Lounge Lizards - C/D

Doesn't Lydia Lunch describe Lurie as 'human sewage' in Black Dog's No Wave book? No disrespect to her but I'm guessing with the calibre of people she's known over the years, that's hardly a ringing endorsement.

Whatever he's like in real life I love Fishing With John. I'm disappointed to find out the Tom Waits thing was real. It's such a hilarious bit of TV. "Do you think they've got goat fish?", "They don't have goat fish here Tom." "What about cheese fish?"

i think this guy is an obnoxious prick who is clearly delusional. just my two cents. also fuck jim jarmusch moveis

nah I'll always have some time for both. Jarmusch quite probably will never do anything good again but he has done enough. Lurie I like although I don't know all of his music and I didn't read the article. Was never a huge fan of Fishing With John despite its obvious appeal.

just read this today -- weirdness. along with that gil scott heron article last week, the ny-er is covering some seriously wacked out nyc personalities. but however odd he may be, i do love that first lounge lizards record.

Tell about Gil Scott Heron

Strange piece, yeah. Once someone starts injecting ozone, you pretty much have to write them off.

Still reading this - can't help but feel like the writer is just getting sucked into Lurie's paranoid delusions and investigating them a little too seriously.

the other dude doesn't really do much to make himself seem not-crazy is the thing though

I don't know much about Lounge Lizards but I was searching for Marc Ribot videos on YouTube and found this, which is pretty sick despite being only in one stereo channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRY_PZIKeqM

i really love 'queen of all ears', i should dig that out

In retrospect he was kind of paranoid about Washington D.C. when I interviewed him in the early '80s at D.C.'s 930 Club. As I recall when I asked him something about coming to D.C. he said he didn't want to live so close to the government. This was shortly after Reagan was elected so it did not seem that unusual. He was not the friendliest interview subject (not that my questions at age 20 or so were that brilliant though).

the other dude doesn't really do much to make himself seem not-crazy is the thing though

^^^this, totally.

"just because you're paranoid don't mean they're not after you" etc

Their greatest contribution to music is clearly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfeWWO8eGrQ&feature=related

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/46445

John Lurie currently sitting in on trouble's show on FMU; I've only just tuned in so I'm only hearing the music, but they're playing some really nice stuff - something at the mo from a score called African Swim, w/Pontiac-esque guitar

this is a great show btw, listen again if you don't catch it

Bought the Marvin Pontiac reissue on Record Store Day after having not heard it in years. I used to play it all the time, but it hasn't aged especially well. It's still cool, and I'm glad I got it, but I couldn't get over the fact that a third of these tunes sound like Lurie rapping over RHCP's "Mellowship in B Slinky" (or whatever that one was called). Flea plays on this, right?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/cult-favorite-john-lurie-makes-way-for-an-alter-ego/2018/04/12/4fb378f6-3825-11e8-9c0a-85d477d9a226_story.html?utm_term=.44ff04286d2a

Had missed out on Marvin Pontiac till I read this Marc Masters (No wave book writer, sometime Pitchfork contributor) piece on Lurie. Was not wowed on first listen, but Lurie talks about humor in this piece and little kid listeners, so maybe I will give him another chance.

Lurie didn’t mean Pontiac as a hoax, but as an opportunity. “I can’t really sing,” he admits. “I kind of can now, but really couldn’t when I did the first [Pontiac] record, so I needed a mask to give me some footing. Plus, by doing it with a character, it freed me up to make it stranger than I would have with a record under my own name.” ...So it’s a small miracle that a second Marvin Pontiac release, “The Asylum Tapes,” recently turned up on streaming music services. It came with a brief explanation: “Marvin Pontiac was anonymously sent a four-track tape recorder during the years he was held at Esmerelda State Mental Institution. This is what he did with it.” Made by Lurie alone, the album’s 24 short songs are funny, scary and hopeful, and Lurie’s performance on guitar, banjo and vocals is full of life.

Insensitivity to mental illness! (j/k, sorta)

I just want to say that John Lurie's return from obscurity to hilarious, big mouthed Tweeter and making appearances at q&a's and stuff has been so wonderful and heartwarming. The man is a great asset to the planet and a brilliant human and painter. We're lucky to have him.

Also that first LL album still blows me away.

Agreed on all of that. I'm a big fan.

Seeing this thread for the first time---I always dug the live set on ROIR and the two albums on Island, haven't heard the others or Lurie solo, just now posted news from Northern Spy re Rainwater reissue (it's on Rolling Reissues)

so happy to have heard the marvin pontiac album playing in the record store the other day. think i'll pick up the LP reissue. the songs are really great !!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k7tfvvgsSc

"small car" sounds like classic-era francis bebey (before the finger piano stuff) except in english and more surreal

where are we talking about painting with john

He Tweets w pix of his paintings sometimes, worth looking for. "Small Cars" is one of his all-time best, though I'm not that crazy about most of the rest of the album, compared to Lounge Lizards.

not as funny as fishing with john but i like it, its fun to just hang out in his vibe for a while. hes kind of the master of the genre of impressionistic shows that dont really have a point. couldnt have been released at a better time too, imo.

I def. dug the first episode when I happened upon it by chance. He looks like the physical embodiment of the pandemic these days.

Wonder if this will be worth the while?

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/561234/the-history-of-bones-by-john-lurie/

In the tornado that was downtown New York in the 1980s, John Lurie stood at the vortex. After founding the band The Lounge Lizards with his brother, Evan, in 1979, Lurie quickly became a centrifugal figure in the world of outsider artists, cutting-edge filmmakers, and cultural rebels. Now Lurie vibrantly brings to life the whole wash of 1980s New York as he developed his artistic soul over the course of the decade and came into orbit with all the prominent artists of that time and place, including Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Boris Policeband, and, especially, Jean-Michel Basquiat, the enigmatic prodigy who spent a year sleeping on the floor of Lurie’s East Third Street apartment.

It may feel like Disney World now, but in The History of Bones, the East Village, through Lurie’s clear-eyed reminiscence, comes to teeming, gritty life. The book is full of grime and frank humor—Lurie holds nothing back in this journey to one of the most significant moments in our cultural history, one whose reverberations are still strongly felt today.

History may repeat itself, but the way downtown New York happened in the 1980s will never happen again. Luckily, through this beautiful memoir, we all have a front-row seat.

I'm in, anything that lists Boris Policeband among "all the prominent artists of that time and place" can't be all bad.

and here it is, described as "a tell-all that settles old accounts and names names"

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/08/18/downtown-confessional-the-history-of-bones-john-lurie/

Could have sworn that came out years ago. Maybe I'm just thinking of the announcement?

Wait, I think it *did* come out a year ago!

It did come out last year, it is pretty good until about the moment the Lounge Lizards play their first show, then it does get into "score-settling" (though I'd say "whining" was a little more accurate) for another 200 pages.

hmm ... not sure why NYRB is only getting to it a year later

love cintra wilson!

my claim to sexual fame in new york was that i dated someone who broke up with john lurie in order to go out with me. all downhill from there let me tell you.

Loved the book. I recommend.