New York rock outfit TV on the Radio will be back later this year with their first live shows since 2019 and a 20th anniversary reissue of their debut album, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. The latter is due Nov. 15 from Touch & Go Records and features five bonus tracks, two of which are previously unreleased. The first, a demo for “Bomb Yourself” titled “Final Fantasy,” is out now.
Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes was originally released on March 9, 2004, and quickly introduced TV on the Radio as a fresh voice in independent rock. The album is best known for the single “Staring at the Sun,” which appears on the new edition in demo form along with the extra cuts “New Health Rock,” “Modern Romance” and “Dry Drunk Emperor.”
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“Every single time we made an album, I was like, ‘Maybe that’s all we’re meant to do,’” group member Tunde Adebimpe told SPIN in 2014. “I distinctly remember walking out of the studio with [group member] Kyp [Malone] when we finished Desperate Youth. It was 4 or 5 in the morning, and we looked at each other like, ‘Welp, guess that’s it. We’re gonna have to go back to whatever we were doing before this.’ You learn to appreciate the hell out of the grace periods.”
“Sometimes I listen to our older stuff and feel like we underestimate what it means to have lasting resonance,” group member Jaleel Bunton said in the same interview. “Like, since 1971 till the end of time, in every high school there’s gonna be a group of kids that are like, ‘The Dead! Jimi! Doors!’ For the arc of human existence, that window will always shine on someone’s life. Our music may not be the biggest thing, but someone can always pick it up and know we’re talking soul to soul. A lot of music is good, but it doesn’t do that. It’s just my perspective, but 12-year-old me or 90-year-old me will represent that proudly.”
In celebration of the reissue, Adebimpe, Malone and Bunton will return to the stage for a string of shows at New York’s Webster Hall, Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre and London’s Islington Assembly Hall. Founding member Dave Sitek is not participating for reasons that have not been disclosed.
Here are TV on the Radio’s tour dates:
Nov. 25-26, 29-30: New York (Webster Hall)
Dec. 4-5, 7: Los Angeles (El Rey Theatre)
Dec. 10-12: London (Islington Assembly Hall)
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