Wiki
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Release Date
1982
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Length
13 tracks
On the evening of March 31, 1974 the band Television took the stage at the NYC Bowery night club CBGB's for an extended residency that revolutionized the rock and roll universe! It was the actual birth date of the New Wave movement. This anti-glam, anti-big industry rock crusade incubated in New York with the likes of Patti Smith, The Ramones, Richard Hell, and The Dictators.
At the very least the Television residency at CBGB's brought enormous media focus to a simmering underground for a new kind of music the industry denied and hated.
Television, historically, became one of the great legendary bands of all time largely because of their seminal peer influences, their rich original eclectic passionate music, the clash of Tom Verlaine's guitar and surreal lyrics with Richard Lloyd's psychedelic guitar.
The Television double cassette release of 1982 became one of ROIR's best-selling cassettes of all time. We are proud to bring it back, digitally remastered and re-edited in 1999, 25 years after Television's first CBGB residency performance.
"The Blow-Up is Television's most fiery rock 'n roll, both the extended epics Marquee Moon and Little Johnny Jewel and the rockers, Fire Engine, profit from the raw trebley mix." –9's!!! Spin Record Guide
"Live they were the ultimate garage band with pretension. A post-humous tape-only compilation of live performances shows the bands rawer side." –Trouser Press Record Guide
"Television's debut at CBGB's was on March 31, 1974. It was the beginning of a six-month period in which post-glam NY rock and roll underground coalesced into a small but highly active scene. Through this period Television continued to play every Sunday at CBGB regularly attracting between 20 and 30 people. " –From The Velvets to the Voidoids, Clinton Hylen
"They exploded in front of an audience. Richard Lloyd goes nuts here. Documents one of the most influential bar bands in rock and roll history." –Robert Christgau, from Liner Notes
"John Piccarella and I annotated this eighty-five minute tape because guitar heroes like Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd deserve a heroic live album." – Robert Christgau's Record Guide The 80's
"A bar band extraordinaire, without precedent, phenomenal excitement. Some of the most gorgeous guitar expertise ever heard in the old New Wave." –NME, December 12, 1982
"Two albums worth of live material exhibiting the band's energy so urgent in live sets." –Goldmine, November 4, 1982
"On this remarkable live artifact from 1978, Television recaptures all the fire and daring they lost in the studio. Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd brandish their guitars like crazed swordsmen, making each song a brand new discovery." –Trouser Press, Jon Young, March 1983
"You can practically taste the New York scene." –John Milward, Backbeat
"Rock Heaven in an extra length 85 minute cassette. The jams are awesome. Listen to the live audience cry out for joy." –Rounders Round Up
"Tension informs and ignites all 85 minutes of this astonishing cassette - an illicit intrusion into a very private experience between Television and a cultish club audience. This stuff still burns with a mighty glow." –David Fricke, Melody Maker, January 1, 1983 UK
"The Blow-Up offers the average rock fan the best evidence yet to support the claim that Tom Verlaine has the stuff of which guitar heroes are made." –Musician 1983
"A stunning reminder of just how amazing the band was in its prime, at the height of their improvisatory powers. The real strength of this set lies in their uncanny telepathy between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, the sheer inspiration of their playing comes through. This is an excellent representation of Television at their best, stretching and shattering musical boundaries left and right." –Sweet Potato February 1983
"For the most part The Blow-Up is way out there. 'Guitars' shouts the liner notes - and they're not kidding." –UK Select February 1983
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