News

TV on the Radio Takes on Village Voice

Every year, New York's weekly independent paper, the Village Voice, compiles a critical list of the past year's best music titled the Pazz & Jop Poll. Normally, this edition, like every other issue year-round, is skimmed through and forgotten about moments later, but this particular issue is the source of some controversy.

The cover (which can be seen here) features a caricature of Bob Dylan riding on a scooter over Brooklyn's own Kyp Malone, guitarist for the avant-rock collective TV on the Radio. The graphic attempts to playfully illustrate Dylan's latest release winning the top critical spot over TVOTR's Return To Cookie Mountain, but now, some are seeing the cover as racist.

In an open latter to the weekly publication, Martin Perna, saxophonist and flutist for the band, writes, "Looking at this week's cover of the Voice, I see a caricature of Bob Dylan in an electric mobility scooter, running over Kyp Malone, guitarist/vocalist of the band TV on the Radio. The drawing, I imagine, was supposed to comically illustrate Dylan's new record edging out TVOTR's 'Return to Cookie Mountain,' in the paper's 34th Annual Pazz & Jop poll [February 7–13]. This drawing is racist, unfunny, mean-spirited, and inaccurate."

You can see the whole letter here.

--The ARTISTdirect Staff
02.15.07