Aside, fun Verlaine stories from Steve Kilbey yesterday
when i was a kidi was scouring all the music ragslooking for the next big thingi read a small article on a band called televisionin a mag called rock sceneit was written by patti smithshe wrote about this guy tom verlaines handshow he was the kinda guy you’d wanna lose yer virginity to….over the next few years there were tantalising references constantlyall of em saying how this band were incrediblejohnny jewel a single (kinda strange but intriguing)and bits and pieces until in 1977 the first album came outof course it was called marquee moonand verily it was all they said it would bean incredible record34 years later todayi got an email from some guys watching televisions current progressco guitarist richard lloyd is outand some other guy jimmy rip is intheres a whole argument going down on youtuberichard lloyd weighing in slagging off tvfunny that people are interested in these ancient clashesi met tv in 1988he was opening for the church and peter murphyhe wanted to borrow my acoustic guitarit was a black guild ..it got stolen n broke my heartas soon as he played one note you could hear it was hima totally unique approach dare i say virtuosopk sometimes has this effect like a total understandinganyway tv was sposed to go on murphys busbut within one second tv had some falling out with murphand ended up on our bus for a whole tourhe started the night with a 30 minute setalone with an acoustic he was kinda ordinaryhe was very jokey in a bizarre way on and off stagehe was a total caffeine and nicotine man toohe was always wired tho he eschewed all other substancestelevision had been a huge influence on us allwe were all quite surprised n impressed to have tv with ushe treated me a bit like an annoying kid and i probably deserved iti blabbed on to him all day about television ..why i liked them…but he was bemused and sent me up a bitwe played monopoly for real money once on the busand tv bickered over the fuckin’ rules and argued the tosseeerrr kil-bee lets see uh this triple double in jail ruleuh i think this is an uh english rule and uh i aint goin’ to jail..how bizarre to be arguing monopoly rules with verlainesomewhere in dakota or wherever as we sped thru the nightas the tour progressed tv would come out each night and play with uswe did :you took and cortez the killer with 3 lead guitarists3 of the very best you can get toooffstage howevertv was an incredible stingy miser arguing over every last cent literallyeerrr uh kil-bee uh you should pay an extra 75 cents for your share of the friesthis was one of the complaints on the you tube vids toms meannesshe was never very complimentary about richard lloyd eitherlloyd didnt have anything to do with it if you listened to tvhe downplayed the guy right outta existenceit was unnecessary i thought to be so ungracious….one day off in houston we went to this placeit was 1988 and you could record your vocal over a cassette backingi sang my vocal over i left my heart in san francisco ( for DT)tv got some old country n western track n giggled n whispered n mutteredhe played it back to us convinced he’d found some new directionone night the phone rang in my roomeerr kil-bee eerr uh i’m down here in the bar with some divorceesand i was ah wondrin’ if uh you could uh take one off my hands …he was very charismatic and quite the ladies manevery night different women would seek him out backstagestrangely none seemed too bizarre for his tastehe had a little sweetie in every townone morning we checked in some place early on the east coastit was winter and snow lay on the groundtv suggested a walkand we hiked up this hill with a reservoir at the topit was 630 in the morning and we interrupted somethingcos suddenly about 10 big black guys were chasing usbaying for our bloodtv and i ran downhill into the woodstv was like a thoroughbred horse leaping thru the treesit was weird to be in such a pickle with a one time idolanyway the stuff that happened onstage when he joined us was magiche could coax a million sounds from a guitar trains and birdsand doppler effects and helicopters and guns ..anything..but you could never see exactly how he did it …he was a true geniuswe vaguely planned on recording together but his heart wasnt in itwe bickered over the financial details and that was iti dont believe it would have worked out anywaytv had some essential suspicious jokey sarcastic ny schtickit was hard to get through ithe insulted lembo who was trying to manage himand lembo couldnt see the financial gainas opposed to the grief n pain that managing tv would bringhe was ungrateful in spades and just incredibly penny pinchinglike a scrooge from brooklyn or somethingit was an unnerving mixturewe drifted apart after the tour i never saw him againmarty played on on of ’is solo recordsand the church did an insipid uninspired version of frictionfunny seeing tv on that show in portugal just filmed latelythat same old cagey grin that same old tom cat jivejesus what a characterha ha
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:09 (twelve years ago) link
hee heetoo bad verlaine and lloyd seem to loath each other. they sure sound good togetherhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72GLZ-8zQEo
― tylerw, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
I was trying to think of the right way to describe Lloyd's place in Television, not a co-equal, not a sideman. When he first joined he's said he felt like George (with Hell and Verlaine as John and Paul), but once Hell split it's not like it was really Paul and George. Lloyd seems like the catalyst that made Verlaine's ideas work and turned them into something bigger. Which maybe Verlaine couldn't forgive him for, in a way.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:23 (twelve years ago) link
I dunno, it seems Lloyd kept the George role, whereas Verlaine and Smith did different than John and Paul.
or something.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 20:16 (twelve years ago) link
http://static.ow.ly/photos/normal/k1Cs.jpgsaw this in Denver this morning. don't know the band, would be tough to pull off Television, you'd have to have chops!
― tylerw, Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:00 (twelve years ago) link
Hmm, over here they'd have to state, explicitly, that they are 'tribute' acts.
― Mark G, Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
in tiny type, it says Wire Faces Performing As ... though I guess it doesn't say that it's tribute acts to blondie, talking heads et al. would be awesome if someone went to this tiny club thinking they were going to see the ramones, miraculously reunited.
― tylerw, Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:19 (twelve years ago) link
Given the enduring popularity of Hot Topic Ramones & CBGB shirts, it wouldn't actually surprise me to see "The Ramones" -- Marky and a cast of young ringers -- touring state fairs sometime (like the version of Foghat I saw that had only the original drummer, Roger Earl.)
― Blue Doggie Sweater (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:27 (twelve years ago) link
Now you said that, I can just about read it. Usually that's the "Here Goldmid productions presents" line.
Obviously, that's a tribute to Harvey Goldsmith performing as a promoter.
― Mark G, Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:54 (twelve years ago) link
not sure how they're going to play television songs with just three dudes
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:56 (twelve years ago) link
one of those dudes has four arms though. i read up a bit on them and i guess they're a little proggy? or at least mars volta-y. whatever, i'm not going.
― tylerw, Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:59 (twelve years ago) link
― Blue Doggie Sweater (Dan Peterson), Thursday, October 27, 2011 3:27 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark
he's been touring around playing a set of Ramones songs w/ a band called Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg, which i think is totally fine and cool since he's not messing w/ the Ramones name or anything
― Metal Dennis Perrin (some dude), Thursday, 27 October 2011 21:24 (twelve years ago) link
Some new song I guess by Verlaine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h81L7VrFzro
― poxsickle, Saturday, 29 October 2011 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
That's an old Civil War-era folk song. I like the noir-y band arrangement! Maybe an outtake from Songs And Other Things?
― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 29 October 2011 22:55 (twelve years ago) link
Oh god. I only just realised the T of Tom and the V of Verlaine = TV = Television. I am the stupidest person alive.
― Jedmond, Sunday, 30 October 2011 00:57 (twelve years ago) link
^^is that supposed to be well-known? Whoa.
― answering_machine, Sunday, 30 October 2011 01:15 (twelve years ago) link
After roughly 23 years of Television fandom, that never occured to me.
― Stormy Davis, Sunday, 30 October 2011 02:14 (twelve years ago) link
ha, i think i remember reading an interview w/ either Hell or Verlaine where they said it hadn't occurred to them either! or that the name 'Television' came before Verlaine chose the name Verlaine.
― tylerw, Sunday, 30 October 2011 02:16 (twelve years ago) link
puns that you had missed
― Mayne of Fules (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 30 October 2011 03:08 (twelve years ago) link
i don't even own a television record
― buzza, Sunday, 30 October 2011 04:08 (twelve years ago) link
The Blow-Up, at least on Roir's once notoriously (but no worse than many a homemade) normal bias lo-fi cassette, was better heard as the earlier vinyl boot Arrow (prob ditto the digital Arrow posted on tylerw's blog, along with several other Television and Tom Verlaine sets). Funny, I was just remembering how their (mostly Verlaine and Lloyd's 70s rep as self-destructive and generally shady was summed up as "an ill-natured hippie band" by Creem's Robert Duncan. And how Buffalo Springfield's June 2011 Bonnaroo "Bluebird" epic (currently on YouTube) reminded me of Neil Young, in a very good way (way better than any of the early Springfield extensions of it I've heard so far, incl the one on Retrospective). Then I came across robertchristgau.com's archived 2004 review of reissued MM and Adventure (each with a worthy bonus track, he says) and Old Walrdorf (which he says sounds a lot better than Blow-Up) and he now (or on then, in '04) thinks Verlaine sounds somewhat like Young and Garcia, though not as "raw" as the former, or "clean" as the latter. Refined and dirty, awright! Though xgau also starts by saying Television were doomed to commercial failure because they didn't sound like anyone before or since (h'mmm, maybe he means the overall effect, incl Verlaine's "strangulated" vocals). Also, extended solos were def not favored in emerging 70s punk/pop orthodoxy/trends.
― dow, Sunday, 30 October 2011 06:26 (twelve years ago) link
Oh yeah, the extended Verlaine reissues from a few years back are worth checking too, and the most (?) recently released albums of new material, on Thrill Jockey (but those two should've been pruned and merged into one medium-length set.)
― dow, Sunday, 30 October 2011 06:30 (twelve years ago) link
Oops. I meant the 2011 "Bluebird" reminded me of **Television** in a good way!
― dow, Sunday, 30 October 2011 06:33 (twelve years ago) link
Bluebird was the 'Marquee Moon' (track) of its day, and Buffalo Springfield was the Television of its day. Multiple guitar assault
― answering_machine, Sunday, 30 October 2011 09:00 (twelve years ago) link
here's a bit from the review of that television cover bandWire Faces' performance as Television was one of the great highlights of the evening. Dressed in nerdish art-school clothing, guitarist Ian Haygood looked like Tom Verlain, while drummer Shane Zweygardt sang just like him. Although most of the bands got the crowd bouncing and dancing, Wire Faces held them spellbound with a flawless note-by-note rendition of almost the entire Marquee Moon album. Zweygardt shimmied atop his drumstool while belting out each song with an electrifying energy and incessant mimicry of Verlain's nasally whine.hmm
― tylerw, Monday, 31 October 2011 18:13 (twelve years ago) link
kind of like that new verlaine track! not amazing or anything, but what the hell, i'd like the dude to be more active.
― tylerw, Monday, 31 October 2011 18:17 (twelve years ago) link
God bless the uploader, he just put up a hilarious video of Verlaine & Co messing with mtv brazil:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXaUwo2DSns
― poxsickle, Tuesday, 1 November 2011 03:35 (twelve years ago) link
hee heehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNAvIBKkAJQ&feature=relatedthis is good too. would be interesting if Verlaine did a memoir, though I won't hold my breath.
― tylerw, Thursday, 3 November 2011 15:59 (twelve years ago) link
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1rl1aJY0L1qdivb3o1_500.jpgThis day in 1974: Television plays their first show at CBGB.
― tylerw, Saturday, 31 March 2012 20:21 (twelve years ago) link
& if you're interested in hearing roughly what they sounded like: http://ow.ly/9yMDD
― tylerw, Saturday, 31 March 2012 20:22 (twelve years ago) link
pretty awesome that the "birthplace" of punk originally had such a cornball logo. and "fancy guitar pickin's."
u know what it stands for yeah?
― Flat Of NAGLs (sleeve), Saturday, 31 March 2012 20:24 (twelve years ago) link
ha, yes. still!
― tylerw, Saturday, 31 March 2012 20:24 (twelve years ago) link
Wild Flag did an ace version of "Evil" last night in New Haven as the first song of their encore.
― kwhitehead, Sunday, 1 April 2012 02:06 (twelve years ago) link
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3rgdiOmCw1qzy30io1_500.gifDave Bowie!
― tylerw, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 15:17 (eleven years ago) link
He went by that in his "Regular Ol' Dave" period
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 15:18 (eleven years ago) link
That's Dave Bowie, you know, he ran a lamp shop on 53rd and AoftheA's...
― Mark G, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 15:33 (eleven years ago) link
think they had a quote from Louie Reed on another flyer.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 15:36 (eleven years ago) link
Louie "Louie Louie" Reed?
― Mark G, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 15:49 (eleven years ago) link
Dick Lloyd was on fire that night.
― Hierophantiasis (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 16:10 (eleven years ago) link
hee hee. btw i've re-upped that television compilation i made featuring, um, dick hell. http://ow.ly/aNKo3 in case anyone didn't get it the first time around.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 16:15 (eleven years ago) link
Was it a minutemen or firehose song where watt says 'dick hell'?
― Hierophantiasis (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 16:22 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.wikipedia.org/DavidBowie/RegularOlDave
During this exceedlingly brief, little-known period of his career, Bowie gained 20 pounds and began wearing sweatshirts, baseball caps and jeans. He wrote several songs for a planned country-influenced album, "Just a Good Ol' Bowie," none of which he ever recorded.
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 16:29 (eleven years ago) link
If I click on that link, will I be rickrolled?
― Fule Runnings (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:34 (eleven years ago) link
Last '/' should be a '#' I think.
― NSFW Australia (seandalai), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:36 (eleven years ago) link
holy SHIT! The Portland 78 show has by far the best version of MM I've ever heard, like a million times better than the studio one, any one, just. WOW.
― Iago Galdston, Saturday, 12 May 2012 22:25 (eleven years ago) link
The Portland show is amazing. Unlike the Waldorf show all of the stuff from Adventure has a real tension as well as intention. Also there are about twenty people in the audience.
― broom air, Sunday, 13 May 2012 01:18 (eleven years ago) link
MARQUEE MOON - LIVE! http://ow.ly/bj0k4
― tylerw, Friday, 1 June 2012 21:33 (eleven years ago) link
Thanks for this, anticipating eagerly.
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 1 June 2012 21:56 (eleven years ago) link
oh cool
is there any comprehensive collection of Television's '70s live repertoire of songs that ended up on neither MM nor Adventure? been reading the 33 1/3 on MM and wow they discarded a lot of songs on the way to making that album.
― some dude, Saturday, 2 June 2012 00:44 (eleven years ago) link