POP / On Pop

All this talk about the Beastie Boys - their acoustic bass, basketball hoop, snowboarding and their hip young magazine called Grand Royale. It's all a bit too much sometimes, isn't it? They still sound like frat boys shouting in the gents. But one great thing they've done is sign the fantastic foursome, Luscious Jackson (below) to their label. On 22 June, they're bringing them to the London Astoria.

Last year's EP 'In Search Of Manny' (Big Cat) introduced Luscious Jackson's strange breed of rapping, which is partly plaintive singing, B52s-style, part Debbie Harry doggerel, a la 'Atomic. Jill Cunniff and Gabrielle Glaser's sensuous but slightly blank vocals are the medium for all sorts of attitudinous comments on female desire.

The music is groovy enough to shake the most adoring of indie boys from their open-mouthed reveries. This is far more original than Riot Grrrl. Mellow acoustic guitar (like on an early ambient house record), twanging bass (Jill) and crackly samples and synthesised sax breaks make up the eerily discontinuous soundtrack, while the crunching acoustic drums and the vocals strut around independently. In 'Life Of Leisure' (pronounced Lee-sure, of course), we learn that behind every great slacker is his hard-working girlfriend:

You don't have a job

I got four

Spend my money on cigarettes

Midnight Dragon and off-track bets

Get up at three, turn on the TV

For all I know you gotta dangerous disease.

Not that she's complaining or anything.

Luscious Jackson play the Astoria on 22 June with The Brotherhood, The Goats and the Beastie Boys

(Photograph omitted)