The Neon Boys

The obscure but semi-legendary Neon Boys were a precursor to Television, featuring Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell, and drummer Billy Ficca. Their duration, from the fall of 1972 to the spring of 1973 according to Clinton Heylin's From the Velvets to the Voidoids, was brief. They were certainly ahead of their time, however, as recordings that later surfaced proved. On "That's All I Know" and "Love Comes in Spurts," which finally came out as one side of a seven-inch EP years later, the group played with an edge suggestive of both speed freaks and punk rock. There was shrieking guita...