words by jillian billard photography by danny krug
L unchbox is Brooklyn’s self-proclaimed "shit-rock band." However, this genre, despite its endearing hilarity—doesn’t do them much justice. My first exposure to Lunchbox was at a gig at The Flat. The band’s sound is highly unique—an intense fusion of noise-rock-poetry. And this is no mistake—because singer Matt Kramer is as much writer as musician. He writes poetry and fiction along with the tunes, but prefers writing music for its affect and inherent completion, whereas fiction is open-ended. Lunchbox is composed of five members, all Skidmore grads: Matt Kramer on vocals, Mattie Siegal on drums, Dave Susman and Alex Dinsmore on guitar, and Jake Considine on bass. Matt, Dave, and Alex started playing together about five years ago while they were at school. It was then that they came up with the name Lunchbox. "We don’t really know how we came up with the name," says Matt, "but we liked it and it stuck." Matt
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originally played bass, and Dave and Alex played guitar. Though he’s switched to vocals since Jake joined the band, he still writes the tunes by first laying down a bass line and vocals, and filling in over that. After graduating they all moved to New York for one reason or another—and met up by chance. The original trio added Jake and Mattie once they started jamming in Brooklyn. "We wanted a girl drummer,"says Matt, "but that’s not the reason we chose Mattie. She just happens to be a girl." And I can firmly attest to the fact that she rocks mega hard on the drums. More recently the band has been creating music with more "noise-rock-pop" vibes. Their influences include Ty Segall, the Velvet Underground, Fiery Furnaces, The Black Lips, Daniel Johnston, Pixies and Sonic Youth. They’ve started recording some tunes, three of which are finished, so look out for them as they come out. The band recently hit up South by Southwest with friends Sharkmuffin, Hippy and Haybaby. They also played a sick show in Harrisonburg with the band Surfing. Since their travels they’ve been playing shows every weekend.