Barlow's prodigious creative energy has manifested itself in 20 albums. From an early gig playing bass in Dinosaur Jr., to leading indie rock standard bearer Sebadoh and releasing cassettes of his lo-fi home taping solo project Sentridoh, through to scoring a Top 40 hit with "Natural One" from the Kids soundtrack with Folk Implosion, his quality to quantity ratio has been inordinately high. This is especially impressive given the variety contained in his discography -- each of those bands and projects had its own distinct identity, as defined by Barlow and his collaborators.
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With their dark hip-hop-influenced alternative rock, Luscious Jackson re-creates the dense, multicultural bohemian world of New York in a collage of sound, where Spanish guitars, jazzy keyboards, funky beats, and breathy, singsong vocals combine into one. Like the Beastie Boys, Luscious Jackson's eclecticism doesn't acknowledge boundaries; instead, it takes freely from every kind of music. Luscious Jackson's first two recordings, 1992's In Search of Manny and 1994's Natural Ingredients, earned the band a cult following and positive critical reviews.
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During the late '80s and early '90s, Big Head Todd & the Monsters (the Colorado-based trio of guitarist/keyboard player Todd Park Mohr, bassist Rob Squires, and drummer Brian Nevin) built their audience through constant touring, playing college towns across the country. With these tours, they built a solid fan base before they had even signed to a major label. Although they have released several records, they haven't been able to completely transfer the live appeal of their laid-back, slightly jazzy, blues-based pop to tape. Nevertheless, each of their records contains many fine moments, and 1993's Sister Sweetly, which went gold and stayed in the charts over a year, showed that they were continuing to improve their songwriting as well as their playing.
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