Songs inspired by Television’s “Marquee Moon"

Certain songs are pretty easily identified as being inspired by the song, or even direct homage, with similar guitar rhythm, tones, timbres, use of crescendo, etc. Lots of bands were influenced by Television, of course, like Felt, True West, Galaxie 500/Luna, etc. I’m listing songs mostly from recent years. Got any more to add? Let’s not go too crazy with listing anything with twin lead guitar interplay.

Wilco, “Bull Black Nova” – Wilco (The Album) (2009)
Stephen Malkmus, “Real Emotional Trash” – Real Emotional Trash (2008)
Steve Wynn & The Miracle3, “No Tomorrow” – …Tick…Tick…Tick (2006)
The Horror The Horror, “Twice In A Lifetime” – The Horror The Horror (2006)
Built To Spill, “Goin’ Against Your Mind” – You In Reverse (2006)
Stephen Malkmus, “One Percent Of One” – Pig Lib (2003)
Sonic Youth, “Rain On Tin” – Murray Street (2002)
Eleventh Dream Day, “Tenth Leaving Train” – Prairie School Freakout (1988)

Could make a good mix if ppl are restrained enough in re: the criteria.

My #1 pick-

Thin White Rope- "Moonhead"- Moonhead (1985?6?)

Ooh, I've been meaning to get that. I wanted the Moonhead...Plus reissue from 01, but it's xpensive.

I think it's on eMusic if you fuck with eMusic. Such a great album.

i always thought the vocalist from phoenix owed a lot to verlaine

Well, no one went crazy that's f'sure. Maybe I was too specific. Is there a bands influenced by Television thread? I'm listening to the new Real Estate some moments make me think of a mix of Adventure-era Television and Felt.

Veronica Falls - Tell Me

Cell - Blue Star
Texas Instruments - Speed of Sound

this is a funny/amusing TV ripoff by a semi unknown, long defunct spanish band called los bichos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCyDcfxnO0w

Wolf Parade, "Fine Young Cannibals"

last time I saw The Dismemberment Plan, "Marquee Moon" was playing over the PA just before they came onstage, and the first song they played was "A Life Of Possibilities," and suddenly I realized there's a similarity in the guitar lines and wondered if they were overtly pointing out the influence.

Gore Slut, "Moon"

Feel like a Felt song should get a mention here, maybe 'Fortune'?

Always thought X's "Adult Books" was very similar to "Prove It," but then it could just be the 50s influence on both songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh4Wcftmfrg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y-IOr4ubkk

Blue Aeroplanes always had a huge Tom Verlaine influence, both in the vocal delivery and in the guitars

One of my go-to suggestions, just cause I love it and it has a little of the feel of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwIDcobO4l4

plenty of talk about it on the post-fahey thread, but if yr looking for recent things w/ a marquee moon vibe, Chris Forsyth's Solar Motel and Cian Nugent's Born With The Caul from last year ...

Also, John Mulvey of Uncut Magazine did an exercise where he asked folks to contribute suggestions for this very thing, some good ones in there (which of course you remember Tyler ...):

http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/wild-mercury-sound/the-marquee-moonsailors-life-youtube-playlist

a lot of these songs are influenced by prog rock, like television was. it's kind of like writing blues antecedents out of the led zeppelin story

There's a moment late into "Marquee Moon" when the guitars coalesce into this brief, driving, octave chord. It lasts just a few seconds but I'm certain that that moment is responsible for Drive Like Jehu.

The Blue Aeroplanes' "Season Ticket To A Bad Place" would have been a great fit for that Marquee Moon/Sailor's Life list

Always a good excuse to post one of the most criminally unsung bands of the Minneapolis new wave era: NNB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUSTH7qMwb4

Never listened to The Blue Aeroplanes, will try to check out more (song above is pretty cool, can see some TV guitar-phrase copping there for sure).

Pgwp, those "Marquee Moon" ascending octave chords have influenced/created many band sounds! I am a huge Drive Like Jehu fan and have wondered that very thing many times, but of course you really hear it all over Sonic Youth as well. So many rips of that ascending octave action, which of course is one of the greatest moments in a rock song (in my mind) of all time.

Something about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZNaeks0Rk8&feature=kp

Blue Aeroplanes always used to end their set with an epic version of verlaine's 'breakin' in my heart', so they were tv acolytes for sure

bits of the dead often cross over into marquee moon/sailor's life territory - there's a gd Playing in the Band on that recent Sunshine Daydream set that in places has a verlaine/lloyd vibe, just for examp

Never listened to The Blue Aeroplanes, will try to check out more

Spitting Out Miracles is my favourite one of theirs, there's a pretty strong English folk/Richard Thompson influence on it along with the Verlaine worship. The one after that (Swagger) is where they made the jump to a major label and it sounds a lot slicker and REM-ish (and they actually toured with them at the time and Michael Stipe appears on the album), but it's still got some fantastic songs on it and a good guitar quotient.

Interpol - Obstacle 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkBAUqp6NKg

Lloyd Cole, Felt and Blue Aeroplanes for sure, and all the rest look good, though I have to dig up Cell, TI, Gore Moon, etc.

a lot of these songs are influenced by prog rock, like television was. it's kind of like writing blues antecedents out of the led zeppelin story

Yeah but this is about what sounds like Television, not prog. Can't really say any of these bands sound like Wishbone Ash or Jethro Tull. Has Verlaine cited any specific prog bands?

I don't recall ever seeing Verlaine compared with prog before. The Dead and Quicksilver, yeah.

a lot of these songs are influenced by prog rock, like television was
i've had people tell me marquee moon (the song) sounds like Yes, but uh, I don't think any of the Television guys were listening to prog rock in the early 70s. unless yeah, something like the Dead, Quicksilver, "East-West" etc is considered prog?

isn't verlaine p cagey abt this influences stuff? i think he'll admit to a mild liking for john coltrane, at a push

he likes the nuggets anthology, albert ayler, coltrane, and the theme from the twilight zone.

Did anyone remark on Fairport Convention's "A Sailor's tale" from "Unhalfbricking?

Verlaine was quoted in a 2007 Mojo piece ("100 Records That Changed The World") about how much he dug "My Generation," saying he'd been something of a jazz snob up to that point, but that record blew his mind.

if you want a pretty good television influences + television rarities + television contemporaries mix, dig this: http://bryanwaterman.tumblr.com/post/17268426272/happy-35th-birthday-to-televisions-marquee-moon

Oo, those mediafzz links still work!

proud of ilx that Th* St*k*s haven't been mentioned

lol i mean Th* Str*k*s

ha, i never forgave the editor who inserted a strokes reference into my Richard Lloyd interview w/o telling me. still rankles!

Always a good excuse to post one of the most criminally unsung bands of the Minneapolis new wave era: NNB.

wow, thank you! i love the internet!

I was overjoyed when I found that NNB video, because they recorded one single, one track for a flexidisc and two tracks for a comp, and that's it. This one kills too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrEi-l2KNrY

NNB! saw them in a reissued film of a show of theirs, part of a larger festival (forget entirely what it was now). what's the comp?

Reissued film show must have been M-80. That clip above is from M-80 too, but not the same one I think?

The comp is Big Hits of Mid America Vol. 3.

And the 45 is "Slack"/"New World," and the flexidisc is "Well, Oh Well." And that's all they ever released.

i think you're right about the show. it was pretty revelatory at the time, i'd never heard of them, neither had most people attending. the hook for the thing was i think devo. funny that the show wasn't all cool by any stretch! there was some bad hard rock with a dude doing a roger daltrey kind of a thing which got a few laughs.

I was at the M-80 concert! (most of the two days.) I'm trying to think of who the Daltrey-ish dude might have been.

Here's the lineup:

http://lol-omg-blog.blogspot.com/2011/01/1980-walker-new-wave-show-poster.html

OH! I totally know!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17GOy_jMz30

Yeah, in 1979 punk/new wave in Minneapolis wasn't quite codified. Iit was anybody looking for a bar to play original rock.

re: NNB--there's also Red House, Mark Freeman's post-NNB band. only one single?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnSNEymcd_8

Yeah, I was gonna mention that I have that one too. I'm a completist! The "One Mat Room" video has Cindy Blum on drums, who carried over into Red House. I probably saw them play live more.

cool—i imagine they were great live!

They were! Are you in the Twin Cities? I probably shouldn't be posting this on the internet, but several of them have been jamming in a basement recently. I don't know how big a hope to pin on an actual reunion, but...

wow, great to hear that! i'm not in Mpls, unfortch—Cambridge MA.

It's been quite a while since I've listened to "25 Reasons," I actually just got a chill. They really were great. (And now I've completely derailed the Television thread.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-q_ZTpLJZE

^ almost forgotten SST band Slovenly were pretty good at the two guitar thing

true! love them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH7DB7cWszw

^ always makes me wish the Go-Betweens did more epic guitar blaze-ups cos they were pretty good at it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1PkirEhTs8

I like to think of Kiwi pub stable Th' Dudes' "Be Mine Tonight" as bogan Television:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PIIrfnfieQ

Jaguares - Dime Jaguar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBWy7SCm3dA

these guys were staples of latin mtv around mid 90s, the introductory arpeggio seems lifted straight from the REM songbook but the rest of the song is pure TV epicness

Those NNB videos are fantastic!