BY MIKEY MIGO
Song: Starring at the Sun
Year: 2004
It's a screen of Tunde Adebimpe singing and the band performing with a lot of layering and colors flowing erratically from them. As the song really breaks the band starts to digitally fade/unravel. Korn sorta "borrowed" from them for the "Coming Undone" video from a year or two back. The video is really trippy, but not in a "oh wow! I need shrooms" kind of way. The colors and editing makes it calming, but still very visually appealing. I doubt I'm alone when I say this song is the reason I got into this band.
Rating: 8.5
Song: Dreams
Year: 2004
We start with birds and fading into a beach with imagery of soldiers. We get a very laid back close shots of the band singing and performing. The tone of the song matches the video perfectly. It gives the idea of the song to the viewer, but doesn't spoon feed us the moral of the story. A care free man dances around in the streets as the war goes on and the band performs in a room.
Rating: 8.0
Song: Wolf Like Me
Year: 2006
It starts off with what looks to be an old b-horror movie. A man wakes up from a weird dream and gets in his car and drives away. The band performs in a similar setting as the scratchy/choppy old silent movie look, but with some color still being used. The man ends up going to a TV on the Radio concert and a woman catches his eye. He hooks up with the woman and she "transforms" him under a full moon. They turn into wolves and run wild chasing the concert goers out of the concert. The end sees the man and woman in the woods with a silent film caption that says "…so yea, we're werewolves". Not only do I think this shows off the talents of the band, but also is a really cool video. One of the best of 2006.
Rating: 9.0
Song: Province
Year: 2007
This movie starts off with the name of the song being displayed on the screen as it opens up to a woman singing with the background casually chancing. There is a bird that flies by for all the transitions from scene to scene. A minute and a half into it the woman falls down only to be lifted back up by the band. It's a slower paced song and the video feels even slower. The woman they have singing the lyrics is attractive and does fine, but there's not much more to this one. I appreciate the use of black and white and the simplicity of it, but it kind of leaves you waiting for something to happen even when it's finished. Since David Bowie's vocals are featured in the song, it would have been really cool to see him in this.
Rating: 7.0
Song: Me-I
Year: 2006
This is a "semi-official" video that was done to promote Adult Swim's "Warm and Scratchy" compilation album. I actually really like the video, but not so much the song. The video is chicken running through the forest. It has an old children's program quality with enough "weirdness" mixed in to make it enjoyable. There's stop motion animation and really great use of color in this one. The chicken dances as a sandwich seems to be upset. It's just really bizarre, but keeps your attention.
Rating: 8.0
FINAL RATING: 8.5
I know it's only a few videos (and one "semi official"), but I think the TV on the Radio discography is the perfect example of what a new band should be doing. I'm not saying do exactly what they do, but be creative and less "mainstream" with your videos. It's always the same type of visuals, same type of direction, and same everything. TV on the Radio are artists and you can tell they think "outside the box" when watching these videos. If you have people like David Bowie and Trent Reznor showing you support you're obviously doing something right. Bands take note; create something creative.
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