Watch Lunchbox’s new “Over Way Too Soon” video via Austin Town Hall; After School Special is due 10/30 on Slumberland
pre-order the LP here
WATCH: “Over Way Too Soon” –
Austin Town Hall / YouTube / Bandcamp / SoundCloud / Spotify / Apple
Watch Lunchbox’s new music video for “Over Way Too Soon” via Austin Town Hall. Check out the premiere here. After School Special is out next Friday, October 30, 2020 via Slumberland Records.
Regarding the single/video, Lunchbox stated: “‘Over Way Too Soon’ plays with themes of love, death and impermanence against the backdrop of the ever-changing Oakland cityscape. Singer/ghost Donna McKean haunts guitarist Tim Brown across the sites of their shared personal past and the gentrifying public present. At once love letter to Oakland and requiem for lost love, the song and video are a pop meditation on how nothing, from favorite bars to sites of first dates, can ever stay the same. “Over Way Too Soon” is about all that’s lost, and what remains.”
Bio:
Lunchbox’s Tim Brown and Donna McKean have been making records in their Oakland, California basement for two decades, inspired by 1960s/70s AM-radio pop and TV show theme music, punk, C86, and mod à la The Creation and The Jam. From the sonically-inventive indiepop of The Magic of Sound (1999) to the dub-influenced psychedelia of Evolver (2001) to the critically-acclaimed bubblegum of Lunchbox Loves You (2013), the couple have established a sound all their own.
Their new album for Slumberland, After School Special, finds them at the height of their powers of songcraft and performance. Donna’s bass playing stakes out stylistic territory somewhere between Carol Kaye and John Entwistle while Tim’s guitar is equal parts 12-string jangle and clipped Orange Juice-esque funk. Horns by Gary Olson (Ladybug Transistor) and longtime collaborator Jeremy Goody drive the record from beginning to end. Evelyn Davis’ delay-drenched keyboards combine with whispers of analog tape feedback to give the record an otherworldly vibe in keeping with its lyrical themes.
There, favorite seasons (autumn) and animals (cats), appear alongside love and death, ghosts and reincarnation. From the shimmering opener “Dream Parade” to the horn-driven mod-pop of “Hide and Seek,” the groovy sixties R&B vibe of “I Really Wanna Know” and the haunting male-female vocal stylings of the album-closing title track, the textures shift while the unity of artistic vision remains. Catchy as hell and beautifully packaged, After School Special is Lunchbox at their very best.
Lunchbox
After School Special
(Slumberland Records)
[pre-order the LP here]
Street Date: October 30, 2020
Track List:
1. Dream Parade
2. Over Way Too Soon
3. Gary of the Academy
4. Utopia
5. Hide and Seek
6. I Really Wanna Know
7. Before and After
8. Three Cheers for Autumntime
9. Melt Into Air
10. It’s Over Now
11. After School Special
LUNCHBOX LINKS: