Luscious Jackson: Whatever Happened To The Band Behind Naked Eye?

The history of the 90's alternative group Luscious Jackson, best known for the song Naked Eye.

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Luscious Jackson would be a staple of the 90’s combining their influences of hip-hop, funk, old soul, punk and vintage samples. They would be hailed as one of the most unique bands of the 90’s, while also being difficult to characterize. Some characterizations included labeling the group as lazy bluesy hip hop or the sister group to the beastie boys. Today, let’s talk about the history of luscious Jackson

The group’s lineup would be made up of bassist and vocalist Jill Cunniff, guitarist and vocalist Gabby Glaser, drummer Kate Schellenback and keyboardist Vivian Trimble. ¾ of the band were raised in New York City in the 80’s, Trimble wasn’t. While she was born in the city, she would instead move to europe with her parents being opera musicians living in Switzerland Austria and France until she was an adult.

Luscious Jackson’s origins began in the 80’s when a 13 or 14 year old Cunniff, Glaser and Schelleback would meet. Cunniff would tell NPR "I think I met Gabby on a stoop on St. Mark's Place, and I believe Kate, as well adding "We were all about 13, 14, and it was an amazing time, as far as not only bands playing but also the early rap scene and the breakdancing scene,". "It was all kind of colliding at the same time." "I remember meeting Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys in front of the UK Club at a Bad Brains show. There were probably 20 of us, all underage, running around to clubs." While the members were too young to get admitted to these shows they would put fake stamps on themselves to get in. Cunniff would celebrate her 13th birthday at club CBGB’s while Glaser would hang out with the clash during the recording of their record Sandanista. Meanwhile Trimble who was living across the pond would get into the same type of hijinx. Trimble and her french friends who hang out at popular parisian nightspots\

Glaser would go to a diverse school made up of Puerto Ricans, African American with her high school being mostly Asian. Despite her fellow students having already chosen their careers by middle school, Glaser thought that maybe she would become a graphic designer or an architect, but she soon realized, it was too much work. She would also be the niece of Milton Glaser who designed the logos for i love new york and DC Comics among many others.

Cunniff meanwhile was looking at a career in comedy or becoming a veterinarian. However, it would be a trip to the vets office when she saw someone bring in a dead cat, that she soon decided, being a vet wasn’t for her. Schellenbach meanwhile was already in show business by the time she age 13, appearing in a broadway show.
As the members grew up, Cunniff goes to France to study and returns to New York, while Glaser is taking going to film school. They’re both working dead end jobs and the origins of Luscious Jackson would begin with both women assembling in a friend’s basement studio drinking coffee, coming up with samples, doing low key rapping and playing guitar. Cunniff would play bass while Glaser played guitar and they would sometimes switch instruments. It was in their friend’s basement that seven songs emerged that would make it on their first EP In Search fo Manny and while the first four tracks were done, the last two needed drums and keyboards. So the girls would soon enlist drummer Kate Schellenbach and keyboardist Vivian Trimble to round out the demos. Jill Cunniff would tell billboard why the band heavily used samples revealing “we did a lot more work with samples in the past mostly because we could never get immediate results with live instruments ”

Trimble would tell an interviewer about what she had been up to until this point revealing “I had been part of the performance scene in New York for years with people like John Kelly. My mother’s a concert pianist and my father’s an opera singer. I’d never pursued any of that seriously, but I started writing music for myself and for other directors and choreographers. I met Jill when we were teaching adult education together. The first time