Television and Joan Jett are each Playing Free Shows this Month

Television is back (again) and are playing a free show next Saturday (June 16th) at Summerstage in Central Park. Allegedly, the will be Richard Lloyd's last show with the band.

Supporting Television are The Apples in Stereo and Dragons of Zynth. Gates open at 3:00PM but, as Television hasn't played in town in quite some time, I'd recommend being in line by 1PM at the latest.

Even though I am a big fan of Television's music, I have met Tom Verlaine on a few occasions and thought he was a complete jerk. His personality aside, I am also not a fan of band leaders who attempt to write former members out of the band's history (see the snippet below copied from the Summerstage website). C'mon Tom, everyone knows you started the band with Richard Hell.

One of the most important bands to emerge from the mid-‘70s New York punk scene, Television was founded on the double-guitar attack of leader Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. But where most guitarists of the time specialized in extended jam snooze-fests, Verlaine and Lloyd pioneered an angular, yet tuneful, style largely stripped of blues references and heavily indebted to the garage rock of the ‘60s. Television was the first band to play regularly at CBGBs, and its success encouraged the club to book other unknown acts like Patti Smith, The Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads.

Joan Jett, who continues to put on fabulous live shows, is playing Pier 54 at the Hudson River Park on Thursday, June 28th. Supporting acts are The Dollyrots (new band signed to Joan's Blackheart Records label) and The Paybacks.

Doors open at 6PM for this show.

An Update on Cartel - The Band in The Bubble

I haven't made up my mind whether this is crazy...or crazy smart. I originally couldn't figure out what the big deal is about a third-rate emo/bubblegum band spending a couple weeks in a bubble in Hudson River Park. As much as I don't like the band, I don't think I was giving the band's management sufficient credit as every news media has covered the "band in the bubble" (and now I am writing about the band as well). CMJ even has a daily bubblog (blog) from the bubble on its home page.

CMJ just published a schedule of upcoming events at the bubble:
06/02 - Harlem Boys & Girls Choir record two tracks
06/03 - Mass harmonica audition
06/04 - Knicks City Dancers perform a routine to a Cartel song
06/05 - Amanda Bynes stops by
06/06 - Surprise guests
06/07 - Winner of the Dr Pepper Cartel design announced
06/08 - Wyclef visit

If the band can sell more records because of this crazy media stunt, more power to them.