In the world of indie rock, where buzz bands tend to come hard and fast but often lack staying power, Brooklyn-based TV on the Radio burst into the scene faster than most with 2003’s flawless Young Liars EP. With the release of their debut LP, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, earlier this month, TVOTR have managed to expand their sound impressively and maintain the energy, power and beauty of their EP.
Lead guitarist and back-up singer Kyp Malone joined the group after the release of Young Liars, having first worked with producer/band member David Andrew Sitek on a songwriting competition. Malone describes this early collaboration as “really easy, and [it was] really fun to work with him.” Near the same time, Sitek gave Malone a rough mix of the phenomenal Young Liars’ single “Staring at the Sun,” which Malone said, “blew my mind, really still does.”
The inclusion of the new member clearly affected the collaborative nature of the song-writing process. Desperate Youth has a far grittier sound, the grooves seem deeper, and the lyrics are more personal and compelling, but Malone does not credit himself with the change in the band’s sound. In fact, he said there was initially fear that, “I would make it too weird, if I had my way.”
TVOTR’s music is an intricately crafted and often bizarrely gorgeous mix of rock, funk, post-punk, and barbershop. Lead singer Adebimpe’s deep, black-soul baritone is a breath of fresh air in the modern rock world, and Malone’s tenor adds a new aspect to the vocal harmonies, expanding beyond the multi-tracking used on Young Liars.
The first question that came to mind was how the music that TVOTR creates on their records would translate to the live atmosphere. Malone focused more on the strength of the songs themselves, saying, “a song is a song. If a song is good, I could hum a bass line or Tunde could hum a bass line, and Dave could beatbox, and one of us could sing a melody and if the song is solid, it’s gonna come through … Sometimes we try to capture live what we created in the studio, but we’re not really stuck to that. A lot of what we’re doing now is a lot more rock-sounding.”
This change in the sound is especially helped along by the inclusion of two additional touring members. Malone favors this new set-up, saying that the five member approach is “a hundred times more fulfilling for me with this lineup than we were just trying to go off of [the three of us] … it was fun but it was relying on machines. There’s just a lot more flexibility.”
They have been touring with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and will be playing with the Panthers for the next leg of their tour. Malone was especially pleased to be on the road with the former, with whom TVOTR have been widely associated because of Sitek’s producing their debut LP Fever to Tell, and Adebimpe’s direction of their music video for “Pins.” Of course, TVOTR have all the markings of a group that could be just as good live.
TV on the Radio will play at the Black Cat backstage, on Mar. 29. The Black Cat is located at 1811 14th St., N.W.
