A chance to witness a part of 'Television's' history

You can trace a lot things to the band Television. A group that made it's mark in the 1970s

Things like the beginnings of punk rock and new wave. Things like the idea for the Sex Pistols and the first rock band to play at CBGB, where it even helped build the venue's first stage.

Then, there's the band's mingling with other groundbreaking artists from the '70s New York City arts scene. Among them were artists such as Andy Warhol, The Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, The Ramones and Talking Heads. All of whom were a part of Television's sometimes business, sometimes friendly entanglement in the thriving scene. It was a criss-crossing of such culture that just might have created the greatest punk/new wave band of all time.

You can follow Television back to 1973, when a young guitarist named Richard Lloyd met another young guitarist named Tom Verlaine, who was looking to start a band of unconventional proportions.

"I was living downtown, in Chinatown, with this guy who worked for Andy Warhol (Terry Ork)," said Lloyd during an interview with music journalist Eric Veillette. "I had been playing guitar for a number of years. I never played with anybody. I wasn't the kind of guy who ran around playing with everyone on the planet. So, one day Terry says, 'I know another guy who does what you do,' and I said, 'What do I do?' He said, 'Well, you play guitar.' So, I went down to see Verlaine play.

"So, Tom played these three songs. Instantly, watching this fellow, I just knew something was going to happen. Richard Hell was his manager, and we convinced him to learn the bass. In came Ficca, who had been a drummer in some blues band from Chicago.

"Terry Ork offered us rehearsal space in his loft, and even offered to buy us the necessary equipment. It was an offer Tom couldn't refuse. So we started the group. We called ourselves GooGoo for three weeks, then we all went our separate ways to find a name. Richard Hell came up with Television. Tom liked it because T.V. was his initials.

"We were more like the Sex Pistols back then, in a way... Well, the Sex Pistols were the band modeled after the image of Television, and the musicality of The Ramones. All done very consciously, of course, by a guy (Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren) who wanted to manage Television, and who was told 'No.' "

Influenced largely by the "darker" music of the '60s, Lloyd lists Hendrix, the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead as his inspirations.

Lloyd's style and creativity, however, is something vastly detached from the bluesy, rock 'n' roll undertones of such inspirations. Lloyd became known for his groundbreaking approach to rhythm guitar.

It was the first time the music world had heard a band whose rhythm guitarist often played a completely different yet correlating progression from the lead guitarist.

Verlaine and Lloyd virtually played dual leads that intertwined with one another throughout each song. The complexity of such an idea was unheard of at that time, and critics hailed Verlaine and Lloyd as guitar and song-writing innovators. Despite the band's incredible creativity and talent, Television failed to gain much notoriety with fans in the U.S., but did manage to wow fans and critics overseas.

After signing to Elektra Records and releasing two seminal records, "Marquee Moon" and "Adventure," Television decided to disband in 1978. There would be reunions, disbandment and then more reunions, but eventually Lloyd decided to turn his attention to other projects.

In 1979, Lloyd released his debut solo album "Alchemy" to extremely favorable review. It would be seven years later before Lloyd would release another solo album, "Field of Fire." His live album, "Real Time" appeared the following year, and then 14 years passed before Lloyd would release another solo effort. Perhaps the delay in releases is due to Lloyd's self-proclaimed distaste, or fear, of songwriting.

"I want to say, its really a struggle against certain aspects of myself," Lloyd told Veillette. "And it really humbles me to find out, as a songwriter, how little I really have to say to the world. In terms of 'marvelous lyric content,' it's just not gonna' happen. The best things that I write are kind of coated. They're not about what they're about. They're about something else. But, the process of songwriting is just painful."

To occupy himself in between solo releases, Lloyd built a studio and began producing and collaborating with various musicians, including Matthew Sweet, John Doe (of the band X), Bibi Farber and others, as well as teaching guitar and occasionally voice in his studio.

Lloyd also embarked on numerous side projects. Most notably, the iconic punk band Rocket From The Tombs and his current touring endeavor, The Sufi Monkey Trio.

Lloyd released his latest solo album, "The Radiant Monkey" last year and is on tour to support the album with his backing band The Sufi Monkey Trio.

And despite having more than three decades of experience as a professional musician, Lloyd hesitates when referring to his illustrious musical career as a conscious choice. Instead, Lloyd seems to believe his life as a musician was simply the only profession applicable to his way of life.

"... I still don't aspire to become a musician," says Lloyd. "I'm a musician by default. I'm a musician by refusing to grow up, and not wanting to undertake any of the other disciplines that might have been necessitated by having a goal.

"At the time, to be an astronaut and go to the moon, you had to be in the military. Well, that didn't look too promising. I lived in absolute terror of growing up, and I found the one thing that you could actually do and do well, and it prevented you from growing up."