If you need me to be sweet, then I can give you what you need

Remember Luscious Jackson? They put out some really great stuff when they were together. The other day, Ladyfingers came on while I was listening to my iTunes library on random, and I remembered the first time I heard it, and how much I loved it right away. So I thought I'd write about them today.

The main players in Luscious Jackson were Kate Schellenbach (drums), Jill Cunniff (bass) and Gabby Glaser (guitar). They met in their teens during the NY post-punk scene of the early 80s. Kate played drums with the Beastie Boys when they were still a hardcore punk band. Jill met Kate when she interviewed the Beasties for her fanzine, The Decline of Art. The three girls started hanging out together and went to hardcore, reggae, hip-hop, and post punk shows together. Clearly all of the bands they saw in the early days would have a major influence of their sound when they formed Luscious Jackson.

After high school, Kate stayed in New York for college while Jill and Gabby moved to the west coast to attend art school in San Francisco. In 1991, Jill and Gabby returned to New York, and started working on songs together. They asked Kate, and Jill's friend, Vivian Trimble, to join their group. They called themselves Luscious Jackson, after a 60s basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers. The group released their debut EP, In Search of Manny, on Grand Royal in 1991. The EP was reissued in 1992 on Capitol/Grand Royal. The rest, as they say is history.

Vivian left the band in 1998, after the release of Fever In, Fever Out. I clearly remember the video for Naked Eye, since it was on MTV every time I turned on my television. Fantasic video. Luscious Jackson put out their final record, Electric Honey, in 1999, and broke up in Early 2000.

Here are a couple of songs from Luscious Jackson's last two records. Electric Honey was a lot more upbeat than it's predecessor. Fever In, Fever Out, was more of a chilled out record that had this really great dark and haunting quality to it. Electric Honey was more fun and meant to be dance to. Luscious Jackson had a great ability to interpret many different genres of music and showcased a little bit of everything on all of their records. Everyone's probably heard Naked Eye and Ladyfingers, but definitely check out the other tracks as well.

(from Fever In, Fever Out)
Naked Eye
Why Do I Lie?
Mood Swing

(from Electric Honey)
Ladyfingers
Devotion
Sexy Hypnotist