and the members have continued pursuing that as well. Elliott and Murphy have even hosted joint art shows in Columbus, including one at Secret Studio in December that featured the two of them performing Times New Viking songs, coffeehouse style. But getting the full lineup together and letting it rip has provided a different kind of refreshment.

“It feels really good,” Elliott said of an exhilarating rehearsal at a Cleveland warehouse space. “It was like absolutely nothing changed.”

He’s hoping Times New Viking can keep playing together beyond this initial run of shows, both in and out of Columbus. There won’t be a return to the demanding tour schedules of their youth – all three members are raising kids now, for one thing – but TNV wants to get back out there in a more casual capacity.

“We’re looking for some family weekend vacations, you know?” Elliott said. “I would like to see friends again and try foods again.”