Luscious Jackson “In Search of Manny”

sfilzen — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 16:17:19 +0000

Luscious Jackson “In Search of Manny” 1992. Grand Royal Records. Today is Luscious Jackson singer/bassist/songwriter Jill Cunniff’s 55th birthday (b. August 17th, 1966). In Search of Manny is their first release, a 7-song EP, and the first release for Beastie Boys’ label Grand Royal. It’s also one of my top releases of the 90′s: a little sleazy, a lot slinky, laid back and über-cool. Going on 30 years old, I still listen to the record a lot. It reminds of me of when I first heard it in the early 90′s, not too long after I moved to Milwaukee after finishing under-grad. I had a horrible 9-5 office job and also had a second job working retail at a hip shoe store (Goldi’s) in Bayshore Mall and one of the other girls working there played the CD almost every night during our closing duties. The job kinda sucked (helping rich older ladies trying to jam their feet into cute shoes way too young and way too small for them: “Sure, we can stretch those for you!”) and I didn’t last long there but out of the experience I got a sweet employee discount and exposure to Luscious Jackson. I genuinely love every track but of the seven, four are my big standouts: the groovy “Let Yourself Get Down,” the slacker anthem “Life of Leisure,” the cool girl call-to-arms “Daughters of the Kaos” and the raw “Keep on Rockin’ It.”

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Brassy “Got It Made”

sfilzen — Fri, 29 May 2020 20:48:57 +0000

Brassy “Got It Made” released 20 years ago on this date, May 29th, 2000*. Wiija Records. Alternative, dancey hip-hop, fronted by Jon Spencer’s little sister, Muffin Spencer and my most-listened to album in 2000/2001. It is available on vinyl but only in Europe. There’s not much out there about Brassy or Muffin – they only released 2 albums – but I guess she moved to England in the mid-90′s, initially fronting The Exuberants before forming Brassy. I love this album so much: “Work It Out” continues to be one of my favorite songs ever and gets included in a lot of my playlists. It was released as a single in the UK and hit #111. I also love “I Can’t Wait” (#136 UK) “Who Stole the Show” and “Play Some D.” “Play Some D” made some minor waves around 2003 when Motorola used it in a commercial and cracked the top 100 in the UK, going to #88. Brassy included the track again on their second and final album from 2003: Gettin Wise. We saw Brassy play on November 21st, 2003 at the Rave in Milwaukee while they were on the Girlz Garage Tour, a spinoff of the Warped Tour. I don’t remember a whole lot about that show other than it was in the Rave’s basement (a smaller room than the larger spots upstairs) and that the bands on the tour had to draw straws for performance order. We only cared about seeing Brassy so I had to look up what other bands played (I don’t really recognize any of them now either): Lillix, The Peak Show, Northern State and The Start. Joe doesn’t recall much about the concert either, other than feeling really old – which hilarious in hindsight because we were only in our early 30′s at the time.

*According to one source. Another puts its release in early July 2000.

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alternative hip hop Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Luscious Jackson “In Search of Manny”

Brassy “Got It Made”