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Music Style
Alternative-indie |
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Musical Influences
David Bowie, The Beatles, The Church, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Brian Eno, Doves, The Cure, Steve Earle, Tom Waits, David Sylvian, Margot Smith, Cocteau Twins |
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Similar Artists
David Bowie, The Beatles, The Church, Bob Dylan |
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Artist History
Robert Lurie has been performing and recording his
offbeat music, both solo and in various collective
formats, since 1988. Things switched into a higher
gear in 1997 when he and his friend Pam Brannon
formed Black Rider Productions, which has been
responsible for three CD releases: Robert's "you
speak in too many voices" album (1997), "Loving
the Alien: Athens GA Salutes David Bowie" (1999)
and the upcoming "short stories." Robert has
performed in many venues on both the east and west
coasts of the US, in addition to a one-off
performance at The Borderline in London. He also
played guitar and sang in the now-defunct Savannah
band Blue 88. While Mr. Lurie has been fortunate
to receive many encouraging reviews over the
years, CD sales have never quite matched the
critics' enthusiasm!
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Instruments
vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, weird noises |
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Albums
you speak in too many voices (1997), Loving the Alien: Athens GA Salutes David Bowie (producer, 1999), short stories (2002) |
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Press Reviews
cdbaby.com
"you speak in too many voices has a depth and
charm reminiscent of Bowie's Hunky Dory and Neil
Young's After the Gold Rush but with a style all
its own." --Angus Nurse, The Independent
Distribution Network.... "It's a fantastic sample
of Lurie's diverse work." --J Mundok, The Kettle
Black.... "One of the best CDs I've heard this
year" --Don Campau, No Pigeonholes.... "Lurie
displays a broad range of styles from solitary
singer-with-guitar tunes to unique instrumental
cuts which are strange and wonderful" --Bryan
Baker, GAJOOB.... "I'd have to recommend this
album for anyone that's not impressed by clone
mainstream music" --Terry Allen, hEARd Magazine...
"Try landing on 'Vanishing Act' and 'Body & Soul,'
fractured pop songs that roil to voices' surface
like perfectly distilled chemical impurities"
--Shannon Zimmerman, The Big Takeover....
"The first person dialogue of individual
experience is very powerful on such mature cuts
as 'interzone,' and most of the cuts feature a
very spare, elegant -- I'd almost say even
existential -- approach." --SD Fitzpatrick,
Ink 19.
homemademusic.com
"Lurie is an iconoclast. There are no two ways
about it. Far past his sophmoric debuts of years
gone by, he has established himself as a
versatile and innovative musician. With the 1997
release of 'You speak in too many voices' we are
presented with an amalgam of accretion; some
would say folkpop, others, neo-alternative. The
truth is it's neither, all and both. Eerily
somnolent; sonorously benthic, like Poseidon
playing a harpsichord in the atlantic's mariana
trench, we get a glimpse of who made what is
behind the tapestry of life. It is sonorous. It
is inventive. It is redolent of many styles. And
it is the work of one man. A roller coaster ride
through a land of blasted ashes and rebel clowns,
carving hunks of meat off of strangely alien game
on planets not yet discovered. But, with all
behest, let me cease this madness and get to the
root of our troubles. A newly coined word in the
art world is; Surrational. Defined as a place
above surreality, and below conceptualism, it is
a slow dance to all that is avant-garde. Rob's
work is neo-beat, keeping alive the literary
traditions of Kerouac and Hemingway by
incorporating their ideals with those of the
music world's, Lou Reed and Bowie. It is simply
obsessive, turning what, at first glimpse seem to
be grey and unrevealing landscapes into a place
of history. He is a footsoldier of Bob Dylan.
Classically lyrical, and prosodic in every way.
At times the songs are vaguely reminiscent of the
eastern indian traditions, such as in the seventh
track on the album, Kashmiri skies. On the eighth
song, 'body and soul', we get a glimpse of the
artist's mettle, as he proclaims, "It's not a
question of silver, it's a question of gold". An
enticing euphemism, blending metaphor with
soliloquoy...a rhapsodic sound; highly
imaginative, backs it. One step up the ladder we
come into contact with an instrumental treatise,
aptly titled, 'pills'. Here we get what sounds
like a muzak version of the Mario Brothers video
game soundtrack, on an elevator ride through
Wonka's proverbial candy factory, newly
reposessed by an owner named, possibly, Mick
Jagger. One step up, we recieve 'branca tonic'
which inspires memories of William S. Burrough's
treatise, Naked Lunch. And on to the eleventh
song, 'all my girlfriends are getting married'.
This one ends on a comical note as he wails,
"they ain't marryin' me"; and you get a sense of
Dylanesque humor. Moving on to track twelve,
Lurie incants, "I used to want to be a star".
This is oddly prescient of the current political
climate in which familiarity has overshadowed
fame. It extends into a tract on the nature of an
artist's role in society, standing out by virtue
of its solo production...a fine example of new
American musicianship. And down to thirteen. A
show of intorversion in which the songwriter
wails, "I'm so tired of my own hipocrisy". It
takes advantage of using two vocal tracks for
self backup. Now we come to piece fourteen,
'belong'. Fine muzak for a hotel lobby, it sounds
like the theme to some unheard of Afghani video
game with a turbanned hero battling legions of
genies. In it are hints of Dave Navarro inspired
guitar notes, backed with rolling native american
drumbeats. And finally, #15, "I sleep alone". An
abruptly short rhapsody which turns tail and
prepares you for the next day. It has been said
that to create legends, we must go one step
further each time and trust ourselves. Lurie
seems to be travelling that path, and will no
doubt rise to fame in the coming years. "
--Matthew Goad
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Location
Statesboro, GA - USA |
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