Oh My Rockness

Brooklyn's TV on the Radio combine punk, jazz, and electronic knob-twiddling in a post-something sort of way to create booming, danceable songs. When they aren't playing gigs, the members of TV on the Radio are anything but bored. Vocalist Tunde Adebimpe is a stop-motion animation expert and a painter. Multi-instrumentalist David Andrew Sitek recorded the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Machine EP, as well as their full length Fever to Tell. And, not to be outdone by Adebimpe, Sitek's a painter, too.

Sounding unlike anything on the Touch and Go roster, TV on the Radio are sometimes compared to Talking Heads but I think Adebimpe's voice kind of sounds like Ozzy Osbourne. How's that for versatility? The truth is that TV on the Radio sounds only like itself. Recently playing a show at Warsaw with buds Liars and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio played what I thought was the strongest set of the three.

The buzz is all around them and thankfully it looks as though Adebimpe and Sitek will have to take a cue from Tony Bennett and henceforth be known as "musicians who also paint" and not vice versa.

Published 04/23/09