Television were part of the late-’70s punk nucleus that put New York’s CBGB club on the map. Although it may share a similar permeating attitude, Television's revolutionary 1977 debut Marquee Moon distinguished itself immediately from that of their New York punk contemporaries otherwise with the unconventional guitar interplay of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, Verlaine's poetic songwriting and their labyrinthine extended song structures. 

 

Spare yet structurally complex, artistic yet unpretentious, Marquee Moon stands as one of rock’s most innovative releases, altering the face of punk and influencing everything from New Wave to jam-rock in the process. With multiple masterpieces like "See No Evil," "Friction" and "Marquee Moon," debuts don't get much more accomplished than this!

 

"Television were the guitar mystics on the CBGB scene, mixing the howl of the Velvet Underground, the epic song lengths of Yes and the double-helix guitar sculpture of Quicksilver Messenger Service. Their debut was as exhilarating in its lyrical ambitions as the Ramones' first album was in its brutal simplicity." - Rolling Stone/#130 on the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time