so why dont you like tv on the radio?

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i dont get the ILX hate on these guys.

― ppp, Monday, 31 January 2005 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

PEARL JAM 3000

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Monday, 31 January 2005 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Shit, I had a better afro when I was 18.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Monday, 31 January 2005 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

― greg ginn though neubauten was bullshit, why don't you? (smile), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

That guy's hair bugs me.....but not as much as the guy in Coheed and Cambria's does.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

The only thing i've heard by TV on the Radio had something to do with "robots fucking." I laughed until I stopped.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

They rhymed "remember" with "December"

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

they don't write good songs

― Magic City (ano ano), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I like them. I've only heard a couple songs. But they haven't written that many, have they? It seems to me that whatever direction they go in next might prove to be really original & interesting whereas most new bands I hear are not even trying not to sound like Cure/Joy Division/Smiths/etc.

― daria g (daria g), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Rock Afros: TV on the Radio guy vs. Mars Volta guy, FITE!

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Peter Gabriel, whose early/mid '80s music they vaguely sound like, was way "funkier" and more "soulful." (And Peter Gabriel really wasn't all that funky or soulful in the first place.)

― chuck, Monday, 31 January 2005 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

BOOOOOOORING

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

although i do like "staring at the sun"

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

are they even trying to be funky or soulful?
i heard one track, "ambulance" which was almost good, and made me want to hear more by them, so i found another track which sucked so bad that i decided i didn't want to hear anything else by them. the sucky track reminded me of nickelback.

― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i hate them because Young Liars was sooooooo good and Desperate Youth was just an absolute letdown. NOTHING on that album comes close to any of the 5 EP songs. even the EP version of "Staring at the Sun" is better than the album cut.

"New Health Rock" is a pretty good song, though... good beat

― lemin (lemin), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

i think most people on ILM like them tho

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

i mean, i'm for what they're doing in theory, but that album just sucked!

― lemin (lemin), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

and to top it all off, they go and with the fucking shortlist for it!

the nerve...

― lemin (lemin), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

*win, obviously

― lemin (lemin), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

They rhymed "remember" with "December"
The Cure did that a lot, too.

I can't decide whether I like them or not...with everything I find appealing something else comes up unconsciously that detracts from my enjoyment of it, and I can't figure out why that's so.

― Ian Riese-Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

>are they even trying to be funky or soulful?<

I have no idea (and neither, I would assume, do all the people who claim they're funky or soulful.) I don't know what difference their intentions make, when just about every review written about them claims their alleged funk and/or soulfulness is a major part of what's supposed to be good about them. Though I suppose it's not right to blame the band that they apparently have a lot of fans who never saw a band with Afros in it before. That still doesn't make the band's music any less boring, though.

― chuck, Monday, 31 January 2005 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I quite like a handful of their songs and agree the album was a bit of a letdown.

I have never understood this Peter Gabriel comparison AT ALL, though.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think they're "funky" at all; the "soul" line is a bit of a canard, I think, or at least just lazy, because they're black and they harmonize. But I do think that the obvious doo-wop influence (whether that's "soulful" or not) is interesting in the context of the music.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I concur.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

What doowop are obviously influenced by?? I don't hear that, either...They just basically sound like an art-rock band. (Though on the other hand, I suppose "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" was sort of influenced by the Drifters, in a way.)

― chuck, Monday, 31 January 2005 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

to be fair to TVOTR, i read an interview they did with kings magazine, and they said they have no idea what people are hearing either when critics and fans all talk about them sounding soulful and funky etc etc.

― ppp, Monday, 31 January 2005 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Dude, they do doo-wop-harmony Pixies covers and shit! Which have been modernized out of having much of the swing or feel or doo-wop, but the description isn't so far off. And if too much gets made of that, it's just because indie-rock vocals are so uniformly pinched and pushing in certain directions that a deviation like this one seems as falsely-significant as a punk band with an opera singer. That and, as has been mentioned, a couple of them are black, and so feature-type writers have to turn them into indie-soul pioneers or something.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 31 January 2005 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Saw them opening for the Pixies, and liked "Staring at the Sun" but much of the rest is psychedelimush.

The bass player facing away from the audience is an interesting gimmick. Agreed that the novelty of negritude is involved in their critical reception. I can't think of many black people who are as rock-oriented (Living Colour? Ben Harper?). But then, what do I know?

― The Mad Puffin, Monday, 31 January 2005 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I mean, it's doo-wop without the swing, but with the same big, open harmonies. (And there's that one tune where one of the voices approximates a walking bassline.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 31 January 2005 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I think there are a few like that. And I'm not sure it's the "novelty of negritude" that's in action, or not in that way. I think it's kind of the opposite, insofar as most writers would feel very strange saying, umm, so they're totally an indie-rock band, but they sing kinda like black people? And groping to put the particular not-as-indie quality of their vocalizing leads us to "soulful" and "funky" and other crap untrue ways of pointing out that yeah, they have some level of what people consider "black" voices, and like to sing in streetcorner harmonies.

As opposed to the singer from Bloc Party, who just sings like the guy from Adorable, or Colin Hay.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 31 January 2005 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

they don't write good songs

Bingo.

I like that one song that sounds like Suicide, though. The rest is zzzzzville.

― Matthew "Flux" Perpetua, Monday, 31 January 2005 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Wot Mr. Flux said. Just puts me to sleep. I'm glad the attention has helped get Apollo Heights more attention in turn, but that's about it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 31 January 2005 20:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I really liked the album for a while, having heard it before the ep. I'd just kind of put it on while working and not pay attention. Then I realized that I was just skipping to the two or three songs that I liked, which was mostly repeating Staring at the Sun. Then I determined that the ep version was better so I listened to the ep. Then I realized that the ep wasn't that awesome either, and now I haven't listened to anything by them for a couple months. Staring at the Sun is kind of neat, though.

― mike h. (mike h.), Monday, 31 January 2005 22:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I've listened to "New Health Rock" more than anything on the album lately.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 31 January 2005 23:01 (twenty-one years ago)

this post reads like typical post-hipsterish self-satisfied 'ha! i am proudly resisting the hype because i know better than these trendy fuckers and my level of musical sophistication far outstrips this lowly trio' smugness.

― triplebill, Monday, 31 January 2005 23:10 (twenty-one years ago)

The Young Liars ep is pretty good. Like some have said previously, their album was a major letdown -- very dull. Although, the New Health Rock song is alright. They should just stick to releasing eps.

― buck van smack (Buck Van Smack), Monday, 31 January 2005 23:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been listening to them a lot lately. The album is ballad heavy but I enjoy it in a very Cocteau Twins way. Makes sense to me that they're on 4AD. Like all that stuff, its very easy to make it sounds stupid if you look at it harshly. Possibly every positive review I've read blows.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 31 January 2005 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)

"New Health Rock" makes me excited to see what they'll do with a real drummer and all that. I caught the end of their Siren Festival set and wish I'd caught the rest (though the singer seems like a tool and you don't want to pay attention to the lyrics too much - see 4ad reference).

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 31 January 2005 23:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I think a lot of the hate comes from people reading reviews and saying "this isn't as cool as what they're saying it is would be." My initial reaction was negative cuz the singer actually SOUNDED like Corey Glover when I first heard them, but I got past that stuff and just enjoyed it as dreamy dronage.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 31 January 2005 23:26 (twenty-one years ago)

is the version of staring at the sun on the album even a different recording than the EP except for the spanish tv/radio/movie sample at the start?
i like them, album not as good as EP, people use 'funky' and 'soulful' because they're black, etc. etc.

― La Monte (La Monte), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

no, it's the same song with the sample and like 20 seconds of a capella vocal cutup. the song is just better structured with it.

personally, i don't understand why "Staring At the Sun" is singled out as being worthy of so much love. it seems so forced after "Satellite". worst song on the EP by far.

― lemin (lemin), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 03:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not really a fan for many of the reazzzzons mentioned, but I get the feeling that they might still do something in the future that I really like.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 03:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I have only heard them one time and that was when they opened for the Pixies recently in NYC at the Hammerstein...I didn't like most of it but I did like the last song, because it was compltely unlike the ones that preceded it. That's all I remember.

― shookout (shookout), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 04:40 (twenty-one years ago)

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