Jill Cunniff

I'll be honest, I didn't shed any tears upon learning of Luscious Jackson's breakup earlier this decade. I thought they had a good thing going for a while but towards the end I felt like they were trying too hard to write radio-friendly disco hits. But I was very intrigued to learn that the Militia Group - home to post-emo bands like The Appleseed Cast and Brandtson - had worked out a deal to put out Jill Cunniff's solo album, City Beach, in early 2007.

My advance copy of the CD arrived in the mail today and I really had high hopes for it. I just know that Jill is capable of writing really good music and I was thinking that as long as she doesn't try to get too '70s retro, there would be a good chance that her solo CD might be nothing short of fantastic.

Now, granted, I've only given it one full spin but it's every bit as delicious as I was hoping it would be. I kind of hate when I hear new music so early in the year (or, in this case, 2 months before it comes out) because I know that at this point next year, there is a good chance I won't even remember City Beach when compiling my Best of 2007 list even though I think that it's deserving of at least consideration. And, hey, it doesn't hurt that Jill and I both have a daughter named Piper.

I'm not going to rip MP3s at this point and post them here but I will point you to Jill's MySpace site where you can listen to 3 songs ("Happy Warriors", "Lazy Girls", and "NYC Boy") from the album due in stores on February 6, 2007.