TV On The Radio: Expect Nothing

By: Dennis Cook

TV on the Radio

“It’s always sad to imagine how long it takes people to get to an idea,” says TV on the Radio bassist Gerard Smith, lamenting how their latest effort, Dear Science (released September 23 on DGC/Interscope) has been called more accessible or poppy. “Some people have said it is happy. And I say, ‘Have you listened to some of these lyrics?’ [laughs]. The things they write about are intense; these are not small things. That’s not to say it’s all these huge, epic epistles but it’s not necessarily happy.”

Faceless fall from this life
If you can’t see the stars
You’ve probably gone too far
Like the voice that cried
On the lonesome tide
Like the wave was the only love
It ever saw

If it seems like there’s more going on in TV on the Radio than initially meets the ear, there is – great heaving buckets of “more” actually. Along with Smith, Tunde Adebimpe (vocals/electronics), David Sitek (guitars/keyboards/electronics), Kyp Malone (vocals/guitars/electronics) and Jaleel Bunton (drums), aided by sundry fellow Brooklynites and fellow travelers like David Bowie and members of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Blonde Redhead, create forceful, very modern music that’s psychedelic and heartfelt in newfangled ways. There isn’t a box built that can fully contain their shapes, and their third full-length only adds further dimensions.

It may be a slight romantic edge, aurally manifested in the new addition of strings and smartly charted horns that makes some people call it ‘pop’ or ‘happy,’ but dig below the glossy top layer and things quickly turn much darker.

Kyp Malone & Tunde Adebimpe

“Both Kyp and Tunde are amazing lyricists. I’ve tried my hand at it and every once in a while I’m okay, at best. They’re really good at what they do. I’m always impressed with how thoughtful and graceful they are. The way it all gels in the end is really fucking impressive. What we do when we pick up instruments is entirely different than the rest of our time together. I’m always impressed that Dave has a philosophy and [am impressed] with the philosophy itself,” says Smith, though he doesn’t elaborate on details of Sitek’s vision, fitting for a band so comfortable with artful obfuscation.

We’re launched into TVOTR’s latest through a rush of new wave gamelan jitter with a calm, clear voice telling us, “The lazy way they turned your head/ Into a rest stop for the dead/ And did it all in gold and blue and grey/ The efforts to allay your dread/ In spite of all you knew and said/ Were hard to see and harder still to say.” Awash in poetic language, sensual sonics and Adebimpe’s absolutely caressing voice, one drops down their rabbit hole with a mercury swiftness. The completeness, the tactile pervasiveness of it all, then grips you for the next 50 minutes. Like the best film auteurs, TV on the Radio draw from our shared world to craft one that is singularly their own. There is no mistaking this band for any other, and try as some might they’re unlikely to emulate them in more than just clumsy, surface ways. The seven-layer-dip-ness of their vision, the colorful, clearly drawn lines that they blur with each bite, each step towards completion, each move towards the aching release within their muse is not a thing that can be reproduced.

“You’re supposed to say, ‘I noticed some new textural changes, and everything seemed bright and happier.’ It’s because our lives are SO much better,” laughs Smith, pointing out the bullet point, herd mentality of much of their press. “I had no plans or interest in becoming a rock star or even a musician. That was never an intention in my life. I went to school for fine arts and found myself getting more and more interested in really great instructors and listening to them discuss theory and criticism. Then to see what some critics say now, just hearing people discuss art who are supposedly in-the-know about it, well, it’s a little depressing.”

The title Dear Science is like the salutation on an open letter to modernity, only missing a comma at the end.

TV on the Radio at Treasure Island ’08 by Vann

“I thought there was supposed to be one but I guess the deal was there was a comet passing by the planet and they needed that piece to help them learn more about it,” says Smith, slipping into non sequitur, something he does several times in the conversation, neurons firing so rapidly it’s impossible to keep up with him, befitting the restless energy that drives this whole band. “You’d imagine a comet is just detritus left over from the Big Bang. If you have this huge explosion, that’s still expanding as we speak, then this is part of that. Wow [laughs]. I’m terrible at math and science but Dave read this thing about these scientists who were doing a study about breaking off a piece of this comet and he wrote a letter to the scientific community as a response.”

This type of amorphous but high-powered musing ripples like shockwaves through TVOTR’s music. One wonders if it’s just a trickster nature that motivates their warped philosophizing or if they might be onto something substantive. The answer lies in the ear of the beholder, but it’s rewarding on some ontological level regardless of intent or outcome. Poking things, one of the tenets of science, can be valuable just for the motion and immediate response.

Continue reading for more with TV on the Radio…

You’re supposed to say, ‘I noticed some new textural changes, and everything seemed bright and happier.’ It’s because our lives are SO much better. –Gerard Smith on the new album

Kyp Malone – TVOTR by Vann

“I hope so. People are gonna try what people are gonna try. For instance, the Hadron Collider. That’s weird shit, and once again, I have no clue about anything; I barely know how to turn my computer on, so you’ll have to excuse me,” says Smith, puncturing the myth that TVOTR is the ultimate 21st century band full of digital wizards. “Really, people think that? I’m still waiting for my flying car [laughs]. I will say they’re lovely people. And you’ll always hear me saying ‘they’ as if I’m not one of them because I always need to maintain this level of separation or division from them as a whole. I was the last to join, the last introduced into the band. I’ve known Dave and Tunde since before they started the band and have always been impressed with what they’ve done. They’ve been working on things for as long as I’ve known them, and I enjoy talking to Dave because he has ideas on music that reflect what I picked up from my little study of art history and criticism. Early on, he really fucking blew my mind talking about directions he hopes music goes in and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah [trails off chuckling].”

It’s actually a wonder TVOTR can offer up some specter of their music live given the organic studio complexity, never more so than on Dear Science, which offers some easier points of entry like “Crying,” but even that toe-tapper still waxes about how “late breaking disasters” are lost amongst “news of the trite.” What they’ve fully figured out this round is how to be charming and playful without losing an inch of their thickness or brains. “Dancing Choose” may be the finest Devo descendent of all-time but the lyrical flow is pure Rakim roaring, “He’s a WHAT? He’s a WHAT?” It’s enough to make you pogo outta your boxers, drowning along with the butterflies in their gasoline splatter. It’s fun and a lil’ sick and altogether irresistible. Their well-tuned internal metronome wisely steers things into the beautiful, string dappled stutter Of “Stork & Owl” next, then out into the Chic-esque mutant disco of “Golden Age,” and thus it continues through peaks and low country, upper atmosphere and Hades depths for the remainder. Dear Science, like Return To Cookie Mountain (2006), is a lively adventure, and one that rewards each turn through its pages.

TV on the Radio by Neil Gavin

“I’m always so scared of that, even though I’ve made my living off being a live performer for x amount of years,” offers Smith on the process of live translation. “Beyond the band, I played in the subway in New York and was able to survive on that for a while. But I’m the last person to go to a live show; I’m the worst in the band, really. I love listening to records. I grew up on Long Island listening to records, and I was a kind of bridge & tunnel kid, so I had to come out to the city and it was such a terrifying experience coming to shows. The amount of madness and weirdness you had to go through just to get to CBGB’s or Maxwell’s was just terrifying.”

“I’m probably one of the worst bass players known to man. No, I really am fucking terrible,” deadpans Smith. “I do a lot of sampling. I like pops and clicks and beeps and bops. A lot of my samples made it onto ‘DLZ,’ which has that cracking sound and hollow, papery floor tom. That was all my design. Though one thing I’m mad at Dave about is he did this really sexy guitar line and he cut it out. He tries to play like he’s not [a great guitarist] because Jaleel is such a shredder. And I’m super noodle-y, more sort of bluegrass-y, sort of country, jazzy. I guess Dave started off as a drummer, then a bass player and just developed through lots of bands.”

If anything, Dear Science is a refinement of what they’ve been doing, which is kind of the way evolutionary beings roll, dropping off the tail in order to accentuate the thumb or an upright stride.

“I played it for this one friend of mine and he said it seemed like a natural progression. I think it’s funny that people bring this up because it always amazed me that there were songs like ‘Wear You Out’ and ‘Dreams’ [both from 2004’s Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes] that were totally out of leftfield for me. I never imagined these guys making these songs even after having known them and slept on their floors since Young Liars [TVOTR’s 2003 debut EP],” says Smith, pointing out the unpredictability at their creative core. “I really don’t know what this band will do. Ever.”

TV on the Radio kick off a massive world tour October 10 in Philly. Tour dates available here…

TV On The Radio – “Dancing Choose”

TV On The Radio – “Golden Age” – Later Live with Jools Holland

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