TV on the Radio

TV on the Radio was formed in New York in 2001. The initial lineup featured a vocalist Tunde Adebimpe, guitarist and keyboardist David Sitek, drummer Jaleel Bunton, guitarist and back vocalist Kyp Malone and bassist Gerard Smith. The founder of the group is David Sitek, who is also a producer.

The band works with different genres, such as trip-hop, soul, post-punk, indie-rock, and electronic music.

In 2002, TV on the Radio released its demo-album, OK Calculator. Musicians used their own money to fund the demo. They did an excellent job with the album and got an offer to sign two contracts. The first one was with an American label, Touch And Go. They went on to collaborate with a British label, 4 AD.

Two years later, the band released its debut album, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, which brought the group a prestigious award, Shortlist Music Prize. Even though the album didn’t make it into American charts, it climbed to the 175th spot of the UK Albums Chart and appeared on a French chart. Many organizers started trying to book TV on the Radio for private events.

In 2006, the band released its second LP, Return to Cookie Mountain. It earned positive reviews from the critics at Pitchfork Media. In the USA and Canada, the album was released with the assistance of Interscope label. To record it, the group invited such artists as David Bowie, Omega Moon, Celebration, Dragons of Zynth, and Blonde Redhead. To promote the album, the group performed the single "Wolf Like Me" on the late-night talk show, Late Show With David Letterman. That episode of the show collected over 2 million views on YouTube.

In the fall of 2008, TV on the Radio released its third LP, Dear Science. It was available for download at the band’s official page on Myspace. According to such popular magazines as Rolling Stone, Spin, The A.V. Club, MTV, and Entertainment Weekly, the LP deserved the title of the album of the year. It reached the 12th spot on Billboard 200.

In February 2011, the group announced the end of the hiatus. The musicians presented their fans the long-awaited fourth LP, Nine Types of Light. Soon, the label released a musical documentary about the group, which featured music videos for their songs and other material, such as interviews. Tunde helped direct the film.

In the spring of 2011, media found out that Gerard Smith had lung cancer. A month after the announcement, the bassist died. The information appeared on the band’s official website.

Two years later, TV on the Radio performed at a music festival, All Tomorrow's Party, in the UK. For the first time, they played the song “Mercy”.

In 2013, the band told fans on Facebook about its plans to record a new album called Seeds. It eventually came out at the end of 2014 and climbed to the 22nd spot of Billboard 200. Next year, the artists performed at Boston Calling Music and Shaky Knees Festivals. In the summer, they went on a tour of North America to promote the latest album.

TV on the Radio recorded numerous soundtracks for video games. For example, its song "The New Health Rock" appeared in Driver: Parallel Lines and Juiced. The song “Wolf Like Me” was played in Need for Speed: ProStreet, One Tree Hill and Driver: San Francisco. The band’s songs also appeared in such TV series as Breaking Bad, Blacklist, and Vampire Diaries.