Album of the Year: TV on the Radio

Photographs by Nicolas Moore

MALONE: We were all raised during the Cold War to believe the bomb was gonna fucking fall on us. It wears out your panic button.

SMITH: During Y2K, I was living with my mom, and she was like, "Do you know how many times the world's been supposed to end since I was born?"

SITEK: We all saw [the 1983 post-nuke movie] The Day After. I remember my guidance counselor talking to me about the future, and him arguing with me about making plans for the future and acting responsibly. I'm like, "All I hear is death, death, death, death, death. I'm not even going to make it to 18, so I'm not gonna waste any time thinking about it."

MALONE: I dunno. Life has proven to be a lot longer than I anticipated.<?p>

SMITH: There is a difference between the apocalyptic threat [in movies on TV] and dumb-ass leaders with nuclear weapons. A team of dragons are going to kill the world? Maybe not. That dumb-ass who's trying to prove something to his dad? Maybe.

SITEK: It's like Paul's letter to the Galatians: You're sitting on the roof waiting for God to come, and in the meantime, you should be tending to your field or whatever. [People say,] "Well, if we all band together..." That is a giant if. In fact, that if is made of ice, and it's global warming, and I'm watching it melt down, and now it's a dot in a little corner.

At this, everybody laughs. How could they not? Just when TV on the Radio are becoming one of the most beloved bands in the world, the world itself seems on the verge of a breakup.

As a certain Minneapolis butt-dancer famously sang: "Party over. Oops. Outta time."

Read the entire feature in the January 2009 issue of SPIN, on newsstands now.