90s Music Monday

nobody@vox.com(Simon Wistow) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:33:48 -0700

For some reason which completely baffles me I had Luscious Jackson's "Naked Eye" stuck in my head all yesterday. ALL of yesterday. But not all of the song. Just the hook. Over and over and over and over again.

No idea where it came from or why it lodged itself in my cerebellum but it turns out to be pretty good to snowboard too so I can't really complain. Plus you've got to love a song that starts off "Wearing nothing is divine, naked is a state of mind, I take things off to clear my head, to say the things I haven't said".

Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye

I have no recollection of ever buying a single Luscious Jackson record yet, a few years back a friend of mine was looking through my CD collection absent mindedly and commented that I didn't seem like the kind of person who would own every album. And apparently I did - not only that but one of them had my name written on the back of the back cover and another had a post-it note in my handwriting on the inside so it's not like there's any kind of plausible deniability or anything.

To be honest it's not hard to see why I like them - textured tracks with strong bass lines and a judiciously healthy dollop of electronic breaks and plenty of tempo and key changes which translate strangely well to an acoustic set

Jill Cunniff - "Naked Eye"

Named after a mispronunciation of Lucious "Luke" Jackson, a Philidephia 76ers player, their first concert was opening for The Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill and they were the first band to sign for the Beaties' Grand Royale label. So clearly they get respect.

Plus I could totally crush on Gabby Glaser.

Yet oddly I find their videos infuriating - especially "Ladyfingers" but even, to a lesser extent, "Naked Eye"^[*] - and I HAVE NO IDEA WHY.

In that way I suppose they're the complete opposite of Feeder's "Just A Day" which despite having all the ingredients present that would normally make me start frothing at the mouth I find strangely captivating and could (and have) watched repeatedly for a unhealthy amount of time.

As if further proof was needed that I am Wrong in the Brain, inexplicably the Luscious Jackson clip is the only advert that Gap have ever done that hasn't immediately sent me into a paroxysms of tooth grinding fury.

Luscious Jackson Gap advertisement

Yes, in case you were wondering. I was dropped on the head as a child. Thank you for asking.

^[*] Which begs the question why I did a 90mm of it. It's because I REALLY LIKE THE SONG, OK.

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90s Music Monday