Some people know what they want and try really hard to get it," says TV on the Radio multi-instrumentalist Dave Sitek. "We'd rather write a song about robots fucking." This oddball aesthetic is apparent on the band's debut CD, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, a cool collage of electronic fuzz, jazz skronk, doo-wop vocals and dark pop.

The group's mishmash of styles can be credited, in part, to singer Tunde Adebimpe's unusual upbringing. Adebimpe spent several years of his childhood in Nigeria, where his father worked as a social worker. "We'd listen to Fela Kuti, and Indian and Pakistani music," he says. "I remember getting a copy of the Beach Boys' Smile and not being able to wrap my head around it. I loved it, but I was just like, 'Is it music?' " After high school, Adebimpe moved to New York to pursue a filmmaking career. He rented a room in Brooklyn with Sitek, who was selling acrylic paintings and producing local bands such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Liars.

"He was a weird motherfucker," Sitek says of Adebimpe. "There was no question we were gonna do something together." The two made some demos, took their name from a friend's random suggestion and set out gigging after adding Kyp Malone as another noisemaker (the band recently added a drummer and a bassist for its live shows).

TVOTR recorded much of Desperate Youth by improvising for hours, then picking out the best parts. Unable to play an instrument, Adebimpe used a pedal that allowed him to sing over his own beat-boxing. But for all its chaotic sprawl, the album is still a coherent paean to youthful confusion.

Despite the band's surprise success, Sitek claims TVOTR don't plan on getting more professional. "We don't have the attention span to find the 'right' way of doing things," Sitek says. "And we're highly susceptible to caffeine."