TV on the Radio

Genres: Indie  
Styles: Indie Rock  

BIO

Formed:2001 Origin:New York City Years Active:00’s Genre(s):Indie  Style(s):Indie Rock  Members:Tunde Adebimpe, Kyp Malone, David Andrew Sitek, Jaleel Bunton, Gerard Smith Other projects of members: Website:

TV On The Radio is a New York City experimental rock band formed in 2001 whose music spans genres as diverse as post-punk, free jazz, soul, and electro. The core members of the band, vocalist Tunde Adebimpe and multi-instrumentalist/producer David Andrew Sitek, are both visual artists as well as musicians. Adebimpe is a graduate of NYU's film school and specializes in stop-motion animation, which his video for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs single Pin demonstrates amply. He is also a painter, as is Sitek. The duo met when Sitek moved into the building where Adebimpe had a loft; each of them had been recording music on his own, but realized their sounds would work well together. Sitek's brother Jason began playing drums and other instruments with the pair during their recording sessions. They debuted with a self-recorded album OK Calculator, a response to Radiohead’s OK Computer, but blossomed with the EP Young Liars , featuring Yeah Yeah Yeahs' members Brian Chase and Nick Zinner.

Adding guitarist and vocalist Kyp Malone, they produced Desperate Youth Blood Thirsty Babes (2004), a stylistically ambiguous album, yet featuring their own way of understanding and making music. The young musicians fused futuristic sound of electronica, pop nostalgic notes and punk energy. With their unexpected blend of trends from progressive-rock to gospel, TV On The Radio symbolized the opening of the 21st century music. They were the ones to dare load one album with the songs having so little in common, and unite them under the unique style, yet unnamed. This album earned them the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize. In 2005, the band kept busy with touring and returned to Sitek's Stay Gold studio to work on their second album. They also made an MP3 criticizing President George W. Bush, Dry Drunk Emperor, available on their website.

In summer 2006, TV On The Radio resurfaced with Return to Cookie Mountain, a more polished but still searching collection of songs. TV On The Radio found a way to make vocals and guitars relevant again in the age of electronic and digital arrangements. David Andrew Sitek went in for producing the likes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars and Scarlett Johansson. Their freshest album, Dear Science (2008), revealed the most postmodernist side of TV On The Radio. This time, they used the broadest variety of samples and arrangements with unpredictable vocal parts. It is evident that with each new album, the musicians are trying to embrace as many trends as possible creating, at the same time, an integral and emotional piece of music art. However, it is becoming clearer and clearer, that the most impressive instrument they owe is Tunde Adebimpe's voice. The talent and originality of TV On The Radio’s musicians were recognized by David Bowie himself, as he made a decision to do the back-vocals for the song Province included in their second album, Return to Cookie Mountain.