There's a moment in Flaamingos new single, “Walk A Wire” where it nearly slips into “Marquee Moon jam” territory, and part of me wishes it had. When I go long stretches without hearing the benchmark Television single, I always seem to forget its denial of radio-ready brevity. Hell, Tom Verlaine forgets the extended improvisations as well. The near five-minutes of Flaamingos' “Walk A Wire” drifts away from the verse-chorus formula into a soothing instrumental passage, and as the percussion rises to jar the monotony it sounds as though an inkling to push for an added five-minutes is denied by an engineer who anticipated the impending jam out.
A part of me is fine with “Walk A Wire” not slipping into “Marquee Moon Pt.II” territory, save it as a surprise in the live set. Guess what genre gets thrown around in discussing Televsion? Art punk. That's how some interpret the lengthy jams on Marquee Moon that lacked the immediacy synonymous with punk up to that point. Tom Verlaine always thought he was writing pop songs, but the poor chap is remembered as writing pretentious art punk. By keeping “Walk The Wire” under five-minutes Flaamingos get to keep the banner post-punk label with hints of pop to be explored. Any seconds added would have just been pretentious.
Flaamingos self-titled record is out August 27 on felte.
