TV on the Radio has upbeat wavelength

Brooklyn-based quintet TV on the Radio is a rolling tumbleweed of a band, gathering momentum and picking up followers across the indie-rock prairie. Thursday’s packed house at the Echo was merely the latest evidence of the group’s charming abilities, which, in fact, went well beyond what’s considered indie rock.

TV’s hour-plus set demonstrated why the band’s been championed by such peers as Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner, who was on hand Thursday and appears on TV’s debut full-length CD, “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes,” as well as its 2003 EP, “Young Liars.”

TV’s music incorporated the sort of chaotic melodic punk the Yeah Yeahs do, but it was punk more in feeling than sound, an unexpected melding of post-punk, new wave, soul and electronic music unified by singer Tunde Adebimpe’s resonant, hopeful vocals. It had some identifiable influences, such as the Pixies, but this was something different -- and good.

Despite the aggressive elements, the songs were ultimately positive, sometimes erotic (the impressionistic “Staring at the Sun”) and romantically offbeat (“Ambulance”). But even something sterner, like the hip-hop-culture critique “The Wrong Way,” proved kindhearted.