Television

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh9fHZ17HWE&feature=player_embedded
new track! ummm underwhelming, but sort of cool.

So I caught a bit of a pretty rad broadcast on WNYU yesterday -- they had a guest who seemed to have written a book about Television or maybe just the CBGB scene or something, but I didn't catch who he was. Anyway, the guy played this version of Friction from some demos recorded by Eno while Hell was still in the band, so fucking awesome. Found it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjEFuUNc3Uc

Whole broadcast is here:
http://wnyu.org/2011-09-29_newafternoonshow

BrYan Eno, ha.

Marquee Moon with the guitar lick on the other beat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS27RAXhBWQ

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/televisions-richard-lloyd-tells-his-side-story-comment-section/

Ha. Verlaine is kind of my least favorite thing about Television, although I'm kind of shocked at how bitter Lloyd is after all these years.

I saw Television play maybe a decade ago, and they were pretty good. But Lloyd broke a guitar string a couple of minutes into "Marquee Moon." Surprisingly, the band did not stop playing while Lloyd - patiently, almost slowly, definitely not smiling - crouched at the side of the stage and changed the string. The rest of the band sort of ambled through the song til Lloyd joined in again at the very end. Wasn't terrible, but it was strange!

was that the Metro show -- odd, I don't remember that at all! I remember the whole show being fantastic tho, what a high!

It was the Metro show, yeah. It was totally great, wasn't it? I want to say it ended with "Prove It" and feature some "Nuggets" cover. "MM" didn't sound bad minus Lloyd, oddly. I just thought it odd how he handled it, and that he had neither a second guitar nor a roadie to change the string for him.

Oh yeah, they covered "Psychotic Reaction."

Josh, yeah that show was super duper good. couldn't believe I was standing there watching Television! the thing that struck me the most was Billy Ficca's drumming -- what a fantastic drummer! like, I always thought of Television as a guitar band, and never really concentrated on the rhythm section, but watching Ficca live really noticed how solid he is

I also want to say that show was the same night Joey Ramone died. or was it John Fahey? they both passed in quick succession. I remember driving home and learning that one of them had died. wiki tells me it would have been feb or april 2001

Lloyd spilling all this bile after leaving the band he was in for 30+ years is just kind of uncomfortable and unnecessary -- like even if every word he says is true, it's like dude, you hung in there that long by choice, you have noone to blame but yourself, stop patting yourself on the back for being so 'loyal' to the guys you're now trashing all over the internet.

TBF, hanging in there didn't exactly take a of effort.

well he makes it sound like he was constantly putting his life outside the band on hold for three creatively fruitless decades in which they only made one forgettable album and were always discussing recording again. which does suck for him, if true, but again it's a 'fool me once, shame on you' thing.

Sure, but if that's your thing, and you like doing it, then yeah, you would cancel tours and sessions and stuff every time Tom Verlaine asked. It was foolish, after all that time off, for Lloyd to really sacrifice anything for the sake of the band. All I know is that I honestly appreciate Lloyd's contributions to those Matthew Sweet records more than anything Verlaine has done since "Marquee Moon."

I have his solo album, it sounds like Nick Lowe.

ha -- I love the '92 "reunion" album.

Alchemy? Because he made some other solo albums after that with Swedish only release or something. Alchemy was great, complete with a "Love Is Strange" sound alike, RIP Sylvia Robinson. So yeah, like Nick Lowe, fair enough.

All I know is that I honestly appreciate Lloyd's contributions to those Matthew Sweet records more than anything Verlaine has done since "Marquee Moon."

QFT.

i dunno, you gys are missing out, verlaine has a lot of stellar material/guitar playing post-MM.
lloyd freaking out is weird, but i think he might just be a weird dude.

gys = guys

posted this elsewhere, but you want a primer on how good verlaine can be w/o television, check this out: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/8834986475/pull-down-the-future-covering-two-decades-of-live

All I know is that I honestly appreciate Lloyd's contributions to those Matthew Sweet records more than anything Verlaine has done since "Marquee Moon."

ur totally out of your mind. Listen to the shit Tyler posted.

re: the stuff Lloyd's been posting. Lloyd and Verlaine are both dicks. Lloyd, additionally, is for-real crazy. All of it should be taken with a huge grain of salt (a salt lick maybe).

Richard Lloyd's live "Real Time" is fantastic.

it's funny, when i interviewed lloyd many years ago, he was surprisingly friendly/norma, for the most part. i had expected a really cranky dude. don't know if he kinda goes through phases of craziness or what.
lloyd does get some pretty sweet guitar spots on the new rocket from the tombs record. on spotify if you're curious.

"friendly/normal" not norma. having trouble typing today.

Lloyd's website is an embarrassment of riches for guitar students (especially for guitar students who love Richard Lloyd's playing). Every lesson is accompanied by a thoughtful bit of advice/wisdom, and nowhere does he come off as cranky or not-all-there.

...aaaaand now that I check his site, it seems the lessons are nowhere to be found.

yeah, i remember a lot of those lessons. maybe he released a dvd of them or something?
at some point, he had all of this bizarre pseudo mystical stuff up, couldn't tell if he was kidding or what.

He took down the lessons from his website! (xpost)
I remember them being interesting, kind of deep, not just "here are a few of my favorite chord shapes and licks," which you wouldn't really expect from him anyway, but still.

I printed out a few of the exercises, and have used them every day for years now. Invaluable shit.

yeah, there's some guitar-y stuff left over in the ask richard section. he seems pretty reasonable there for the most part.

re: RFTT, I saw Lloyd with them in around 2005 or so, and yep, he killed. The crowd was hanging on every note. David Thomas, for his part, sat on a chair in the middle of the stage with a bottle of Courvoisier.

Me preferring Lloyd on the Sweet records has nothing to do with Verlaine's own undeniable talents. It has to do with ... preference. As in, what I actually prefer to listen to. Lloyd (and Quine) were just such a surprisingly perfect fit for that stuff.

Yeah, I want to say I saw RFFT that same year, mostly for Lloyd, honestly. Want to say Thomas was barely ambulatory, leaning on a cane.

huh, i saw an earlier RFTT show (2003-ish?) and Thomas was pretty explosive. He did sit a little bit, but he also went nuts.

Fuck I wish I could find this article written by a dude who traveled with RL on one of his recent tours, kind of a profile piece. I thought I had the link in my email somewhere... anyway, I am far from a behavioral health expert but it seemed pretty obv RL was bipolar.

Re: RFTT I wonder if Thomas was hurt for those shows? He has a pretty active stage presence IME

He was pretty hefty, and it looked like his knees were suffering. This was in NYC, whenever it was.

On the plus side, after the show, Thomas stayed in his stage chair and personally sold RFTT CDs (possibly to circumvent that venue's policy of taking 20% of bands' CD sales). I probably wouldn't have bought one otherwise, but I'm glad I did (for getting to meet Thomas and for Lloyd's playing on the record).

Is this the most underachieving band in the history of rock? You could make a strong argument. They had all the talent in the world, and one of the three or four best debut albums ever. But after 1977 it was all downhill, save for a handful of good songs.

For sure. There are some people that think the band started to go downhill before it even hit the studio!

While I happily agree that MM stands at the apex of TV/Verlaine/Lloyd's output, statements like "all downhill save for a handful of good songs" srsly boggle my mind. I mean, tons of ppl say this, it's not a minority view at all. But I don't know how to reconcile it with what i hear...

yeah, i just think that if you really like marquee moon, then you'll find plenty to love in the records that came after.
do any of them reach the heights of MM? maybe not, but very few things do!

Yeah, like I said upthread, I love the '92 album as much as Adventure – two very good albums.

the live album shows that adventure's problems were more bloodless production and not so much material (i think the adventure songs on the old waldorf just shine)

^ this

i dig the more textured approach on adventure's slower songs -- the fire, carried away, days, but yeah, the rockers come off way better live.

i'd put "the dream's dream" old waldorf up against anything on marquee moon

otm, it's otherworldly.

The first time I listed to the Old Waldorf show I wasn't looking at the track listing, and the segueway from "The Dream's Dream" into "Venus" blew me away.

Old Waldorf is basically the 2nd Television album as far as I'm concerned, everyone should own it.