For a two-piece punk band containing neither a bass player nor a singer, it’s surprising just how mathematically complex The Littlest Viking’s mostly instrumental music is. People seeing them take the stage for the first time might expect this dynamic duo to start cranking out some primitive White Stripes-style garage. But when The Littlest Viking take the stage at Gallery 5 on Thursday, March 21, what show attendees are going to get is much more properly designated as math rock.
Which is not to say that it’ll be boring or overly serious. After all, it’s a well-known fact that math rock bands are terrible at naming songs. We’ve known this ever since Don Caballero first released “Fire Back About Your New Baby’s Sex,” and things have just gone downhill from there. We now have Giraffes? Girrafes! [who apparently aren’t that great at naming their band either-ed.] naming songs things like “Werewolf Grandma With Knives” and “Transparent Man/Invisible Woman.”
But when you get to the bottom of it, The Littlest Viking might take the cake. Their self-titled second album, released late last year on Mountain Man Records, features song titles like “Piccadilly Palare Is A Real Boner Drag” (a sly reference to the opening track on Morrissey’s second album), “I Hope There’s A Glory Hole In Hell,” and “Give Me Motorhead.” With these and other song titles, this California duo have proven once again that, just as comedy is slowly crossing the border to anti-humor, math-rock musicians are blurring the line between taking yourself extremely seriously and not giving two shits. “They're a tribute in jest to the sometimes overwrought post rock titles that some bands use, like ‘The soundless breath of dawn's eternal melancholy’ and such,” drummer Chris Gregory says of the titles. “We like just like to have fun.”
Whether or not you think The Littlest Viking should take naming their songs as seriously as they take their songwriting, it’s hard to disagree on the fact their music is the shit. They are one hell of a talented and serious group. Their rhythms are tight and fast, and their melodies are dissonant, but not to an extent that they displease the ear. Instead, they are pleasantly punchy, neatly noodly, and packed with just the right amount of sing-alongs. Citing influences like Danzig, Iron Maiden, Don Caballero, and “all Kinsella projects except for acoustic Joan of Arc albums” (by which they mean brothers Tim and Mike Kinsella, one or both of whom has played in Cap’n Jazz, Owls, American Football, Owen, Joan Of Arc, and more), the Littlest Viking’s music is right up the alley of any math rock or 90’s emo fans.
Joining them on their current tour, and at Gallery 5 on Thursday, will be Georgia’s Little Tybee and Tennessee’s Color Feels. Little Tybee is an eight-piece (so perhaps not so little after all) whose songs cover the range from a composition master’s heaven to the misty field of a dream. Videos indicate that you should definitely experience them in a live setting. Nashville’s Color Feels bring a more folksy sound, layering instruments on top of each other to create beautiful ethereal songs with exquisite lyricism.
Local support will be provided by prog-math-masters Night Idea and Dumb Waiter. Night Idea, who recently left the studio with a killer 6 track EP (which unfortunately won’t be for sale yet, though they will certainly play the songs it contains), is a jazzy, jammy, prog-packed power group. If you live in Richmond and haven’t seen them yet, you’re seriously missing out (In the spirit of full disclosure, three of the members of Night Idea are my roommates, but that does not change the fact that they kick ass). Dumb Waiter, the local math geniuses featuring an ever-changing lineup that includes Gallery 5’s own Nick Crider, will kick things off. This will be one hell of a show for anyone who loves math rock, and at least an interesting one for those who don’t quite follow the odd time signatures.
After Richmond, The Littlest Viking continues on their east coast tour with Little Tybee, and then it’s back to the studio, maybe. “We plan on either writing another record or putting out a bunch of one-off seven inches, or maybe both,” says Gregory. “We might do a west coast tour in the fall, and we will continue to seek the Holy Grail, which is a spot on the Warped Tour alongside Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.”
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The Littlest Viking will perform at Gallery 5, located at 200 W. Marshall St, on Thursday, March 21. Doors open at 7:30, admission is $6. For more info, click here.