It’s Genius, I Swear – Times New Viking on ’20,000 Years Under Nashville’ by Nudge Squidfish
By: Beth Murphy
When asked to illuminate an album that I consider genius and slightly out of reach to the general public, I feel compelled for it to be a gem firmly rooted in the central Ohio subculture. 
The album 20,000 Years Under Nashville by Nudge Squidfish was first introduced to me by none other than Mike "Rep" Hummel as a burnt CDR in 2008. Its earlier incarnation was in fact the first cassette that Rep released on his Old Age/No Age cassette label in 1985. Squidfish was living in Nashville when he recorded the songs and sporadically sent them up north as folk pop love letters to be "fucked with" and contributed to by the parties holding down the creatively fertile fort in Harrisburg, Ohio. Tommy Jay, Jim Shepard, Tim Chaffin, T.A. Lafferty, Carla Risch, Stick Hoffman and the aforementioned Mike "Rep" all were players in the final product, which also includes two Jim Shepard covers.
The songs are outsider pop musings on relationships, in-jokes revolving around Harrisburg and Columbus, Ohio parties and politics and self-made iconographical declarations using guitars, synthesizer experiments, drum machines and vocal harmonies. Heavily narrative and laced with absurd humor, the record brings to mind dichotomies like "lazy urgency" and "lighthearted despondency".
It’s reminiscent of every bedroom/barn song collage freak-out on record but not without hooks and undeniable pop perfection especially realized on "Goodbye Princess" and my personal favorite, "Wonder Where You Been". The latter is followed by a hilarious monologue describing an exchange between the real Nudge Squidfish, Mr. Al Martin, and a "Cathy" that involves some kind of child custody dispute.
This record was released on Columbus Discount Records last year and is still available on their website.
Times New Viking’s new LP, Dancer Equired, is released on April 26th 2011 by Wichita Recordings. They tour the UK later this month, and in to May – dates below.
April
25 – Fuzz, Project Norwich, Norwich
27 – Deaf Institute, Manchester
28 – The Duchess, York
29 – Rope, Central Station, Wrexham
30 – Nice n’ Sleazys, Glasgow
May
1 – Brudenell for Live in Leeds, Leeds
2 – Club Lazy Genius, Mojo, Liverpool
3 – Upset the Rhythm, XOYO, London
Artists in this article: Times New Viking, Nudge Squidfish