Some members of an art scene, once it has become the subject of myth, make a habit of downplaying its reputed virtues, usually for reasons of mercy, modesty, or self-preservation. But the turn-of-the-century Brooklyn rockers TV on the Radio won’t sugarcoat it: Things really were better back then.
“It was better,” said the multi-instrumentalist Jaleel Bunton, 50, over dinner in Greenpoint last week, without even a moment’s hesitation.
“It was way better than this,” the singer and songwriter Tunde Adebimpe, 49, concurred. “Not going to lie.”
At the time, starting a scrappy rock band in nearby Williamsburg, where Bunton and the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kyp Malone, 51, have lived since the Bloomberg era, was the practical thing to do. (Adebimpe, a former resident, moved to Los Angeles in 2014.) Hermès and Chanel had not yet set up shop, and artists of all sorts took advantage of the neighborhood’s cheap rent and feckless enforcement of the building code.
While the band was making its first album, “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes,” (which was recently rereleased in a special 20th anniversary edition and is the focus of a new run of live shows — the band’s first in five years), neighbors included the fellow indie-rock idols Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Grizzly Bear. It was still possible to go from your apartment to your barista job to your rehearsal space to your gig at one of several thriving D.I.Y. music venues without ever getting on the train.
