Television

Kate Pierson mentioned on FB that she and Verlaine lived in the same building for years.

5) Those Television reunion gigs probably paid decently.

is there a definitive book about Television?

the 33 1/3 book about Marquee Moon is good and more or less covers their entire career in the 1970s — there could be more about Adventure, but it goes pretty far past MM.

The 33 1/3 book plus the television section of from the velvets to the voidoids

yonki time is super annoying to me but i always put up with it just to hear his speaking voice. i don't even have anything to add about it, i just, y'know, used to like being able to hear what he sounded like before youtube immersed the world in omnivideo. ha i've never even gone to yt to see his interviews. it's yonki time w/e that means.

*realizes yt also stands for: YONKI TIME*

There’s a cool spoken word over improv track from the reunion album sessions, “The Revolution”, where you can get your fill. It was included at the end of The Miller’s Tale.

Xpost

4a) and a bump in earnings every time Scary Monsters was reissued.

... was about to say.

google says tv had an estimated net worth of 3mil but who knows. i'm not sure he always lived in the same apt, because some articles say e11th and others (dean wareham) say chelsea so he might have moved.

Those Google net worth things are total BS I think.

Do not underestimate the amount of reputable downtown musicians living in rent controlled apartments in soho, the east village, alphabet city and the LES.

One of those networth googlebait pages also suggests that TV married Lizzie Mercier Descloux in 1997 - surely that's not true?

Dan otm. There is some kind of grandfather clause or something.

I visited Elliott Sharp in the mid 90s at his apt in alphabet city, was a storied building. I think Richard Hell lived there as well. And many years before Ginsberg and Kerouac I think. The bathtub was in the kitchen, classic.

Meanwhile I have a friend who grew up in soho on Prince st in a loft the length of a building. I believe they’re still paying 700 a month.

Until he died in 2013 my uncle in Jackson Heights paid $390 a month for a two-bedroom.

great great album, that Quine/Mori/Ribot. belongs in the "wide open desert music" thread.

Pretty sure I put it in there!

About his apartment, a photographer named Stefano Giovannini posted this on Facebook along with nine photos of tv:

Several years ago I spent an afternoon taking photos of Tom Verlaine. He was one of the most representative musicians of the New York I was drawn to. Television's Marquee Moon, still sound so fresh, with long guitar passages that make you feel that in life everything is possible.
(…)
He lived at London Terrace in Chelsea. he told me he bought the apartment for very little with a record advance he got from a Television record (could have been Marquee Moon), but he lamented how the maintenance expenses were going up significantly, as wealthier people were now on the coop condominium board.

It was a very chilly February day,. it was snowy and Tom's eyes were teary from the wind.

We ended up at the art bookstore Printed matter.

Did you ever visit that uncle, Alfred?

oh too have bought in London Terrace. To rent a 1 bedroom there now you're looking at $4,950 a month in rent. There's two 1 bedrooms listed right now, who knows, maybe one of them was Tom's.

My aunt moved to chelsea in the early/mid 80s, it was a very different place back then obviously.

Fond memories of Midnight Records on 23rd and the comic book store across the street.

Yes xpost

No doubt it hastened his death, but a part of me appreciates Tom Verlaine still smoking while hanging out at The Strand's outdoor dollar bins.

Now I kind of want to know exactly what block your uncle lived on but maybe that's TMI.

I feel like the record advance being referenced (that he used to buy his apt) could have been for the 1992 self titled album rather than MM

Also it’s like two blocks from my work and I have walked past it thousands of times, there’s no way I didn’t obliviously walk right past tv at least once, probably with my headphones on lol

Starting to think the same thing. At least in front of or near The Strand.

Last night I was listening to Marquee Moon. When it was over it keep going and it took me a few seconds to identify what I thought was a Television bonus track when in fact it was a song by another artist that the autoplay algorithm chose, "Fragile" by Wire.

Still wondering what to think of, how to describe the Television rhythm section. Their like the Crazy Horse version of The Modern Lovers rhythm section.

This case is closed.

I would describe them as "jazzy."

Billy Ficca certainly looked like he could be in Crazy Horse.

yeah i think they are pretty accomplished compared to the horse

Matt, I listened to your podcast with Matt Sweeney, really really enjoyed it!

Marquee Moon became an album I retreat into when I'm going through a tough time, and I've been hammering it hard this winter. For this to happen now, while the songs are so present in my life, feels particularly destabilizing.

I also wonder if I ever saw him at the Strand and just didn't realize. I worked right by Union Square for a long time. The stories of him being so kind to all the employees there are really moving to me. It looks like he was a genuinely good person who treated people well.

Maybe this one got linked already? The whole thread is worth a read:

Tom Verlaine was always nice to me when I was working at @strandbookstore tending the dollar carts. He came around a lot. Tall dude. He must have lived somewhere close by in the Village. pic.twitter.com/JTsXUtRGRO

— Liam O’Brien (@LiamIsTalking) January 28, 2023

that’s a lovely thread

Yes. I didn't quite understand this bit though.

Dodging rain and under strict directions to NOT box up any damp books, we started pulling armfuls of red and white hardcovers off the carts, stripping their dust jackets and stuffing them into trash bags.

Oh I guess the books themselves were red and white but not the dustjackets.

I can feel my brane started to plant a false memory of a Strand sighting.

I mean there were probably plenty of guys I saw who looked vaguely like him, why didn't I put two and two together?

didn't verlaine work at strand himself in his early nyc days?

i kind of envision that scene as a hardcore book person's challenge to pick out the wheat from what the booksellers themselves think is chaff.

Used to see TV around London Terrace when i worked in that hood in the mid-late 90s. Debbie Harry lived / lives there as well and we both used the same video store. One time I was renting "Pixote" and she asked me "Whatcha got there?". I showed her the title and she cringed "Oh no! Too violent for me!" (my heart was a - flutter, I tell ya )

I can imagine

The only time I saw Debbie Harry in the flesh (pun intended!) that wasn't at a show of hers (or otherwise, she was at a Yeah Yeah Yeahs show at the Cooler, Bjork too, at the very beginning of their hype), was at the chelsea flea market walking the stalls with Chris. Was very excited.

haven't seen harry around, but i've seen clem burke around the east village way more than you might expect

was at the ivan julian benefit at city winery and she sat herself down at an empty chair at our table and we were, like, homina homina homina.

NPR has a segment on Tom this evening

^^^ really short, like two minutes

So 1/8 the duration of a Richard Lloyd string tuning session.

https://t.co/hY36qjHULh
In late 1975, two Trouser Press writers brought Tom Verlaine of the then-unsigned Television to their apartment for an interview. This conversation has never previously been published. With an introductory essay and audio clips from the conversation.

— trouserpress (@trouserpress) February 1, 2023

Ok wow I better find a comfy chair for this one

Wow

he worked at the Strand! <3