White Man said:
Yeah, last time they were brought up in a thread, I referred to them as post-punk, and I sort of got in an exchange with someone else about it. Maybe they recorded in the classic NYC punk years, but they certainly didn't sound like it. Similar to Talking Heads, actually. They were recording in the NYC punk scene in 77, but would you call them punk? Even their first recordings, when they still didn't know how to properly play, were far removed from the typical punk bands.
Well, I think that punk has sort of become synonymous with shoddy musicianship and 2 chord riffs, but in in it's inception that really wasn't the case. The whole 'punk' thing was more of an attitude than anything, and Television certainly had that attitude. Their approach to guitar playing was totally different, they eschewed the wanky solos and bombast of 'cock rock'/ prog, but were still adept at their instruments... and Verlaine's lyrics sort of had this underlying urban tone. "Prove It" and "Venus" are about as punk as it gets! But yeah, it is true that Television's influence can be seen more in post-punk bands (and
post post-unk bands), but that's mainly because of the misconception that punk is just "anarcarchy rules!!" and power chords.... thanks to bands like the Sex Pistols. In terms of the Talking Heads. their earlier stuff definitely had a punk vibe to it... but then they got more influenced by world music and alll that jazz, and then they somehow became a definitive 'new wave' band or whatever....
But then again you're right in the sense that a lot of these bands were lumped together just because they happened to play CBGBs. I mean... Blondie isn't punk at all aside from a song or two.
And yeah, totally check out Television
Cool. Marquee Moon is probably my favorite album ever. Get the songs:
Venus
Elevation
Marquee Moon
Prove It
Torn Curtain
Glory
See No Evil
Mars
Friction
Guiding Light