(TV) Tom Article in today's NY Times

[davmarrnr@aol.com]

May 18, 2006

The Return of Tom Verlaine: A Reluctant Guitar God Makes Up for Lost 
Time
By BEN SISARIO

Lately Tom Verlaine has been reading a lot of biographies of composers, 
"just to find out what kind of lives these guys lived," he said. He has 
enjoyed Beethoven's spiritual development and Erik Satie's comic 
absurdism, but his favorite is Morton Feldman, the New York 
avant-gardist known for his celestially slow pieces.

"He has this story about how he knew he could become a composer when he 
found the right chair," Mr. Verlaine said with a throaty laugh as he 
ate a late-afternoon omelet recently at a diner near the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art. "I think he found it on the street."

When asked how his own life should appear in a biography, Mr. Verlaine 
thought for a moment before offering his preferred self-deprecating 
epigram: "Struggling not to have a professional career."

And he's succeeding pretty well at that goal, if recent years are any 
guide. Mr. Verlaine, guitarist and songwriter for the 1970's band 
Television, has kept a low profile since he became the unlikely guitar 
god of the punk era, playing not rapid-fire bursts but, in counterpoint 
with his band mate Richard Lloyd's guitar, sharp, sinuous 
improvisations more akin to free jazz than the Ramones. Patti Smith 
once described his sound as "like a thousand bluebirds screaming."

Tonight and tomorrow he will make a rare appearance at the Bowery 
Ballroom, and he has two new solo albums, his first in 14 years.

Bettina Richards, the chief executive of Thrill Jockey Records, which 
last month released the albums b "Around" and "Songs and Other Things" 
b said it took her five years to persuade him to record again.

"I liked recording," Mr. Verlaine said, "but I wasn't much in the mood 
to do it until a couple years ago."

In an hourlong conversation that followed a brisk visit to the Met to 
see works by Samuel Palmer, the 19th-century English landscape painter 
influenced by William Blake, Mr. Verlaine spoke about art and music 
with the wide-ranging zeal of a longtime cultural omnivore. What he 
called the "nature ecstasy" of Palmer's paintings brought to mind the 
work of Charles Burchfield; a pre-Raphaelite work spotted in one 
gallery led to a recommendation of Edward Burne-Jones.

Mr. Verlaine recounted his life in sound from the time he heard a 
symphony at age 4 b "I remember being totally transported by it, right 
away thinking that this is what I want to do" b through an education in 
classical music and his discovery of jazz. Recently he has been 
listening intently to the music of Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th-century 
nun who had mystical visions, and he liberally name-dropped his 
favorite 20th-century composers: Penderecki, Feldman, Hovhaness, Ligeti.

But he had little to say about rock 'n' roll. He was inspired to play 
it after hearing the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds in the 60's, but 
he has not listened to much recent rock at all. And though his clean, 
razor-cut guitar style has had a big influence on new groups like the 
Strokes b and in the spacious, noirish pieces on "Around," a link to 
contemporary experimental groups like Tortoise is clear b Mr. Verlaine 
says he does not hear a similarity. "It's nice when people say nice 
things about you," he said, "but I don't always know what they're 
talking about."

Graying and thin at 56, with eyes that seem distant and furtive, he 
still bears a resemblance to his lanky, boyish portrait on the cover of 
Television's 1977 album "Marquee Moon." After Television broke up in 
1978, Mr. Verlaine began a solo career, though after a while tired of 
the routine.

"When I first started touring," he said, "having to get up at 7 a.m. to 
get on buses or go to airports after playing all night, I thought: 
'This is terrible. This is not what music is about.' It dawned on me 
that I had to make a decision: Am I going to go along with this whole 
thing or not? I just said nah. I decided against the whole 'careering' 
thing."

Instead he has made do with a light concert calendar b the reunited 
Television still plays several weeks a year b and eagerly took on film 
scores and unconventional projects. In the 90's he was commissioned to 
compose and perform soundtracks to silent films by Man Ray, Fernand 
LC)ger and others, and was invigorated by the challenge: "I wanted to 
try to figure out what the director intended and come up with a mixture 
of composed and improvised themes. It took a long time to do, but it 
turned out to be a really great gig. I wish I could to it every week."

Of his two new albums, "Songs and Other Things" is densely composed and 
sung in his trademark nervous tenor. "Around" is made up of 
instrumentals, most of them pensive and leisurely; the album begins 
with a slow, luxurious bath of guitar in "The O of Adore," which in its 
structure and melody resembles an Indian raga.

"He plays a lot like he is," said Lenny Kaye, the guitarist and writer, 
who has played with him recently in Ms. Smith's group. "There is a 
certain sense of privacy. He wants you to listen to the music, but 
doesn't want you to probe into the personal character. He really does 
believe that the music has a life of its own. In his mastery it is a 
real universe."
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