Viking's Choice: Surface To Air Missive, 'Time Being'

Taylor Ross knows his way around a melody. More specifically, he knows how to peep into melody's third eye, hug the fruit-striped void and send it sideways down the yellow brick road. Raised in Tallahassee and recently relocated to Athens, Georgia — which has a history of weird pop music — Ross is getting ready to release A V, his third album under the name Surface To Air Missive.

"Time Being" is a sun-smeared pop song indicative of Ross' M.O.: Jangly and flanged guitars play hopscotch with organ, tambourine and tightly aerobic drums, all played by Ross himself with wild but focused abandon. He's a kindred spirit with previous tourmate Of Montreal, and Ross' new homemade video reflects that sensibility. At one point, he's singing into a hairbrush against a green screen that never projects anything; at another, that green screen envelops his entire face.

A V comes out Nov. 4 on Leaving.