Radio 4

Formed in New York City during 1999, Radio 4 took its name from a P.I.L. track and set out to update the angular post-punk sound of Gang of Four, Mission of Burma, and P.I.L. by pairing jagged guitar lines with propulsive rhythms. Bassist Anthony Roman, guitarist Tommy Williams, drummer Greg Collins, percussionist P.J. O'Connor, and keyboardist Gerard Garone came together as the lineup and promptly cut a three-song EP for New Jersey's Gern Blandsten imprint.

The following year the quintet issued its first full-length, The New Song and Dance, produced by Tim O'Heir; the album situated Radio 4 among the city's raw, guitar-centric rock acts. Early in 2001 the band returned to the studio with O'Heir to lay down the 12-inch Dance to the Underground, which featured a club-oriented rework of the title cut. That remix pointed toward a fresh approach, one that would harness the group's rhythmic guitar figures and dub-tinged bass to fuse rock energy with dance-floor drive.

After laying down initial sketches in a Brooklyn basement, Radio 4 teamed with production duo DFA—Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy—for its sophomore album, Gotham!. The pair's prior work alongside electronic figures such as James Lavelle's U.N.K.L.E. project and David Holmes, together with their collaborations with rock-electronica acts including the Rapture and Primal Scream, supplied the missing element needed to realize the band's cross-genre ambitions. Issued by Gern Blandsten in 2002, Gotham! blended guitars, dub textures, beats, squeaks, loops, keyboards, and handclaps into a sound that recalled the classic post-punk dance outfits like Gang of Four while injecting contemporary vitality. The release earned widespread critical notice, MTV2 airplay, and a noticeably larger audience both domestically and across Europe.

In 2003 Radio 4 signed with Astralwerks and put out an EP that spotlighted a freshly recorded take of "Dance to the Underground" alongside remixes from Playgroup and the Faint. For its third album, Stealing of a Nation, the band worked with producer Max Heyes inside an underground Brooklyn facility; the record appeared in September 2004.