PREMIERE | Lunchbox, "Gary of the Academy"

Donna McKean and Tim Brown of Lunchbox; press photo courtesy of the artists.

Sometimes somewhere within and/or out of the blue there arrives a sound. Something spangled in joyfully triumphant horns and an amalgamation of the glamour garage underground stars that once graced the covers of 80s/90s NME, Melody Maker, Sounds (and so on) into a uniform pop pastiche. The feeling of falling asleep to a playlist of nothing but Peel Sessions that one of your bestiies made for you, the aura of a partially melted mix-tape cassette from the mid-90s, mainlining a copped pile of retro CDs from the golden era of CDs, to mod-podged poster collages of your favorite obscure and esoteric idols that may very well have informed our current age of aesthetic discourse.

Behold now the beacon of homemade sunshine California pop direct from Oakland, as Donna McKean and Tim Brown of Lunchbox debut the bright and beautiful "Gary of the Academy". Featured off their forthcoming album After School Special for Slumberland; the two enlist a horn section comprised of Gory Olson and Jeremy Goody that rounds out a clever assemblage of electric garage gear, gimmicks and Bay Area with cool high ranking karat diamond studded brass. Prepare for a diversion detour from the world’s continuous meltdown in progress for an enchanted and ecstatic world of animal life, adventure, excitement and all the enthusiasm worthy of being it’s own extra-curricular television programme.

Lunchbox begin big with the horns on "Gary of the Academy", right before launching into the introductory verse that skates sweetly on a fuzzy bubblegum band vernacular. The relentless wattage and saccharine infused tones find Donna, Tim and company show us what would happen if the likes of the Archies, Gem and the Holograms or Jose and the Pussycats reformed as an elaborate art damaged / art school pop outfit. Inspired by the eponymous real life Gary the cat; Lunchbox invites us all to temporarily inhabit the feline realm that is orchestrated like an adventure into the anachronistic velvet silk elevator undergrounds that reach deep to the abundant aquifers, well tunnels and catacombs; tucked deep beneath the surface of the modern world.

The Lunchbox duo described to us the following warmhearted tale of endearing attachments that inspired “Gary of the Academy”:

The song is Donna's ode to a cat who lives at a research institute in Berlin where we were in residence for a few months in the middle of recording the LP. The recording was broken up by a number of international trips. Donna fell in love with this cat — "Gary" — who lived at the Academy but, like her, didn't really belong. She sings to Gary about their shared-outsiderness, recounts their secret travels and reminds Gary of other worlds, known only by cats and cat-adjacent humans, that lie just beyond daily experience.

Lunchbox’s new album After School Special arrives October 30 via Slumberland.

Cover art for After School Special.