Luscious Jackson “In Search of Manny” 1992. Grand Royal Records. The EP “In Search of Manny” was the first release on Beastie Boys’ label Grand Royal (and the album art is probably one of the sleaziest of all time). While only vaguely hiphop, the band had many connections to the Beasties: drummer Kate Schellenbach played on the Beasties’ “Pollywog Stew” and the band’s first performance was as the opening for the Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill. Allmusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes the album perfectly – “music that is elastic, casually expansive, darkly seductive…the samples are for texture and color, not groove, and the aesthetic is slacker bohemia. In short, it’s a record that only could have happened in 1992, just as Gen-X alt-rock culture hit its stride but before it reached the mainstream.”

I love this album so much and listened to it incessantly in the early 90′s, especially late hot summer nights, nodding along to the slinky beats of “Daughters of the Kaos,” “She Be Wantin It More” and my favorite, “Life of Leisure,” with its perfect 90′s slacker lyrics:

You got a brain you ain’t using
You got charm you’re abusin’
You’re too busy out there floosin’
Or lying at home snoozin’

Why you wanna waste away?
Lover of the life of leisure
Lover of the life of leisure

Why you wanna waste away?
Lover of the life of leisure
Lover of the life of leisure

Time moves along
You don’t have a life anymore
Time moves along
You don’t have a job, I got four

Spend my money on cigarettes
Midnight dragon, off track bets
Get up at three, turn on the TV
For all I know you got a dangerous disease