TV on the Radio crafts ambitious art rock that isn't particularly accessible upon first or second listen. Not that any art rock is made for casual ears, but this band's particular brand of inspired songwriting is worth the challenge and for one very significant reason: TV on the Radio has yet to disappoint. Each record is an exercise in excellence and finds the Brooklyn outfit consistently evolving and elevating their sound, which has grown from dark, noisy, loop-and-horn-infused experimental electro-rock with hip-hop, post-punk, and psyche-soul overtones into a tighter, lighter but no less powerful aesthetic richer in sonic textures and layers, and more user-friendly without compromising the band's intellectual integrity.
TVOTR returns to the funky R&B bounce they drew on so heavily in 2008's Dear Science for their 2011 fourth LP, Nine Types of Light, adding moments of melodic grooving pop, exploring their favored themes of love, society and politics in a way that feels fresh, sincere and preach-free, and even introducing a new component to their art — an album-length film that visually re-imagines the record with a music video for each of the 10 tracks, directed and produced by friends and filmmakers "who dug the band enough to do it for a pittance," Kyp Malone told me when I caught up with the guitarist and co-singer/lyricist by phone a few weeks back. "Because we only had the budget that they were going to sink into two videos."
The idea was originally conceived by lead singer and occasional actor Tunde Adebimpe during the making of 2006's Return to Cookie Mountain, and it was he who helmed the project for Light. Despite the low budget, the resulting vignettes are tastefully done and represent a range of styles and moods over the hour-long jaunt — from Mikey Please's visually stunning claymation in "Second Song," to the retrofied dance choreographed by band friend Desiree Godsell in "No Future Shock," to the virtual reality love story of "Will Do," and the death-and-rebirth story directed by Petro Papahadjopoulos in "Keep Your Heart." The video they shot with Barney Clay for "You" — a cheeky ode to Prince — was Malone's admitted favorite. "To get to riff with the band non-musically was really fun."
Malone is pleased with how they turned out, but not necessarily how they were presented to the public. “It’s funny to me that so many people put that much work into it, into what could effectively be a commercial for the record, and it doesn’t seem like the people who are on the business end of it really know what to do with it. That might sound like a complaint. It kind of is.”
He did give credit where it was due to a few key people at the label “who are really passionate about what they do and really supporters of the band. It’s kind of like, six of one, half dozen of the other.”
The band currently encompasses Adebimpe on hard-hitting lead vocals, haunting falsetto back-up and occasional lead by Malone (guitars, bass, loops), David Sitek (guitars, keys, loops), and Jaleel Bunton, formerly on drums, now inhabiting the rhythmic low-end spot left empty by the loss of beloved bandmate Gerard Smith, who passed away in April from lung cancer. [The band has declined comment on his death beyond a public statement, and I was asked not to bring it up prior to my interview.] This tour, the foursome is joined by two aux players — drummer Jahphet Landis (Bjork, Spank Rock) and trombonist Dave "Smoota" Smith, whose impressive resume includes horn back-up for Phish during their Exile on Main Street set in 2009. On a two-degrees-of-separation note, Phish recently added "Golden Age" to their repertoire of covers.
I asked Malone whether TVOTR has caught any positive backlash by being exposed to Phish fans, most who probably wouldn’t have heard them otherwise. "Oh yeah, definitely, every show I meet people that came because Phish is playing 'Golden Age,'" Malone responded. On the topic of possibly collaborating, he made a good point. "I feel like it's a really big compliment for people to do contemporary covers … and isn’t that sort of a collaboration?"
This article appears in Oct 20-26, 2011.
