TV ON THE RADIO'S GERARD SMITH LOSES BATTLE WITH CANCER April 23, 2011
I wish I had something profound to say right now, but I'm just at a loss. Nine Types of Light, the new album by the Brooklyn band TV On the Radio has been in heavy rotation on my playlist for weeks now. I wrote about and have been foisting it on friends, acquaintances, and, well, anyone who will listen ever since. First saw the band at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago a few years ago, playing a late-night party that I won't soon forgot. Wrote about their great 2006 album Return To Cookie Mountain and it's still a favorite, as is their 2008 disc Dear Science. I knew Gerard Smith, a multi-instrumentalist in the band, had been battling cancer. But I was not expecting to wake up this morning to discover that he has passed on. There's a tersely worded statement on the the TVOTR website (http://www.tvontheradio.com/splash/) — "We are very sad to announce the death of our beloved friend and bandmate, Gerard Smith, following a courageous fight against lung cancer. Gerard passed away the morning of April 20th, 2011. We will miss him terribly." (Apparently, I'm not the only one at a loss for words.) It's just really unfortunate and, while I never had the opportunity to meet Smith, I am saddened by the news.
There is a full-length video movie of Night Types of Light that you can watch right here:
And back in 2006, I had this to say about Return To Cookie Mountain:
KINKY: If it weren’t on Interscope, Return to Cookie Mountain would probably be the indie album of the year.
Fearful that a major-label deal has ironed the kinks out of this Brooklyn-based collective? Not to worry. Singer Tunde Adebimpe and multi-instrumental partner David Andrew Sitek have used the extra cash to refine their electro-organic complexity and take their electro-punk to a new level of sophistication. The core band add visceral live drums to the programmed beats, deep-bottomed bass to the grooves, and everything from flute and cello to an already eclectic soundscape that changes texture without warning, moving from soulful to sad, ominous to angry, and discordant to dreamy. Adebimpe has a voice as malleable as Sitek’s sonic palette, and he’s as comfortable delivering his impressionistic lyrics in a deep, haunted croon that often brings to mind Peter Gabriel as he is layering falsetto harmonies with an almost choirlike effect. Indeed, when David Bowie’s voice first emerges on the duet “Province,” it’s easy enough to mistake it for just another of Adebimpe’s many guises. If it weren’t on Interscope, Return to Cookie Mountain would probably be the indie album of the year. Experimental without sacrificing anything in terms of hooks or melody, passionate yet never overbearing, and clever without giving in to the urge to indulge, it places TV on the Radio on a plane with no peers. There’s so much to take in that the lyrics might not resonate immediately. “I was a lover before this war” is all Adebimpe says in “I Was a Lover”; the rest of the song’s anti-war sentiment is written into his tone.
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