I really love hearing stories about bands whose members had day jobs and did music on the side – until their music became their day job. This is what up and coming band, TV Girl, did and I don’t see them reverting back to their day jobs any time soon. The band is comprised of vocalist Brad Petering and keyboardist/guitarist/vocalists Trung Ngo and Joel Williams. While growing up together they had participated in small music projects, but their major music attempt is TV Girl. They have previously released mix-tapes and their first official album is called Lonely Woman.
Their music feels like easy listening with a garage band touch – and a little pop thrown in. However, they add a unique, urban touch by sampling the likes of Todd Rundgren, Bob Dylan and Tracy Chapman. In this sense, their style is vaguely reminiscent of JJ, who take modern rap songs and create songs like this or this. TV Girl do something similar, albeit with a garage band touch, while sharing the chill vibes that both bands produce. Honestly, their sampling it good but doesn’t produce anything special, the way JJ does. That being said, their original songs are really great and if they keep producing these then I’d be surprised if they remain as unknown as they seem to be!
If you’re just getting acquainted with TV Girl, I recommend starting with their mix-tape from 2012, The Wild, The Innocent, the TV. My favorites from this include “Loud and Clear”, which is a catchy summer tune featuring some of my favorite TV Girl lyrics, “Look at us now, aren’t we all so fabulously clever? - Don’t we all just have such witty things to say - Have you noticed how it all just blends together - And melts away?”. It also features “Sweaters” which is short and sweet and “I Wonder Who She’s Kissing Now” is a perfectly uplifting vintage pop song.
I’ve said this before, but I have a tendency to be hugely biased towards songs that mention my name. Regardless of this mention, “Sarah (Meet Me in The Sauna)” is a great song and really demonstrates the merging of their vintage pop influence with their garage band style.
Their newest release was on June 18th, entitled Lonely Woman. Unsurprisingly, each song is about girls and features the increasingly recognizable, intentionally lazy sounding vocals of their previous work. I really like the first of five songs on the album, “She Smokes in Bed”. The light-hearted tone of the song is quite facetious as the lyrics depict the slow demise of an insecure woman. The next song, “Laura” reminds me of Matt & Kim with its singsong melody. “My Girlfriend” has been on repeat while I’ve been writing this. It tackles the depression of the narrator’s girlfriend with that facetious humor that TV Girl likes to use “My girlfriend – always leaves a mess – she says she’s going to clean – but she always forgets”. “Easier to Cry” continues with their dark tone and lonely themes and explains how crying is a favorable alternative to suicide, purely based on its lack of difficulty! The final story discusses the very replaceable “Melanie” and portrays her anonymity by comparing her to a myriad of women with ordinary names (Stephanie, Jane, Amy, Emily, etc.).
What’s really standout about TV Girl is, to me, the mixture of complex lyrics with happy-go-lucky melodies. This is most apparent on Lonely Woman, which obviously implies that the band will be heading in this direction in the future. I would recommend listening to the songs here, as you have the option to open the lyrics while listening. I say this particularly with TV Girl because the deceiving melodies make it easy to overlook the serious content of the lyrics. Also, the lyrics are very clever and well written, which makes this band so special compared to the endless new indie bands out there today! Seriously, this band is awesome - check them out!
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