TV On The Radio

If you think about how hard it is to maintain any creative musical pursuit over time, to evolve a sound across several albums and many years, to stay fresh and engaged along the way, to aim for something beyond yourself and still have plenty to say…well, then, TV On The Radio’s 23-year run is nothing short of a miracle. Experimentation, curiosity and intention are the chromosomes that comprise the band’s DNA and, along with a little alchemy, it’s resulted in a more-than-two-decade run as one of America’s most original bands. Which is all to say that to have TV On The Radio present in the year of our lord 2024 - 20 years after their debut album, a decade since their last - is an absolute blessing.

Since its inception, TV On The Radio has always been hard to categorize. But that has been by design. To be beyond contextualization, a band of contradiction: their music sounds both boundless and intimate, wandering and purposeful, songs illustrating courage and fear at once. That tension is at the heart of who they are, even as they continued to morph and evolve their sound through five albums.

TV On The Radio began in 2001 as a serendipitous project between vocalist/programmer Tunde Adebimpe and multi-instrumentalist Dave Sitek, who both lived in the same building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Upon discovering their shared love of musical experimentation they crafted an 18-song demo out of respective 4-track home recordings (artfully arranged vocal loops, synthesized glitches, and comic punchlines), silk-screening CD covers and distributing them at coffee shops and clubs around Brooklyn. That demo, OK Calculator, was a tongue-in-cheek nod to the then-recently released art-rock apotheosis that was Radiohead’s OK Computer, but it portended an energy that would years-later provoke critics to dub TVOTR, “America’s Radiohead.”

Tunde and Sitek focused on making the “project” a real band, and released the 5-song EP, Young Liars, on the revered Touch & Go label in 2003. Young Liars was an epiphany, sounding unlike anything out at the time: bleak and anxious, with Tunde’s vocals powerful and clear, but still haunting. And it ended with a doo wop, harmonized cover of the Pixies “Mr. Grieves,” further refusing to be stylistically pinned down. Even before Young Liars was released, Kyp Malone became a foundational member of the band, adding a guitar style that was both ferocious and delicate, with a voice that felt like it was from a dream. It added another dimension to a band that was quickly distinguishing itself from others coming out of New York at the time.

And what a time it was. The early-2000s was an epoch for a new wave of New York City bands, an echo of the post-punk, no-wave era that emerged a generation before. The East Village and Lower East Side were still (relatively) affordable; South Williamsburg even more so, with its abandoned industrial lofts giving young people a place - and the space - to congregate, commune, and make something. TVOTR were comrades with a scene that would give the world The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem and DFA Records, Interpol, The Walkmen, and others. In the beginning, TVOTR were not the most popular of these bands, or who sold the most records. But they were the most striking, the most meaningful, wrestling with sounds and themes and perspectives that felt heavier than their peers.

The group’s debut album, Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes, laid that truth to bare. Released in 2004, it is an album full of rich, bruising ideas about life, love and loss. Lyrically but especially sonically, Desperate Youth, captured the dystopian hum of post-9/11 America (a war in Iraq, a proto-right-wing political regime, a surveillance state threatening personal agency at home), putting a voice to the general unease young people felt at the time. Kyp shared vocal duties with Tunde, creating a unique vocal fingerprint that further distinguished them from their peers. Desperate Youth captured the attention of critics around the world, and won the prestigious (and now defunct) Shortlist Music Prize that year. To bring the album to life, Tunde, Kyp and Sitek recruited two new members to flesh our their sound: Gerard Smith (on keys & bass) and Jaleel Bunton (on drums), both multi-instrumentalists who gigged frequently around Brooklyn. What was first seeded as an experimental enterprise had now, in just a couple of years, blossomed into something beautiful, powerful and whole.

Momentum for TVOTR continued with the release of 2006’s Return To Cookie Mountain, which harnessed the bombed-out soundscapes into a distinctive, signature style of songwriting. It is an album that finds transcendence on the mountaintop, from the opening “If I Was A Lover” (with its hall-of-mirrors harmonizing and synthesized loops, still sounds like it’s from the future, 18 years later) and big single, “Wolf Like Me” (which proved the group could write a full-on art-rock pop tune). The album earned a 9.1 rating in Pitchfork and would top many year-end critics lists. Two years later, in 2008, TVOTR would return with a triumphant third album, Dear Science, which earned even more acclaim (topping more year-end lists, and earning a 9.2 from Pitchfork).

These albums came at a point where a lot of the bands from the New York scene had already run ashore. By contrast, TVOTR were following a trajectory where each album was a bigger breakthrough than the one before it. For the Dear Science tour, TVOTR retooled their live show to be a “big band” experience, complete with a horn section and backup singers. The song “Halfway Home” gave fans another hit to call out for, along with favorites like “Staring at the Sun” and “Wolf Like Me.” TVOTR were outsiders no more: finding themselves on the radio, late-night television and playing to bigger and bigger venues across the world.

In 2011, the band would release its fourth album, Nine Types of Light. It would make its way into the world without keyboardist and bassist Gerard Smith, who passed away from lung cancer at the age of 36 during the recording of the album. It was a profound loss for the tight-knit band, and really signaled the end of a chapter in the band’s story. While making the album, some of the members had left Brooklyn for Los Angeles. These young brothers had grown into adult men, with life partners and children, and now they were dealing with loss. That matured perspective is reflected in the music, trading in the disquiet of their early work for collected introspection - without losing any of their inventiveness. To play Nine Types of Light live, the band recruited drummer Jahphet “Roofeeo” Landis to join them (with Jaleel moving to bass & keys), and Jahphet’s charged rhythmic drumming brought renewed energy to the band’s material.

On Seeds, released in 2014 on Harvest Records, the full sonic spectrum TV On The Radio is on display. It is perhaps the band’s cleanest album, with the basic architecture of the band’s sound, first rendered on Young Liars, ever present. Kyp and Tunde’s soaring, searing vocals squeeze against the perpetual rhythmic discord, sometimes softly, other times ferociously. A sleeper favorite amongst longtime fans, Seeds shows what an absolute gift it is to see and hear a band continue to explore and be curious about what lies in front of them.

Looking back at the band’s career, it is significant to note that TVOTR willfully pushed against stereotypes - musically and otherwise - simply by existing. The notion of a mostly Black indie rock band was, at first, a novelty for critics. But their identity and how it translated to lived experience is exactly what drives them to make the music they do; and over time, what has become more clear, is how they have carried forward the legacy of influential groups like Bad Brains, Death and Funkadelic before them. Similarly, it cannot be understated just how much of an impact TVOTR have made on future generations of Black indie artists pursuing their own path.

In the 10 years since Seeds, each of the members have explored other creative side projects, ranging from the studio to the screen. And now, they adapt again, ready to embark on the next phase of what has been a remarkable story. For this chapter, the band is centered around Tunde, Kyp and Jaleel, beginning with a series of live shows planned for 2024-5 in New York, Los Angeles, and London. Sitek remains a part of the legacy of the band, an ever-present piece, but is unable to participate in the live shows.

From the very beginning, all those years ago, TV On The Radio were on their own wave heading out into the unknown. More than two decades later, they’ve found a home there. And it is a blessing.
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