OPO: Tom Verlaine Solo

Doesn't he resemble Patti Smith now?

Tom Verlaine and Patti Smith....yesterday:

http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/dark/skeksis2.jpg

Close second - Without A Word from Dreamtime.

Oh no.people on Twitter are saying he's dead

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/tom-verlaines-television-massive-book-collection-being-sold-at-nyc-garage-sales/

Huge sale of Verlaine’s book collection

biked by and the line was a block long, no thanks. will try again tomorrow.

I also will be trying again tomorrow.

is there a database of the 50000 books anywhere?

I don’t see one. 2 smallish book stores are doing this , don’t Se posted lists on their websites

Would love to see one. Might turn me onto even more stuff I NEED to read.
Would be interested in hearing a breakdown of his reading tastes too.

Okay so these books were not his personal home library - they were two storage units of overflow books.
There was a lot of: new age, religion & spirituality, chinese studies, books about music & film, weird art books. I did not see tons of fiction or poetry, but it was scattered around.

Rob Sheffield bought his guitar magazines which still had his address labels. (He also used his real name for the subscription.)

Picture Tom Verlaine earnestly sitting down with his latest issue to learn the tablature to "You Give Love a Bad Name".

So if this is overflow did he have even more at home. Was he going through these at all ever for further reading or is this his past reading.

I listened to a podcast last year talking about Stalin having a habit of reading 500 pages a day. Sounds difficult to maintain but not sure how fast people read. Does sound propagandistic though.

he was a collector. i'm guessing most of these were in storage, browsed through but unread.

he was effectively curating a collection for his fans, though he never would have thought about it like that.

Someone on the Tom Verlaine Facebook group said one of the books was Investigating, Diagnosing and Treating Your Damp Basement

One for the hardcore fans

it'll turn up as a bandname soon.

This was another

https://i.imgur.com/SRRNiDh.jpg

going to be some really abstract band names happening

hey, there's yeti #12, right under classical indian dance in literature and the arts.

This is sweet

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/march/at-the-tom-verlaine-book-sale

Yes indeed, thanks!

this is coming out on record store day — first four solo albums. will probably be expen$ive.

https://img.broadtime.com/Photo/418467268061:360

bullmoose lists it at $99.97. not absurd for four lps.

From that great article "At the Tom Verlaine Book sale"-

You can still buy Verlaine’s books from Better Read than Dead and Capitol Hill’s websites. His record collection will go on sale, one of these days, at the Academy Record annexes in Greenpoint and the East Village.

What about his tube amps though

Lol

Thanks for linking that article. Very good. I don’t have much of a way of knowing about pieces like this without ye good ilxors

Likewise! thanks for that.

Real Gone Music has started reissuing solo albs, starting w Warm and Cool---hadn't heard of this latest; is it good?:

First up is the next in our series of reissues from the Tom Verlaine estate! 2006’s Around picked up the lofty mantle of the Warm and Cool album that was released 14 years prior with another set of utterly mesmerizing instrumentals, ranging from solo, almost raga-esque explorations (“Flame”) to post-rock vamps (“Balcony”) to abstract sketches (“A Burned Letter”) to the kind of indescribable, utterly gorgeous beauty that only this man and his guitar could pull off (“Eighty-Eights”). That’s old Television band-mate Billy Ficca on drums; bassist and original engineer Patrick Derivaz’s new mastering for vinyl will make this record sing and breathe along with you (and vice versa). Tom’s long-time partner, artist Jutta Koether, again pens inspired, heartfelt notes in the enclosed insert. Sunglasses brown pressing for this album’s vinyl debut…pair it with a test pressing (limited to 30 copies) for an ultra-collectible bundle!

gawd I wish these fuckin dinosaur labels would use Bandcamp for legacy artists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0jyOuhsCGY

I never listened to the 2006 Around before. Nice enough but not sure I want to spend $70 some dollars for that new vinyl reissue Dow linked to

$70!? Didn't check the price, sorry.

it's 70 bucks for the test pressing.

or the bundle or whatever. 23 for the pink vinyl

Oh...

Call me a cheapskate, but not sure I want to even spend $23 for this

man i forgot about those thrill jockey albums. they were decent! heard them a lot in the store when i worked at tower, so never picked up copies of my own. i preferred the jammy instrumentals. didn't realize they had gone oop, surprised at that considering it's thrill jockey.

(to discogs!)

aha - thrill jockey only issued cds! second hand copies easily found, tho prices range pretty far.

They're not my favorite Verlaine albums (and I haven't revisited them in a very long time) but I did enjoy those three final studio albums. His first five are really the ones I listen to outside of Television.

The last of the final three via Real Gone---as with Around, I haven't heard this---what does it sound like? (I still dig my Ryko Warm and Cool.)

...You probably have your own list, but to us, standing toe-to-toe (or pick-to-pick) with those legends is Television guitarist and solo artist Tom Verlaine. His self-taught, jazz-influenced style, largely devoid of effects, and vibrato tone (oh, that tone!) makes any Verlaine solo unmistakably a Verlaine solo. That he was quite an accomplished, idiosyncratic songwriter is just a bonus. Real Gone Music is very, very proud to announce that we have arranged with the Verlaine estate to release Tom’s last three solo albums on LP; Songs and Other Things was the last record he released, in the same year as the all-instrumental Around. As the title indicates, this was indeed a return to lyrics and vocals, the first record with “songs” since 1990’s The Wonder (although the first song, “A Parade in Littleton”—one of the “Other Things”—is a low-key, funky instrumental that would have been home on a late Talking Heads album). The time off clearly allowed Verlaine to build up a strong cache of compositions, with “Nice Actress” and “The Earth Is in the Sky” among the highlights. The record also marks a welcome return of Verlaine’s enigmatic lyrics, which as always prompt head scratching while somehow making intuitive sense. But in the end, it’s the amazing guitar work—ably supported by Fred Smith of Television fame and Jay Dee Daugherty of The Patti Smith Group among others—that elevates Songs and Other Things to essential status, worthy of its exalted position as the final release of Tom Verlaine’s career. Bassist and original engineer Patrick Derivaz has mastered the album for its vinyl debut; Verlaine’s long-time partner Jutta Koether contributes notes. Teal vinyl pressing!

SIDE ONE
1. A Parade in Littleton
2. Heavenly Charm
3. Orbit
4. Blue Light
5. From Her Finger
6. Nice Actress
7. A Stroll
8. The Earth Is the Sky

SIDE TWO
1. Lovebird Asylum Seeker
2. Documentary
3. Shingaling
4. All Weirded Out
5. The Day on You
6. Peace Piece

more info:
https://realgonemusic.com/products/tom-verlaine-songs-and-other-things-lp?rs_oid_rd=346754184706773

SaOT is really great, it’s a little too long (I’d cut three or four tracks) but in terms of great song count it’s his third best record imo (1/flashlight 2/Tom Verlaine). His lyrics were in peak form, that lovestruck neo-noir poetry thing. Also these songs were amazing live.

1. Flashlight
2. S/t
3. Songs and other things
4. Dreamtime
5. The Millers Tale

Five ugly bugs crawl across your table
(oh those rascals)