Ohio
VIDEO: Times New Viking live at Great Scott. Watch more video at On the Download.
All-Time Best Band: Pere Ubu
All-Time Best Solo Artist: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Best New Band: Times New Viking
Rust Belt noise-punk artisans Pere Ubu craft distressed pop. Listen to “Blow Daddy-O,” from the eerily beautiful Dub Housing, enough times and you’ll start to hear melodies in the humming of copy machines and air conditioners. | Not only did the nose-boned Screamin’ Jay Hawkins prefigure the piercing craze by almost five decades, but he was also the world’s wildest purveyor of primordial, swampy blues pop — never mind that his Cleveland home is a time zone away from Cajun country. | Hissy-fitting, font-inventing Times New Viking are a Columbus-based three piece with a Gang of Four–style attack. Their lo-fi Marshalls go martial.
Video: Pere Ubu
Video: Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Download: Times New Viking, "My Head/RIP Allegory" (mp3)
Listen: Pere Ubu, "30 Seconds Over Tokyo"
Listen: Screamin' Jay Hawkins, "I Put a Spell on You"
