Television

that brooklynvegan link upthread mentions that television are currently recording, with jimmy ripp on guitar.

ah yes, that is what I had heard. i think Lloyd made a big announcement a few years back about how he was quitting Television once and for all, but that he gave them his blessing to continue without him. Still, Television w/o Lloyd just seems like Tom Verlaine solo -- Ripp, Ficca and Smith have all played on his solo records, anyway. Whatever, it'd be nice to have some new Verlaine/Television material. What I've heard from various live tapes sounds prettty sweet.

Who is Jimmy Ripp :(

Dude who played guitar with Verlaine throughout the 80s and 90s. Great player actually.

at this point, he's probably logged more hours with Tom than Lloyd has.

at the last television show i saw, 2005 i think?, he played some great stuff i didn't reccognize. I particularly remember a long song with a terrific eastern motif.

Sounds hopeful. Still sad to think of that band without Lloyd.

yeah, would be pretty weird to have a Television album w/o Lloyd -- is there a single review of that band that doesn't talk about the dueling Verlaine/Lloyd guitars? it's pretty much their signature.

i've only seen television once - one of the early '00s reunion shows in DC - but my main takeaway was that i'd severely overrated verlaine and underrated lloyd as guitarists. verlaine was a mess (sometimes in a really good way, obvs) with flashes of inspiration, but lloyd was lyrical, hypnotic, and locked on. it was weird to realize how many times i'd listened to recordings and been like "omg verlaine!" when it was actually lloyd's playing. verlaine rules, but i think his stuff is more of an "if you catch him on a good night, wow" kinda thing.

yeah i don't think Verlaine's heart is in the epic intense guitar solos these days. he can still do great stuff, but i think he left the heavy lifting to Lloyd in the various reunions. Like when I've heard latter-day versions of "Little Johnny Jewel" Tom barely seems there, whereas he kills it on those 70s recordings.

yeah...you just hear Verlaine's name so much more than when you hear guitar stuff on the albums you kinda assume it's him until you learn otherwise...i wish they'd credited who did which solos/leads on Marquee Moon like they did for the self-titled album.

xpost

they did! it's on the vinyl, anyway.

I heard somewhere or other that Lloyd's parts were a lot more written than Verlaine's, much truth in that ya suppose?

ah really? I need to check my CD reissue to see if it's in there.

oh totally, re: Lloyd's parts. On Marquee Moon, Richard doubletracked every note he played.

xpost the guitar solo credits etc are def on the rhino cd reish

saw the reformed television twice this decade, and both times the tension between verlaine and lloyd was self-evident in the way that they played together, stood on stage together, glared at each other (mostly tom) etc etc - i wouldn't say that either of 'em was 'better' on the night, tho' the second time around (2004) the whole group was noticeably sloppier - the first time i saw 'em (at the Tortoise curated ATP in 2001) the version of 'little johnny jewel' they delivered was stunning and tom v was on fire

in 2006 i saw verlaine and ripp play a really sweet duo set at the 100 club - ripp was v. much the accompaniest and subservient to the master, and verlaine seemed much more engaged w/ the material and event, even when playing a few of the old hits - i don't ever expect to see tom in action so close up and personal, and he was def. on form that night - so he still has it, still

yeah i've heard some of the Ripp/Verlaine duo (mostly instrumental) -- really lovely stuff!

btw if yr interested in hearing a bunch of vintage Television bootlegs, I did a long overview at my blog a couple weeks back: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/ I'll get around to the reunion years someday.

hmm: http://aquariumdrunkard.tumblr.com/post/677685931/indieandyy-careful-by-local-natives-originally
Aquarium Drunkard will be digitally releasing L’Aventure on June 22, featuring 8 Los Angeles bands each covering a track from the 1978 Television LP, Adventure.
1.The Henry Clay People: “Glory”
2.Foreign Born: “Days”
3.The Happy Hollows: “Foxhole”
4.Local Natives: “Careful”
5.The Deadly Syndrome: “Carried Away”
6.Imaad Wasif [ft. Lykke Li]: “The Fire”
7.Dirt Dress: “Ain’t That Nothin’”
8.Growlers: “The Dream’s Dream”
don't know any of these bands ... good/bad/eh?

local la bands, seen most of them, none of them are that bad but nothing really that special about any of em

^^ tyler--any chance that you could re-post No Glamour-- later TV @ Academy '92?

yeah, sure i'll re-post that one. totally an amazing set. blows away the s/t record. lloyd's solo on 1880 or so = craaaaaazy.
i'm in the process of putting together a couple of comps covering unreleased Television songs from the 70s and the 00s for the blog, too.

Venus de Milo has no arms, fwiw

^^ thanks tyler--sounds great!

this covers thing has me thinking -- are there any really *great* television covers? i liked chris stamey's mellow take on "venus" ... feelies do a good see no evil. clientele did a nice version of "the fire" a few years back.

[ft. Lykke Li]

Huh? How'd she get involved? (swedish pop princess (imo :))

LOL Upthread somebody said Television was a rip-off of early U2. I fervently pray that they were kidding.

'Marquee Moon' remains one of the great guitar-oriented rock LPs, a distinction that was certainly not damaged by the inclusion of "Little Johnny Jewel" on the reissue. The arrangements are also spot-on, the melodies infectious. The other records are also very good. 'The Blow-Up' is a terrific sounds-like-you're-there live recording & the s/t comeback disc was better than I thought it was going to be. 'Adventure' isn't as crazy-good as 'Marquee Moon' but I think it suffers only by comparison. Pretty solid throughout & it makes me wish they had continued long enough to do a 3rd LP so we could really judge its sophtware (sic) slump qualities more accurately. BUt - there ya go...

LOL Upthread somebody said Television was a rip-off of early U2.

omg holy lols

It was dave q, it was a joke

this is cool -- the classic ARROW bootleg, uploaded by the taper/bootlegger himself: luckypsychichut.blogspot.com/2009/11/television-arrow-bootleg.html
pretty awesome bootleg (most of it shows up on the Blow Up, but as the dude notes, it sounds better here). Johnny Jewel might be the definitive version.

cool indeed, thanks

From that blog:

Tom Verlaine is now my girlfriend's grumpy upstairs neighbor and has (like myself) lost most of his teeth, but I still get a kick out of seeing him stumbling in off the street with a pizza for dinner, mumbling a few random problems that need fixing to the doorman.

haha, sounds about right.

Hate the way The Blow Up sounds

Would be nicer if he'd uploaded the whole show, not just the stuff on Arrow. I might have been at this show btw. They played at My Father's Place three times in '78 & I don't remember which one I went to. It was definitely before the Adventure album came out. I spent a fair amount of time thinking TV had a new song called "Fatso, Fatso."

lol. i've got at least one of the complete father's place recordings, incredibly jealous you got to see it in person. television was pretty much the best band on the planet at that point. just amazing.

Hahaha
There's a link in the comments to a blog that offers an entire 78 Television show. Not sure if it's the same gig though (can't check quickly as I'm browsing on a not so handy phone).

phone allows xposts...

tbh i remember it less for the performance than for the pigeon who shat on me afterward. The club was situated next to a tall viaduct, & people parked underneath (illegally, as it turned out -- that's nominally what did the club in, lack of legal parking, though what really did it in was NIMBY on the part of the good people of Old Roslyn). usually the pigeons would be kind enough only to use the cars for target practice, but this one was particularly ornery. The performance was great, of course. I'm an old fogy, though -- in 1978, the bar was just set higher. Lots of performances were great. I prolly just go to the wrong shows, now, i dunno...

i'm even jealous of your pigeon story. srsly, if i was granted one time machine trip it might be to go see television around that time.

just posted this - an imaginary third 70s television album made up of unreleased live tunes 1975-78 http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/5667774473/kingdom-come-the-lost-television-album-dont-get

all over that thanks!!

damn tyler awesome

thaking u

no problem. it is pretty good!

:):):):):)

got around to getting Portland '78 off yr blog and jesus fucking christ

weirdness!
Metallica's Lars Ulrich On His Cult Heroes
To me, Television’s first record still sounds as fresh today and as all-round awesome as it did in 1977. I grew up in Copenhagen, and pretty much I got everything I knew about music came from this tiny record store there. There weren’t any Danish music periodicals, so it was all word of mouth in this place, and I remember this guy called Tim who put me onto all kind of things – including 'Marquee Moon'.

Television played Copenhagen around the time it came in, and I saw them in this tiny venue. The Pistols had played in Copenhagen in June or July of 77, the Ramones played as well. ACDC came down too, and played in early September. So in the span of about three months the Pistols, Ramones, ACDC and Television had all played in my home town as headline acts. Excellent! Those concerts were actually what kept me alive at that time.

With Television, I got the sense that here was a real band who were really connecting with each other. Obviously Tom Verlaine was the mainman, but some of the songs on that first album, like 'Friction', are just so intricate. That one's actually like this real hard rock track too. Don’t tell anyone this but 'Marquee Moon' is one of my secret tracks for Metallica to play. I'm gonna try and sneak that one in there without anyone noticing!

"i rememberuuuh how the darkness duhbuhlledyeaah"

Ah recalluh.....lightnin struck itselffffffah

RIP Fred Smith!

bummer, what a great bassist.

oh damn

saw Chris Stein post it but wasn't confirmed.

yeah richard lloyd and jimmy ripp both confirmed.

oh, damn

Should've shared this here, but this was posted by Jimmy Rip on their official IG account (which includes a slideshow of some wonderful moments with Television off-stage - I've never seen Tom Verlaine joking around with his bandmates before):

FRED SMITH 1948-2026
The legendary bassist for Television, Tom Verlaine and many others, Fred Smith, was not only my bandmate for 46 years — he was my true friend. He was a great running buddy and exactly the guy you wanted around when road life got wearisome. His sense of humor, much like his musical voice, was dry, subtle, to the point, hilarious and always left you wanting a more. Yesterday, he left this world, leaving so many who loved him wanting so much more…of him.
We met in 1980 playing, with Jay Dee Daugherty on drums, in The Eve Moon Band, and soon after, the three of us were the NYC version of Holly and The Italians with Holly Beth Vincent. In 1981 when Tom Verlaine was preparing to tour for his disc Dreamtime, which Fred and Jay had performed on, they recommended me as second guitar, leading to very long and rich musical, and personal friendships.
If you are a lover of melodic bass lines and counterpoint, you could go to school on what Fred created so effortlessly. He was a natural — never flashy, always essential — always serving the song in ways that only the greatest musicians can…
He fought his illness long and hard these last few years, looking always forward to new projects… we had big plans to play Tom’s music live this year… but it just wasn’t meant to be. Thankfully, we were able to say goodbye, “love you” were our last words to each other.
I will miss him more than anyone can imagine.
-Jimmy Rip

In remembrance, possibly my favorite recording by a “supergroup":

Tom Verlaine (Television) – guitar, vocals
Ricky Wilson (The B-52’s) – guitar
Fred Smith (Blondie, Television) – bass
Jay Dee Daugherty (The Patti Smith Group) – drums

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZwbyH9A5cU

^ i shared this interview with Jimmy Rip on the guitar thread a couple of weeks ago, he talks about his plans to tour with Fred on that. Lots of stories about Tom too, including the fact that later on in his career he really came to detest the sound of the bass and would always have the soundguy shutting the low end off. Poor Fred :(

Per rock journalist Jim Sullivan, Smith was getting treated for cancer for the last five years.

I used to work at Strand bookstore in NYC, in the basement. The uncorrected poetry proofs were stored there and Tom Verlaine came in for them all the time. At least once a week. My friend Jack - dead these last 16 years come May - knew I was a huge fan. So he played a trick on me. He waited until Tom was behind me one day and I didn't know it. "Hey, aren't you a huge Television and Tom Verlaine fanatic?" So of course I gushed like a little girl.

Jack spun me around and I was immediately staring up into Tom's face. He smiled this really sheepish smile and just said "Wow, thanks, what's your name, man?" After that day he greeted me by name.

I left NYC. 5 years later I went back, walked by Strand and he was outside on the sidewalk looking at the discount racks. I caught his eye as I walked by and I heard "Hey (real name) what's going on? I haven't seen you in a long time." We talked for about 20 minutes. That was the last time I saw him.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/10ojpwk/my_cool_little_tom_verlaine_story/

that is a very needed heartwarmer

^this

oh i love that so much

every Verlaine story re The Strand is so good <3

Can't remember if I ever told mine

tell it tell it

Maybe it's not that good

Or else I might have trouble organizing and typing it into the chat box. But I will sleep on it and maybe I can come up with something tomorrow

TELL

IT

^^^

we need a story, Redd!

Don't make us beg!

(begs)

Aww man RIP

as I posted today on Adaam Jacobs thread, Lucy Sante says:

Some of you may already have seen this, but the tape I made at CBGB of a Television/Talking Heads show on January 24, 1976, is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary by being shared all over the internet: https://archive.org/details/television1976-01-24.unk The T-Heads archivists had approached me and digitized and cleaned it, and I encouraged them to make it public. I'm sorry my batteries were dying during the second Television set; "Guiding Light" is especially wobbly. Overall, though, the tapes, made on generic cassettes with a cheapo recorder and stored in a shoebox all these years, sound at least as good as most of the commercially distributed bootlegs from those years. It's also ghostly for me, because at the end of some of the Television numbers you hear a whoop from my old girlfriend Eva, dead now almost 28 years. Oh, and the Talking Heads (trio and still pretty green): https://archive.org/details/th1976-01-24.unk.sante

A reminder for me to read her memoir.

I believe Eva and that Noo Yawk era are in Maybe The People Would Be The Times, maybe among others.