Subterranean points us to to these two YouTube clips of ’80s No Wave band the Del-Byzanteens at Boing Boing that featured two little guys by the name of Jim Jarmusch and John Lurie on keyboards and sax respectively (all No Wave bands worth their salt had a sax player, natch).
A second clip also lives on YouTube and they’re interesting musical and historical curiosities to be sure, but let’s face it, this gives us an excellent excuse to post another great Lurie and Jarmusch collaboration: perhaps the greatest TV show ever and perhaps one of the all-time Criterion Collection discs – the 1991 cult series “Fishing With John,” starring Lurie and guesting Jarmuch on episode 1. Apart from being a fantastically absurd TV show about inept fishermen (that also guest starred people like Tom Waits, Dennis Hopper and perhaps in his greatest celluloid appearance ever a hilarious Willem Dafoe), the show also boasted the amazingly bizarre voice-over narration by Robb Webb, which was often off-topic and very random.
Narrator: “The fishermen wake up excited to be alive. They hope for good weather and good luck. Both fisherman are covered with sores and boners.”
Almost all of “Fishing With John” is on YouTube, so if you’ve never seen it, do yourself a favor, either watch it all now, or rent it on Netflix stat.
Watch: Del-Byzanteens
Fishing With John: Episode 1 Featuring John Lurie Pt 1.
Fishing With John: Episode 1 Featuring John Lurie Pt 2.
The odd friendships on this show were the chief inspiration behind our If I Were Jim Jarmusch Playlist Soundtrack Series edition.
