This from Aquarium Drunkard this week | TELEVISION Live in New York 1992

Television :: Live at the Academy, NYC 12.4.92

Posted on April 15, 2024

Television have two well-known live albums to their name, both taped in 1978 — the classic ROIR release The Blow-Up, which came out in the early 1980s, and the incendiary Live at the Old Waldorf, emerging about 20 years later. Live at the Academyis much more under the radar; originally sold in unassuming CDR format at merch tables in the 2000s, it’s been available only fleetingly since on various streaming services. This year’s Record Store Day, however, sees the performance getting a well-deserved double LP reissue. It’s a necessary addition to Television’s relatively small discography.

More from Moore | Thurston Moore's 'Sonic Life' memoir . . . . .

 

Patti Smith Group / John Cale / Television :: The Palladium, New York City, December 31, 1976

Posted on March 19, 2024

As mentioned in a recent Aquarium Drunkard Book Club, some of the most entertaining parts of Thurston Moore’s Sonic Life memoir come during his teenage years, way before Sonic Youth was even a twinkle in his eye. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Fan? From the suburbs of Connecticut, Moore made countless trips into NYC to soak in the punk/CBGB/Max’s Kansas City worlds, catching shows by The Ramones, Suicide, the Dead Boys, Sid Vicious … and Patti Smith, of course. Thurston paints an evocative portrait of this New Year’s Eve blowout, which doubled as Patti’s raucous 30th birthday party. He was dangerously high on mescaline.

Hear it for yourself …

Hear here . . . .

Mo’ Tom Verlaine . . . . . . Television Playlist Aquarium Drunkard | t wilcox

 RELUCTANT FAREWELL

More Tom Verlaine

Tell-A-Vision - Tom Verlaine playlist - AQUARIUM DRUNKARD

A reluctant farewell to Tom Verlaine, who helped define (and then quickly transcended) the NYC punk scene of the 1970s, inspiring countless groups through the decades. 

We’ll likely have more to say about the man in the days/weeks to come, but in the meantime, here’s an hour’s worth of Television covers stretching from the 1970s on through the present day, putting a spotlight on the impact the band had on the generations of artists that followed in their wake.

by

t wilcox

Tom Verlaine - December 13, 1949 – January 28, 2023 ~ R.I.P. The definitive REBOOTS FLOPPY BOOT STOMP | Silent Way

TOM VERLAINE AT FLOPPY BOOT STOMP

Beautiful job here from the Boss over at Floppy Boot Stomp

another unique and haunting voice lost to us . . . . . . 

James Hamilton, Tom Verlaine, 1981

Television - Live All Tomorrow’s Parties, UK 2001 April 8, 2001 Camber Sands, England

Television - New York Stories (live 1975-76) at CBGBs

Tom Verlaine - Live Big Club Torino, Italy 1987

Television - Live Paradiso, Amsterdam 1977

Television - Live Rio de Janeiro 2005

Television - Live Hartsdale, NY 1977

Television - Live at the Academy 1992 

Television - Neon Boys and Double Exposure Demos -'73-'74-'75

Tom Verlaine - Live In Rouen France 1987

Tom Verlaine & Dave Bascomb - London Sessions 1986

Tom Verlaine - Live Gothenburg, Sweden 1987

with accompanying videos

UPDATE: Oh and there’s more today (31/01/23) 

Television - Live in The Old Waldorf San Francisco 1978 - Waldorf Moon - FLOPPY BOOT STOMP

Richard Lloyd, Tom Verlaine with Lou Reed at CBGB, New York City, 1975

“Practice? I never practice. I just write songs and take solos.” Tom Verlaine,  1982

I think the Boss liked Television!

More Sad News . . . . . . . . .TELEVISION "New Adventure In Lo-Fi" Live at the University Of London Union 2004 | For TOM VERLAINE

Tom & Patti 

. . . . it seems apposite and understandable that it is Patti’s daughter, Jesse’ who announced Tom’s death

Another revolutionary figure passes away . . . . . .

TOM VERLAINE 

R.I.P. 1949 - 2023

Tom Verlaine, whose band Television was one of the most influential to emerge from the New York punk rock scene centered on the nightclub CBGB - but whose exploratory guitar improvisations and poetic songwriting were never easily categorisable as punk, or for that matter as any other genre - died on January 28 in Manhattan. He was 73. His death was announced by Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of Verlaine’s fellow musician Patti Smith. She did not specify a cause, saying that he died “after a brief illness.”

After putting out a 7-inch single in 1975 on their manager Terry Ork’s label, Television would sign with Elektra and release Marquee Moon in 1977 to critical and commercial success, cracking the Billboard 200 album chart. They quickly followed it up with the more subdued Adventure in 1978, and broke up shortly after. The band would briefly reform in the early ‘90s to record a self-titled studio album.

“Tom Verlaine is the guitarist to mention these days if you’re a young rocker with some pretense to intelligence and originality,” Robert Palmer of The New York Times wrote in 1987.

The layered, often ethereal sound that Verlaine and the other members of Television developed was a far cry from the stripped-down approach of the Ramones and other leading lights of the punk scene. But that scene - which also included bands as disparate as Blondie and Talking Heads - was never as one-dimensional as it was often portrayed.

After hearing of Verlaine’s death, countless musicians have posted tributes in his honor, including the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs, Thurston Moore, Real Estate, Heems, and Ryley Walker, among others. “Tom Verlaine was a true great, tweeted  Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite. “His role in our culture and straight up awesomeness on the electric guitar was completely legendary. Name 10 minutes of music as good as Marquee Moon. You can’t. It’s perfect. Rest in peace Tom x.”

TELEVISION
New Adventure In Lo-Fi
Live at the University Of London Union; June 23, 2004. Very good audience recording.

The review for Television’s 1977 debut album, Marquee Moon, in BigO’s 100 Best Albums 1975-1995 is still relevant when listening to Television live in 2004:

“Marquee Moon vacillates between the New York sound of CBGB and the then current rock style of long songs and meticulous soloing which earned Television the unwanted title, Grateful Dead of punk. Fronted by twin guitarists in Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, both played in a finger-picking style that showed no traces of the usual heavy metal/hard rock cliches… The CBGB side of Television was in the stream of consciousness lyrics that some critics accused of being meaningless and also in Verlaine’s less than macho singing. This was against the grain in ‘77.”

While it might have been uncool then to use the word “epic” for Television, there is certainly a sense of the epic on tracks such as The Dream’s Dream, The Sea and Persia, a similarity found on some of the songs by Calexico. Interestingly, Persia would well be the theme song for what’s currently unfolding in Egypt and the middle east. And for those who felt that the usual 10-minute Marquee Moon wasn’t long enough, here’s one that goes for 13 minutes.

Strong musicianship, their presence at CBGB, drawing influences from the Velvet Underground to Steve Reich and the bands they shared the stage with, not only are Television considered one of the founders of New York punk and new wave, they are still influential to this day (Marquee Moon was No. 2 on Uncut magazine’s 100 Greatest Debut Records).

While the artwork for this show, which was received in a trade, says New Adventure In Lo-Fi, the tracks are tagged as “In To The Dream”, possibly taken from a Japanese boot.

Television - Live at The Union, London University 2004 - For Tom

Thanks to Alice over at O My Soul

for this reminder . . . . . 

Television - Days (1978)