Day After Day #153: Citysong

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

Citysong (1994)

One of the great things about music is its ability to instantly transport you to a certain place and time. Any number of songs can take me back to the summer of 1994. It was a fairly carefree time in my life, full of concerts and softball games and beer and parties. I was making a lot of mix tapes then and cranking them as I drove around, and it was a great time for music. Later in the summer, I was listening to Natural Ingredients, the debut album by Luscious Jackson, on heavy rotation.

The all-female band formed in 1991, with the name a mispronunciation of NBA player Lucious Jackson. Friends Jill Cunniff and Gabby Glaser started the band with keyboardist Vivian Trimble, and were later joined by drummer Kate Schellenbach (who was original member of the Beastie Boys). Their 1992 EP In Search of Manny came out on the Beasties' label Grand Royal, with the song "Daughters of the Kaos" creating some buzz. The group fused alternative rock and hip hop, with Cunniff and Glaser splitting lead vocals.

Natural Ingredients came out in August, but the lead single was "Citysong," which was released in July and immediately made an impact on radio and MTV.  A funky paean to New York City in the summer, the song had a timeless groove to it (thanks to the sample from Gladys Knight & the Pips' "On and On," a Curtis Mayfield cover) with Glaser handling the lead vocals.

"I'm taking the side streets/And I'm cruising down the alleyways/And I'm feeling the cool breeze/Across my face/I'm losing to find/And I'm breaking to fix/'Cause I'm not fit to go on like this/Music in my head/The rhythm keeps me fed/These sounds surround me/In these high frequencies/There's no place like home/There's no place like home/Stone alone/In the city of bastard roots."

 
Cunniff then chimes in with the chorus.

"When I'm about to go crazy/'Cause I'm still living here/I just get my friends together/And we dance, dance, dance/'Cause this is the state of the world/This is the state of the world/This city tells me what it's like to live."

The song hit #39 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and #69 on the U.K. Singles Chart; Luscious Jackson ended up performing it on Saturday Night Live in January 1995.

The album was strong, featuring great songs like "Deep Shag," "Energy Sucker," "Here" and "Find Your Mind." I was surprised to see it only went to #114 on the Billboard 200, but there was a lot of competition that year. 

Speaking of '94, it was a pretty huge year for news stories. By the time the Luscious Jackson album came out, we had already seen the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan controversy at the Winter Olympics, Kurt Cobain's suicide and the O.J. Simpson slow-motion chase.

Luscious Jackson got a lot of attention during that album cycle, playing the side stage at Lollapalooza, and playing on several TV shows in addition to SNL. The band got their first top 40 song with "Naked Eye" off 1996's Fever In Fever Out; I saw them at the Middle East downstairs on this tour. Trimble left in 1998 to pursue other interests; she had released an album with Cunniff under the name Kostars and would team up with Josephine Wiggs of the Breeders on a project called Dusty Trails. 

Meanwhile, the remaining three members of LJ continued with 1999's Electric Honey. The album didn't fare as well as the previous ones, but the band played the Lilith Fair and the song "Ladyfingers" got some attention. In 2000, Luscious Jackson went on hiatus, saying they wanted to spend more time with their families. The band (except for Trimble) reunited in 2006 to work on a children's album; that didn't pan out, but the members reconvened in 2011 and began working on a new album, which they crowdfunded. Magic Hour came out in 2013 and the band played a few shows to support it. The children's album, Baby DJ, was released at the same time.

The last Luscious Jackson shows were in 2016. Last year, it was reported that Trimble had passed away at 59 after a battle with cancer.

Thirty years ago seems like a lifetime away, but "Citysong" never fails to take me there.