Buffalo Girls (TV On The Radio)

Discovered a delicious treat, but this may be the most hipster blog post I ever write. However, it has good intentions. Yesterday, prior to our radio show, my co-dj Kota and I were expressing our love for TV On The Radio. It was in this conversation that Kota broke the news: TV On The Radio's debut self-released album called "OK Calculator". Yes, it is exactly what you think. Yes, it alludes to Radiohead's "OK Computer". Yes it was created in 2002, a whole year prior to their very first major release of "Young Liars EP". Yes, it may be primarily a capella. Yes, it is rare if not impossible to own on hard copy. Yes, thanks to modern day technology and mediafire you and I can now own it. Yes. Yes. and Yes. Not to be hipster, but you kind of have to already know TVOR to appreciate this. Of course, it’s not even remotely polished up, but can you really expect to have it any other way? "OK Calculator" scales pretty much every style they could later go onto incorporate. At times it isn’t shocking that this would be the same band that would create "Dear Science", and at other times it sounds so devoid of any real musical theme that it becomes hard to think of as the band's ‘roots'. Even if that’s not a bad thing, it’s disheartening to think they’ll never pull out these ideas again. Granted, at the same time, it’s a blessing. My friend Sarah suggested the following after Kota told her about this album, "Can we name our future band's first album 'OK Smartphone'?"




"We made this disc OK Calculator and left it in cafes and just different places. Just 24 tracks of four-track stuff. And that's on-line now. We sold a few of them on our first tour, a couple, but then the CD burner broke, etc. That's on-line and someone wrote about it as "the extremely rare but superb OK Calculator" and I’m sitting there going, "Are you kidding me?" Rare, yeah, rare because we're making them ourselves, and superb, that's not up to us, but it's not superb. (laughs) I’d be the first person to tell you. There's more hiss on some of those songs than there are songs. And it's fun, and I love it, but I wouldn't call it superb."
-- Tunde Adebimpe, in a 2004 Downhill Battle interview

Download and Enjoy :)