John Lurie: Painting With John

Once a week, since 2021 the HBO series Painting With John gave viewers a glimpse into the world of John Lurie. If you just happened upon the television show without any prior knowledge of the man, you begin to realize the program was not at all like the kitschy PBS series The Joy Of Painting with Bob Ross. Although you might imagine Lurie entertaining the idea of adding some happy little trees, Painting With John, just like his 1990's TV series Fishing With John, is not about painting nor fishing. The show was more about the artist's distinctive world view and most likely if it were titled Weltanschauung With John it would never have received the green light for production.

Those familiar with Lurie might know he was an actor with roles in Jim Jarmusch's films Stranger Than Paradise (1984) and Down by Law (1986), Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and the TV series Oz. For our purposes, Lurie was also a musician, composer, and band leader before all the above roles. He first appeared on our radar with his band The Lounge Lizards which released their eponymous recording on Editions EG in 1981. Conceived like much of the DIY Downtown sounds of the 1980s, the music was sardonic and satirical. Straight away, Lurie became a serious composer and talented performer, as did others in his band including, brother Evan Lurie, Marc Ribot, Curtis Fowlkes, Roy Nathanson, Steven Bernstein, and Arto Lindsay.

Besides the Lounge Lizards, Lurie's music also can be heard under his pseudonym Marvin Pontiac, in addition to his scores for television and film. All of these previous musical outings are drawn upon for the soundtrack to his painting/not painting show Painting With John. Released as a double LP or digital download, the Painting With John soundtrack consists of 56 tracks, 14 of which are drawn from Lurie's previous releases on his Strange & Beautiful Music label plus the title track from The Invention Of Animals (Amulet, 2014). The remainder of the music was composed and performed for the HBO series with Lurie at the banjo, guitar, harmonica, and vocals, plus a cast of former bandmates and compadres that include among others Steven Bernstein, Michael Blake, Curtis Fowlkes, and Evan Lurie. He loves eccentric sounds, pairing the banjo with his sung and spoken interludes which are often looped to create his own duets. Lurie pulls from Southern blues, African rhythms, and woolgathering wordplay. The LPs total 109 minutes spread over 56 tracks which are for the most part eccentric short story vignettes set to music, all in service of the television show. We get a glimpse inside the mind of John Lurie, a strange and beautiful place. To quote the artist, "It's really unbelievable—really unbelievable, the beauty and the horror of this life."