Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Wolf Like Me (2006)
In the early 2000s, the New York rock scene was happening: the Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, the Walkmen, Interpol. Perhaps the best of the bands that emerged was TV on the Radio, founded by singer Tunde Adebimpe and guitarist-producer Dave Sitek. The band combined a lot of different influences, from Bad Brains to Pixies to Brian Eno to Wire, and played many different styles from art rock to shoegaze to post punk. And they kicked absolute ass live.
After an excellent debut EP and first album, the band released Return to Cookie Mountain in July 2006, which represented the band at its peak. There were plenty of guests on the album, including David Bowie, but this was a tour de force for TVOTR. Adebimpe and co-lead singer Kyp Malone were able to harness something haunting and primal in their harmonies while Sitek creates a multifaceted musical wall behind them full of a dense collection of sounds and layers. It's pretty intense stuff.
The absolute peak, however, was the brilliant "Wolf Like Me." Originally pegged to lead off the album (as a leaked early version had it), the song was pushed down to the #5 slot because honestly, it's so good everything else might have felt like a letdown. Instead, the album builds up to it, and then BOOM! "Wolf Like Me" launches in like a whirlwind, grabs you by the throat and never lets up.
"Got a curse I cannot lift/Shines when the sunset shifts/When the moon is round and full/Gotta bust that box, gotta gut that fish."
It's one of those songs that just gets you amped up from the get-go. I've never seen TVOTR live in person, but I'm sure when they played it, the crowd went nuts. I've watched a few live versions and Adebimpe's vocals ride above the din, even as the band flails away behind him. A tale of a werewolf/lothario, it's just an exhilarating experience. And the live performance they did on Letterman (see below) just amps it up even more. Incredible. Also, I witnessed Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers do a cool cover of the song when they toured that year (also below).
Return to Cookie Mountain was rightfully lauded by critics; SPIN named it their album of the year for 2006 and many other outlets put it in their top 10.
Sadly, the band hasn't been active in close to a decade. Bassist Gerard Smith died in 2011 after losing a battle with lung cancer. They released three more excellent albums, the last one being Seeds in 2014. But after a tour in the summer of 2015, it's been radio silence from TVOTR. Hopefully, they'll reunite someday. Until then, crank up "Wolf Like Me."
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