#television personalities

[guessimdumb]

Television Personalities - Three Wishes (1982)

I'd wish for three more

[sonicandvisualsurprises]

February 27, 1981

This was Television Personalities' 4th single.

A quirky nod to Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett, I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives pairs with Arthur The Gardener to highlight TVP's indie charm.

[jt1674]

[pinkfloyd-musicartnaturelove]

David Gilmour invited a band, Television Personalities, to perform at a few shows on the UK leg of his About Face tour. The band wrote a song titled 'I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives' as an ode for their appreciation for Syd Barrett. For some strange reason, at the end of the performance of said song, the lead singer, Dan Treacy, literally knew where Syd lived and proceeded to read out Syd's full postal address to the audience. An infuriated and mortified Gilmour dismissed them immediately.

[bandcampsnoop]

8/12/24.

I'm not sure why Monorail Music (Glasgow) always gets cool extras to sell with their LPs. Maybe they just ask. But, they do have an autographed/tote offer with their version of the new LP from Baltimore, Maryland band The Smashing Times. This LP sounds less like the Television Personalities, Pale Lights and The Pastels (previous releases brought these bands to mind), and more like Saturday Looks Good To Me or Mighty Clouds.

Of course, all this could be wrong as there is only currently one song available. This new LP is set for release in November and will be handled by K Records/Perennial.

[spilladabalia]

Television Personalities - I Like That In A Girl

[dustedmagazine]

The Smashing Times — Mrs. Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys (Perennial/K)

These tunes tip a jaunty hat to the Television Personalities. The band’s name, after all, is purloined from a TVP song, as is its tipsy, strumming surreality. The main principles are native to Seattle and currently residing in Baltimore, but you’ve never guess that, not from the flat, north English intonations of “Tarts and Vicars,” nor from the fey group-sung fantasias of “Ben Jimeny the Green Grocer,” a dead ringer for Dan Treacy’s “Arthur the Gardener.” Still traces of Smashing Times’ PNW origins turn up sporadically. A slouchy, jammy, beat-dragging reverie called “Can I Have Some Tea?” requests the quintessential English beverage from the depths of a sagging punk squat couch, two fuzzed and free-spirited DIY traditions meeting in an improbable middle.

This is Smashing Times’ fourth full-length and the second on Perennial and K Records, fitting enough since it mixes the tuneful punk pop of the former, the lo-fi aesthetic and wide-eyed lyrical naivete of the latter. Here, the Smashing Times proffer music hall skiffles tipped off their axes, whistling cheerily past the desolate stretches.

In the opener, first single and title track, they play at Creation-esque (the “Painter Man” band, not the label) guitar pop, sliding into ringing power chords like a base runner stealing second, ba-da-dum. Radiant guitar licks run into slack-jawed, girl-sung “la la la”s, the effect both epic and a bit feckless. Likewise, “Wednesday, on a Hummingbird’s Wing” carves out large pop sonics without seeming to fuss too much, the bass line like a sharpie drawing thick lines around indefinite, C86-style miasmas.

Found sounds and spoken word intervals turn up in unexpected places. For instance, “I Paint the Pictures” doesn’t really start until an upper class British voice has declared, “I could offer you a huge great glass of stout. I drink this stuff at dawn, because it makes the day shorter.”

“Tarts and Vicars” is, perhaps, the best track here, akin to Orange Just in its twitchy bass and trebly guitar skree, but also borrowing a bit of Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” for pulse and friction. It’s as loose and dreamy as anything on this oddball album, but it also moves, which turns out to make all the difference.  

Jennifer Kelly

[hatecomeseasy]

TELEVISION PERSONALITIES - Look Back In Anger

[gone2soon-rip]

RICHARD SIMMONS (1948-Died July 12th 2024.at 76).American fitness personality and public figure. He was a promoter of weight-loss programs, most prominently through his Sweatin' to the Oldies line of aerobics videos.He was often parodied and was a frequent guest of late-night television and radio talk shows, such as the Late Show with David Letterman and The Howard Stern Show.Richard Simmons - Wikipedia

[omegaremix]

Spring 2023 Mixtape.

Enola: “Does Anyone Else”

Kontravoid: “So It Seems” (Fractions RMX)

Trace Amount: “SCN INST”

Varg: “Anti Everything”

Visceral Anatomy: “Lipswitch”

Walking Icons, The: “Shadow Of The Saints”

Jabee & Conductor Williams & Boldy James: “Indulgence”

Mamalarky: “Green Earth”

Meow Meow Fuzzyface: “Frena”

Slifft: “The Real Unseen”

Special Interest: Foul

Grocer: “Calling Out”

JFK: “Feel The Weight”

Smith N’ Hack: “Space Warrior”

Devo: “Devo Corporate Anthem”

Ron Morelli: “Ron’s Torture”

Ikon: “A Moment In Time”

Snowy Red: “The Long Run”

Pictureplane: “Joyrider”

Borzoi: “Passing”

Cheekface: “Pledge Drive”

Elucid: “Betamax”

Spiritual Cramp: “Earth To Mike”

Danny’s Favorites: “Hold On Me”

Television Personalities: “Where’s Bill Grundy Now?”

Griselda: “John Woo Flick”

David Ruffin: “I Get Excited”

Letting Up Despite Great Faults: “She Spins”

My Idea: “Cry MFer

Sasami: “Say It”

Deeper: “Only A Shadow”

Devo: “Smart Patrol” (demo)

[sonicandvisualsurprises]

Artwork for I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives/Arthur The Gardener

7", 45 RPM, Single, Limited Edition, Reissue (October 1990)

Limited edition 2000 copies

Overground Records – OVER 013

Info and artwork from Discogs

[callmebrycelee]

HAPPY 47TH BIRTHDAY, JOEY FATONE!!!

[awesounds]

TELEVISION PERSONALITIES - part time punks

[theprofessorofdesire]

[bandcampsnoop]

January 2, 2025.

Ah, the fraction dates that force me to use words. Curse auto-correct.

Every once in a while, I'll come across an album cover that needs to be ignored. Nutrias "El Alborotado Sonido De Las Nutrias" is such a cover. I don't know what kind of music it portends, but it's not this.

Nutrias (Galicia, Spain) must love early Flying Nun (The Clean most obviously). The Bandcamp page also mentions "bands like Beat Happening, Television Personalities, or The Feelies". And there is a song titled "Mark E. Smith".

This album is literally an international effort - there are SIX different labels partaking in this release: Third Uncle Records (US), Old Bad Habits Label (Greece), Discos de Kirlian, Ferror Records and Paff Bum Discos (Spain) and also on CD via Subjangle (South Africa).