Lounge Lizards - C/D

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.