TV on the Radio give a ‘voice to our time ’

Not afraid to attack Bush
Much of the album is imbued with thoughts on the current state of the world. On the disc’s opener, “I Was a Lover,” Adebimpe and Malone sing in unison: “We’re sleepwalking through this trial/ And it’s really a crime, it’s really a crime, it’s really a crime.”

Last year after Hurricane Katrina, TV on the Radio released the song “Dry Drunk Emperor” free on their Web site. Both vicious and beautiful, it attacked President Bush, urging people to “shut down this hypocrisy.”

On Sept. 14, TV on the Radio kicked off their current tour in New Orleans, an intentionally symbolic opener for the band. Sitek, who grew up in Baltimore, sees government’s failure of cities elsewhere, though: “Everywhere is New Orleans,” he says.

“It feels criminal to me to know what’s going on in our name around this world and to just keep turning up the cognitive dissonance,” says Malone. “And everyone’s doin’ it. I’m not saying we start a militia — I don’t know, cause I don’t really know what to do.”

Shortly after saying this, TV on the Radio will head to Manhattan to perform on the “Late Show with David Letterman,” where they’ll play their blistering new single, “Wolf Like Me.”

Though Adebimpe stops short of raising an army, he spews a fury of passion through his microphone and out through television sets — his eyes closed, his head flayed backward, and his left arm waving spastically.

He sings over and over: “We’re howling forever and ever, oh oh.”

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