Yet again, I come to you on this Thursday somewhat surprised. I've covered the first two Television albums, plus Richard Lloyd's Field of Fire, but this is my first time bringing you one of Television guitar genius Tom Verlaine's own solo albums. Cover was certainly well-loved in the halls of KCMU - if not perhaps a bit too well-loved. But if an album's main flaw is that some people think it's spent too long in rotation, I'd say it's probably doing pretty well.
You just missed your chance to see the current version of Television in Seattle (including Jimmy Rip, who plays on Cover), but he does have some East coast dates coming up. (Side note: Am I the only dummy who just now put it together that Tom Verlaine, of Television, has the initials T.V.? Anybody else? Anyone?)
"T.V. is back!! His 4th LP (solo) after 2 years, and stronger than ever. Oh yeah, if you don't know, Tom is originally from the band Television (and my very personal hero). Rejoice!""Could be his best solo effort yet. Check out 'Travelling.'"
"Who said T.V. wasn't any good anymore? This is some of the best programming since 'Petticoat Junction.'"
"Hey!! This is good!!"
"T.V. is great! '5 Miles of You' is real nice."
"'O Foolish Heart' is pretty. Yes."
"Actually, while this has its good points, I'm getting rather sick of hearing this so often."
"Please put me back in H! I'm lonely."
Sometimes I think I'm not remotely qualified to be doing this blog series. (Perhaps you've thought the same.) Take Sparks, for example. I don't think I'd ever heard of Sparks before pulling this album off the KEXP shelves, but they've been a band for over 45 years and released a couple dozen albums…
It's somewhat shocking that I haven't covered this collection in the first ten years of this series. Not only is it perhaps the most Review Revue-friendly album ever (if you count Ministry, whose Al Jourgensen produced the album and its interstitial material, Animal Liberation features five differe…
