TV on the Radio: All in the name

(this piece was published by Planet JH Weekly)The formula of art + rock + soul = TV on the Radio—a beacon of light in a tidal wave of bands that don’t fit neatly into any one box. The Brooklyn quartet’s fifth studio album in 2011, Nine Types of Light, hit this listener in all of the best ways, earning a rotation within an ongoing playlist of mine dubbed “Best Albums of the Decade.” The predominantly mid-tempo music is patient, yet wittingly sharp and positive, mixing electronics, indie guitar rock, free jazz, funk, soul and a cappella doo-wop vocals—elements that don’t always jive together with such conciseness. It must also be understood that early TV on the Radio breathes beyond the latter, perhaps using that freedom of experimentation and thus reaching counterpoints: a driving punk rock aesthetic followed by a Brian Wilson-esque softness, while dabbling in a Funkadelic foundation.Opening the show is Nostalghia. “Post-apocalyptic gypsy punk” is the tag that keeps surfacing while jamming Nostalghia’s music, the moniker for California-Iranian native Ciscandra Nostalghia. Ponder primal pop and avant-garde smoldering in an environment in which demons are exorcised and intensity is birthed via a cinema of sound. TV on the Radio with Nostalghia, 9 p.m. Friday at the Pink Garter Theatre. Sold out. PinkGarterTheatre.com.