From The Desk Of Times New Viking’s Elizabeth Murphy: Something Guided By Voices Related

Times New Viking is an Ohio rock trio that delivers raw rock ‘n’ roll. Jumping from different labels over the years including Matador and Merge, the band has released five proper albums in a little more than five years. On its last album, Dance Equired (Merge), Times New Viking dropped the lo-fi fuzz in favor of more melodious songs. These art-school grads from Columbus, Ohio, are still making music, and the band’s Elizabeth Murphy will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with her.

Murphy: Guided By Voices have fans in all sorts of nooks and crannies. Eddie Vedder and Chloë Sevigny have been spotted at shows, Albert Hammond Jr. and Jimmy Eat World have done tributes, and there are even rumors that Christopher from The Sopranos is a fan. Of course the blue collar population of Dayton, Ohio, is on board, along with a smattering of international fans in good standing on eBay, vying for their first-hand acquisitions. It still never ceases to tickle me when a fresh inconspicuous fan presents themselves. Such was the case when I heard Torche covered three Guided By Voices songs for their half of a split EP with Part Chimp last year.

There is something a true GBV fan can be counted on, and that is to know the lyrics. Wearing this on their sleeve, they indulge in the inevitable compulsion to sing along at every available opportunity, in spheres public, private and intimate … a tour van for example. Engaged in an inter-band Bee Thousand sing-a-long (re:challenge) on our way to open for GBV, our sound guy, “Prog Legs,” remarked, “You know this is exactly what people imagine you guys are doing in your van on tour.”

With participatory glee, we were made privy to full blown live evidence of this phenomenon. The audience sang along all right; I’m talking “Nookie” sing-a-long decibels for every song. Voted most endearing of participants was GBV’s own crew: a manager and two good ol’ boys brought along as beer/cigarette/pizza-techs (that’s no sound guy or guitar tech). Side stage for the entirety of the show, they maintained that a lit cigarette was always in Mitch Mitchell’s mouth, the onstage cooler was always full of Miller Light and that choice lines of BBob Pollard’s absurdist authority were backed and punctuated with a fist pump. Nonsense on paper, GBV lyrics are assuredly axiomatic to fans, regardless of whether or not they have heard the back story or seen the reference material first hand (‘”Huber Heights, largest community of brick homes”). The conviction in/of a hook can elevate any string of words to anthemic phrase.

Torche chose to cover two songs from Propeller and “Postal Blowfish,” which for these purposes is a Propeller-era recording (see below for a synopsis of the “Postal Blowfish” release history). Propeller is what we call “lo-fi.” Although it was largely recorded in a professional studio, the post-production of Mike “Rep” Hummel made it the unequivocal reference point for this kind of sound. A sound in which Torche is relatively unaffiliated. Hearing these three songs recorded maximally scratched an itch I didn’t know I had. The drums were heavy, pronounced. The vocals were articulated with justice and alternate lines surfaced as highlights.

“I don’t believe in anything/I promise to leave you one of these days/I promise it’ll be real soon.” When Steve Brooks of Torche pronounces this line in “Exit Flagger,” it catches in a way that can only be pitched by someone who has carried it with them a long time, walking down the street, humming it at work, singing in the shower. “Exit Flagger” is a pop song; its most pure state resides in the minds of the listener. Here it may morph, skewed memory or intent, but all good pop songs retain their core. To be repeated.

Below is the recorded history of “Postal Blowfish,” a folk song, as it was brought up on the road and first captured to vinyl on live bootleg LPs:

“Postal Blowfish” was included on many of the early, aborted versions of what came to become Bee Thousand, including working sequences with the alternate album titles Instructions To The Rusty Time Machine and All That Glue.

The song was featured on the live bootlegs Crying Your Knife Away (1994), For All The Good Kids (1995), Benefit For The Winos (1996), Jellyfish Reflector (1996) and The Cum Engines (2001).

It was given a place on King Shit & The Golden Boys, part of the Box box set released by Scat in 1995. It was later on the CD re-release of Get Out Of My Stations (Siltbreeze, 2003) and on the Bee Thousand re-issue (Scat, 2004).

A “new version” was recorded in 1996 and proposed/removed from the original Under The Bushe, Under The Stars song list to end up on another Matador release of the same year, the Kids In The Hall: Brain Candy soundtrack. This version later appeared on the Hardcore UFOs box set in 2003.

Video after the jump.