EPK - lunchmeat

From left: Corey (guitar), Mike (drums, front), Rob (keyboards), Sammy (guitar, vocals), Wes (bass)

Lunchmeat

Lunchmeat is a grungy punk band of working stiffs from Toronto featuring members of Surinam, Dead Letter Dept., Meanwood and The Guest Bedroom, that has shared the stage with Lost Sounds, Jay Reat*rd, Zoobombs, and performed at Pop Montreal and NXNE. After a decade-long hiatus, Lunchmeat is returning to caterwaul about middle age and global catastrophe.

If you want the one-liner, Lunchmeat is sort of like Nirvana meets Devo – grunge with keyboards. Some other bands we try to ‘borrow’ from are The Stooges, Hot Snakes, Thin Lizzy, The Knack, Parliament, Mr. Bungle and Protomartyr.

Lunchmeat formed in 2003 while working in the rental department of a popular Queen Street music instrument store. Their beer-soaked early shows featured a lineup of just bass, drums and vocals, and included costumes and makeup, taking place anywhere from a punk rock bike shop to the El Mocambo to the alley behind Paul’s Boutique in Kensington Market.

Photos of early Lunchmeat shows by David “Kid With Camera” Waldman, **not for reproduction**.

Lunchmeat released their first LP in 2008, “Animal Sense,” which has gone on to have a song featured in the film Relax, I’m From The Future. The album was full of bile and snark, along with buzzing synths, angular guitars, and a chugging rhythm section. Primarily a break-up record, it was also peppered with references to substance abuse, Greek poet Hesiod, Dada artist Tristan Tzara, gangster John Dillinger, lyrical nods to The Band and Can, Toronto neighbourhoods like Moss Park and Cabbagetown, and many, many recriminations against people who annoy the band members. They released the record to a sold out Sneaky Dee’s show in December, 2008.

Soon after, ‘life’ took over. The band went on hiatus, members focused on their jobs, schooling and relationships. Some of us moved cities or provinces, or had kids, or opened businesses. We made a 4-song tape in 2013 and played a couple gigs, but that was it for about 15 years.

The COVID-19 pandemic was the kick in the arse we needed. We missed playing music together, so in 2021, we started jamming again, squeezing in weekly rehearsals into our hectic middle-aged lives.

The new album, End of Man, self-released on Charlie Records, is our first in 17 years. Recorded at Palace Sound with Chris Sandes, it features 9 buzzy, thumping, skronky post-punk grunge barnburners about topics as diverse as a ghost story on the Don River, labor organizing at Amazon, and Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people. With ripping guitar solos, pounding drums, chugging bass, and eccentric keyboards, we prove once and for all that we are the greatest band of all time and that you want to give us all your love and money.