At its founding, the band consisted of John Lurie and Evan Lurie, guitarist
Arto Lindsay, bassist Steve Piccolo, and percussionist
Anton Fier. Though partly inspired by jazz, John Lurie said he used guitarists in the band "to foil the music when it gets too jazzlike". John Lurie later said this version of the band broke up due in part to creative tensions exacerbated by conflicts with EG Records executives, and in part due to his growing belief "that what we were doing was maybe phony". A transitional version of the band for about a year in 1982-83 featured the Lurie brothers, with bassist
Tony Garnier, trombonist
Peter Zummo and drummer Dougie Bowne, augmented by other musicians depending on availability (e.g., bassist
Fred Hopkins substituted for Garnier during a short tour). John Lurie noted their music in this era was inspired by diverse sources such as "
James Brown to
Balinese music, from
Varèse to
Coltrane". The Lounge Lizards have been inactive since about 2000. John Lurie has been occupied with painting, while Evan has worked on
The Backyardigans, a children's show that highlights multiple musical genres. ==Personnel==