TV on the Radio is an American indie rock band formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, … Read Full Bio ↴TV on the Radio is an American indie rock band formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, New York.

The group has released several EPs including their debut Young Liars (2003), and five studio albums: Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (2004), Return to Cookie Mountain (2006), Dear Science (2008), Nine Types of Light (2011), and Seeds (2014).

For most of the band's existence, the core TV on the Radio lineup has been Tunde Adebimpe (vocals/loops), David Andrew Sitek (guitars/keyboards/loops), Kyp Malone (vocals/guitars/bass/loops), Jaleel Bunton (drums/vocals/loops/guitars) and Gerard Smith (bass/keyboards) as official members.

The band's Bio from their website:
TV on the Radio gets to do anything. Like a small platoon whose pleasing impenetrability is their core, the band consistently confounds expectations while managing to balance respect from critics and peers alike. The result is TV on the Radio gets to do anything they want. This freedom is their engine.

“It’s about doing what feels right,” says singer Tunde Adebimpe. “I really feel like this band is something that is expansive and always changing and growing. If we wear our influences on our sleeve, it’s a pretty crowded sleeve.”

It’s no different with Seeds, the new and fifth proper studio album that Adebimpe has made along with Jaleel Bunton, Kyp Malone, and David Andrew Sitek (who also produced it). Having long outlasted that early 2000s fascination with all things Brooklyn to which the hip willfully succumbed, they continue to conquer music on their own terms. This album serves as another step in continuing to heed their reputation as “the most vital, current band in America” (Associated Press).

This go-round the songs are immediate and triumphant, textured with storytelling hooks and possibly the most honest music this band has ever composed. They’ve hit a point where they’re OK being straight-up beautiful without having to manipulate prettiness into whatever unforeseen shape.

Slate says Seeds has “TV on the Radio’s best songs in years. They are sounding sharper than ever.” And the band knows it. Adebimpe has already said this is the band’s best record. Not a boast, just an observation.

“I feel like I knew it before we were done,” he says immediately. “I was so excited by the songs while we were making them, I wanted to get more and more and more into it. The general feeling going into it was, 'We're still here. Our friendship with each other is so strong. Being in a band, at its best times, is like being... well, let’s say whenever things are going really well, we're like ‘cool, Voltron's back together.’“

The TV on the Radio guys are the type of people who go on hiatus and focus on music. They may take time between albums for their other endeavors, but they know when it’s right to come together – especially when the music comes as easily and passionately as it did with case Seeds. The band found themselves collected in David Sitek’s Los Angeles studio last year and recorded a couple of songs – “Mercy” and “Million Miles” and didn’t want to stop.

“Those were just songs that we wrote because we hadn't written songs together in a while,” says Sitek “They came out really fast and inspired us to do it again – and then ‘again’ turned into the record.”

Adebimpe and Sitek live in Los Angeles, Bunton and Malone reside in New York, but make no mistake: TV on the Radio is a quartet. To attempt to parse out exactly what each member does in the group would be to dismantle the fundamental essence of what makes TV on the Radio the monolithic anomaly they have been careful to cultivate and protect for more than a decade. They permeate beyond a wall of sound, and instead create a planetarium of music with every song. They embody many voices. Most of them can play just about anything. And sing too. They are equal partners in the creation of a type of noise that appeared seemingly out of nowhere over 10 years ago.

Throughout the years, TV on the Radio has been consistent in the standard they set for themselves. Earlier records, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes and Return To Cookie Mountain stole the hearts of fans and critics alike just the same, winning the Shortlist Music Prize and Spin's Album of the Year respectively. Their breakout release Dear Science was named best album of 2008 by Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Spin Magazine, The New York Times, The Onion AV Club, MTV, even Entertainment Weekly. An embarrassment of riches, really. Their last album, 2011's Nine Types of Light, was deemed "pure heaven" by the cherubs at Rolling Stone, and earned the band a Grammy® nomination. The band has also graced the stages of Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report.

“The band is it’s own ‘self.’ It has to be that way,” Adebimpe says. “That's been the goal for a long time. Nobody really wants to be the focal point for the band; the band should be the focal point. Not even the band: the music. We can show up and take credit for it, but ultimately it's something that maybe we helped shape and facilitate coming into the world. But that’s all.”

They happily recruit likeminded associates to help prop up this invention of theirs in the studio and on stage. (Kelis, for instance, appears on “Lazzeray”). The band has recorded and performed with other artists who’ve conquered the music world on their own terms just as much as they have. Fellow mavericks like Trent Reznor, Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs fame, Bauhaus singer Peter Murphy, Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead, Martin Perna of Antibalas, Katrina Ford of Celebration, and David chuffing Bowie have all romped in the sandbox with TV on the Radio.

“If you share a material thing, it dissipates,” Adebimpe says, recalling a fragment of philosophy he once heard, or might be improvising on the spot. “If you share a spiritual thing, it just increases. It becomes more and more and more. I'm already thinking about the next record.”

Seeds is an expression of everything this band has been through in the last three years and more. They’re influential, in their prime, they’re TV on the Radio, and they’ve proven themselves to be one of the most important bands of this generation. It clicks, as it always does, and TV on the Radio is brand new again, again.

“No matter what you go through individually and collectively, when you step away from each other, you're kind of like, "I know that if we get together we can fire this thing," says Adebimpe. “It's definitely in the spirit of the punk rock we all grew up with. If you win, you're still a punk. If you lose, you're still a punk, and honestly, it's not about anybody else.”

http://www.tvontheradio.com/

Forgotten
TV on the Radio Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Beverly Hills, burning of plastic
Scraped it away, I do, I may
For the summer
For the summer

Here goes your man, dances the hourly
Cape land to colors rolling through the valley
For the summer

For the summer

Hold tight, horizon minds
It's writing its name in the sky
It's paradise
We fade away into the night

Beverly Hills, nuclear winter
What should we wear and who's for dinner?
In the summer
For the summer

Hold tight, our love will fade out
It's writing its name in the sky
And I'll stop and stare
We'll fade away into the night

It's paradise
For now we go under the knife
For one time, oh, some doctors
Divided by night time

Let's do it for the summer, send for the sunrise
Let's do it for the summer, send for the sunrise

Let's do it for the summer, send for the sunrise
Let's do it for the summer, send for the sunrise

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of the song "Forgotten" by TV on the Radio are open to interpretation, but they seem to convey a sense of desperation and anxiety in the face of an uncertain future. The first verse mentions Beverly Hills burning plastic, which could be a reference to environmental degradation and the careless waste of resources. The singer seems to be trying to scrape away the damage and make the most of the fleeting "summer" before it's too late.

The second verse introduces a new character, "your man," who is dancing and exploring the vibrant landscape of "cape land" in search of something. The chorus repeats a mantra to "hold tight" and cherish the moment as the horizon writes its name in the sky. There's a sense of urgency and impermanence to the lyrics, as if the characters are aware that their time is limited and they must make the most of their brief existence.

The third verse takes a darker turn, with a reference to "nuclear winter" and the question of what to wear and who to invite to dinner in such an apocalyptic scenario. The chorus repeats, emphasizing the idea that love and life itself will inevitably fade away into the night. The final lines speak of going under the knife and being "divided by night time," suggesting a sense of separation and fragmentation that may be physical or emotional.

Overall, the song seems to be a meditation on the fleeting nature of life and the sense of loss and despair that can come with that realization. The characters are trying to seize the moment and find meaning in a world that seems to be crumbling around them.

Line by Line Meaning

Beverly Hills, burning of plastic
The luxurious place of Beverly Hills is experiencing an ecological crisis with the burning of plastic waste.

Scraped it away, I do, I may
The singer acknowledges the problem and tries to fix it by removing the waste.

For the summer
The motivation for cleaning up the area is because of the upcoming summer season.

Here goes your man, dances the hourly
A man is dancing through the Cape land (cape-colored hillside) as time passes by.

Cape land to colors rolling through the valley
The colors of the Cape land (hillside) are smoothly transitions to the valley.

Hold tight, horizon minds
The singer urges the listener to pay attention to their surroundings, particularly the changing horizon.

It's writing its name in the sky
The beauty of the sky and changing horizon becomes a work of art in itself.

It's paradise
The overall beauty of the scene makes it seem like it is paradise.

We fade away into the night
The peaceful and serene atmosphere of the scenery eventually fades as the night falls.

Beverly Hills, nuclear winter
The song switches to a different tone, portraying a catastrophic scenario of a nuclear winter occurring in Beverly Hills.

What should we wear and who's for dinner?
The line is mocking the shallowness of the lifestyle in Beverly Hills even in the face of extreme circumstances like a nuclear winter.

Hold tight, our love will fade out
The artist recognizes that their love for each other is fleeting and will eventually come to an end.

And I'll stop and stare
The singer will try to savor the moment and soak up every bit of the remaining time.

Let's do it for the summer, send for the sunrise
The song ends on a hopeful note, encouraging listeners to continue to fight for the Earth, just like they did for the summer season, and anticipate the rise of the sun once again.

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave
Written by: BABATUNDE OMOROGA ADEBIMPE, DAVID ANDREW SITEK, DAVID KYP JOEL MALONE, JALEEL BUNTON, GERARD ANTHONY SMITH

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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