Music, Film and Television
In 1978, he formed The Lounge Lizards with his brother Evan Lurie. The Lounge Lizards, initially a "fake jazz" combo, has included artists such as Arto Lindsay, Calvin Weston, Billy Martin, Oren Bloedow, Steve Bernstein, Marc Ribot, and Erik Sanko, among others. The band continued to make music for 20 years. During this time, Lurie recorded 22 albums and composed scores for over 20 movies, the most notable being Stranger than Paradise, Down by Law, Mystery Train, Clay Pigeons, Animal Factory, and Get Shorty, which earned him a Grammy Award nomination.
During the 1980s he starred in three films directed by Jim Jarmusch, Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, and Permanent Vacation. He made a cameo appearance in Downtown 81, and would have accepted a larger part but for writer Glenn O'Brien insulting his African-American girlfriend. He went on to have roles in other notable films including Paris, Texas and The Last Temptation of Christ. Lurie also starred, during 2001-2003, on the HBO prison series Oz as inmate Greg Penders.
His 1991 TV series Fishing with John, which he wrote, directed and starred in, was a cult success. The critically acclaimed series aired on IFC and Bravo. Episodes included guests Tom Waits, Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, Jim Jarmusch, and Dennis Hopper. It has since been released on DVD by Criterion.
In 1993 Lurie, with Howard Shore, composed the theme to Late Night with Conan O'Brien which was also used as the theme to The Tonight Show when O'Brien hosted. In 1998, Lurie formed his own record label: Strange & Beautiful Music. On it, he released Queen of All Ears, a Lounge Lizard CD, and he released a soundtrack album from Fishing with John.
In 1999, Lurie released the album The Legendary Marvin Pontiac–Greatest Hits, which was purportedly a posthumous collection of the work of an insane African-Jewish musician named Marvin Pontiac. Pontiac, however, was a fictional character created by Lurie, and the music was written by Lurie. Performers on the album include Lurie, John Medeski, Billy Martin, G. Calvin Weston, Marc Ribot, and Tony Scherr. The album received praise from David Bowie, Angelique Kidjo, Iggy Pop, Leonard Cohen, and others, who were in on the joke, and a fictional "biography" was published by Allmusic.
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