Lunch Ladies, Down on Sunset Strip, 2017

Album Review

by Stephen Stec

Perspective is a funny thing. It's the reason why Lunch Ladies just released a debut album with seven of the best songs that anyone in New Jersey has written this year. The reason is as clear to see as their music is hazy to hear. Down on Sunset Strip is life-affirming because of the way the record interacts with the people listening. It's a record of seven songs with a range of pace and emotions that revolve around your own world, whirling with the listener as new meaning warps around the ways life changes every day alongside every new spin of these songs.

The band make that easy to see as the first sound on Down on Sunset Strip marks the first box off the checklist with the signal of every great pop record from 1964 onwards: smashing out the "Be My Baby" drumbeat over drenched and dreamy guitarwork, much in the same way as like-minded, noise pop forebears, Deerhunter and the Jesus and Mary Chain. A clear letter of intent for the sonic assault via pop bliss to come, "Sunshine" is a song that should inspire a few kids to pick up a guitar. One of the most intense and swelling intros of the year soars close to the heavens with perfectly accompanied vocals knowingly cooing what the listener hears as obvious, a song full of otherworldly radiance.

"You're Not There" might be the best song on the record and would feel right at home as probably the best song on any Beach Fossils record too, which is always nice; but things really start to take off again with "Love Is Overrated," another tune with that cinematic sound. And the band is at it again by absolutely nailing the intro, building one of the best and most interesting opening grooves anyone has heard in a long time with interlocking guitar and bass play that continues to swell to the point of pop perfection and a chorus that should soundtrack the haunted VHS of a 1950s prom night gone wrong. Exactly what you'd expect from the best American shoegaze band to come from the States since the Swirlies.

"Lazy" jolts open with boy and girl vocals that rush and whirl around distorted and driving chords and super fun sections that feel like a nice progression within the record and maybe even a sign of things to come. What was the biggest song of last year, "Hotline Bling" or something? "Pick Yourself Up" is going to be the "Hotline Bling" for the shoegaze kids in 2017. It sounds like what your Real Estate LP sounds like played at double time; an absolute bopper that's probably the most fun and light-hearted sounding tune off the album. It just might be the most heavily resonating, a song that feels like waking up and opening your window to a morning so sweet, you've got to take a walk or go running and just do something generally weird to better yourself while appreciating the little things in life.

The words and sounds of these songs take on new meanings and connotations when evoking your own distant memories wrapped in the gauze of your own Sunset Strip. These seven songs rush and revolve around the way your own world turns. Lunch Ladies are like the Byrds of shoegaze, with some of the most talented individual songwriters to come out of their respective scene coming together to combine their efforts on a record where somehow, thankfully, the sum IS more than the parts. Seven songs that could only come from a place with four seasons, Down on Sunset Strip leads the pack for one of the finest albums of the year and deserves to be added to the canon of the greatest alternative albums to ever come out of New Jersey.

An Interview with the Artist: Cynthia Rittenbach on Creativity, Punk, The Scene, and Her Three Favorite People

Stephen Stec: At the advent of Lunch Ladies, you cited the influential 80s Glasgow band The Pastels as a major influence. On the liner notes of their best album, they wrote "Please don't think of us as an Indie band because it was never meant to be a genre." If you worked at a record store, what genre would you file Lunch Ladies under?

Cynthia Rittenbach: (tons of laughter) This is a tough question! It's a question I don't like asking myself… Everyone says that we're dream pop but I don't like that term at all because I don't think of us as a dream pop band.

Cynthia Rittenbach

SS: What does dream pop mean to you?

CR: They all kind of sound the same!

SS: You feel that you have aspirations and influences that are maybe, a bit more far-reaching?

CR: Yeah! I think of my music as a sum of all the influences that I listen to and then I try to make music that I enjoy, so to just call that "dream pop" sort of feels like...

SS: A cop out?

CR: Yeah!

SS: Would you take the "dream" off of it? Would you just call Down on Sunset Strip "pop" music?

CR: I would call it pop music because I want it to be enjoyable to many people. I want it to be popular. I want to write catchy songs that people listen to.

SS: So, the basis of Lunch Ladies music comes from pop music, like Pop with a capital "P?"

CR: Not necessarily! We're rock, we're shoegaze… I GUESS a little bit dream pop because our guitar sounds are quite dreamy. It technically is dreamy music.

CDM: I think everyone who knows you or has personally spoken to you over the years, they all know how big of an influence Joan Jett had on you during your formative years. Has anyone else been a big influence on the person or writer you are right now?

CR: Well, recently, Lizzy Mercier Descloux. She's definitely the most recent and a big influence in a lot of ways.

SS: What about a littler deeper into the past? What did you listen to growing up?

CR: Hmm, I'd have to think about that… (doesn't think too long). The Smiths! Obviously… I remember my first Smiths album, I was in middle school. It was the first record I ever put on my record player and I just really liked that one, Meat is Murder. I can't remember if that was before or after Joan but yeah, the Smiths and Morrissey. Morrissey really shaped who I am. I'm a lot like Morrissey, you know?

SS: That makes a lot of sense. It feels like the influence of The Smiths pops up time and time again throughout Down on Sunset Strip, both in the overall tone of the music but also in your vocal delivery. The Morrissey influence is absolutely apparent, but I'd say it even goes beyond that. Just the way Johnny Marr would take little bits of old Motown tunes or Chic songs, stuff that people wouldn't really expect him to be influenced by.

CR: Yeah, absolutely! I was in the car the other day listening to the bass really loud because I play bass now, and even the drums, they were just really powerful but REALLY reminded me of the way that Peter drums.

Photo: Daniel Topete

SS: Who is responsible for how Lunch Ladies songs begin? How does the creative process of Lunch Ladies transpire?

CR: Matt Whitley and I work very well together over the internet. He has his Bandcamp and is always posting stuff to his Bandcamp. He actually writes a lot quicker than me and freely. He has a demo like every other day.

SS: He's a bit more prolific than you, yeah?

CR: Yeah. I write when I can get myself to sit in the basement for a while, then every once in a while, I'll write something I really like. When I do, I send it to Matt or the band. Every once in a while we have something that we want to bring to the practice and work it out. When we have a song, one is leading the songwriting because that's what we started, and then everyone brings their own part to it.

SS: The song starts as a sketch or fragment then everyone just sort of paints it in with their own personality and colors? Does everyone write their own part?

CR: Yeah, but for the next album, we want it to be even more collaborative. We'll probably write stuff at home and bring it still. That actually works pretty well because that's what we have to do. We start with an idea, we each individually have any idea for a song; and, usually, we're not at practice when it happens. Unless we start jamming a little bit.

SS: Does that slowly revolve and snowball a little bit?

CR: Sometimes we'll get a groove we like and start a song off of that. It's either one of those.

SS: Is there anyone making music that you're jealous of?

CR: I'm a little jealous of Sunflower Bean! They're a bit of a big inspiration to me, mostly because I think they're really cool. They're very smart, they did so many shows.

Photo: Daniel Topete

SS: What was your favorite band you ever opened up for?

CR: Paper Streets.

SS: This is an interview, not a joke.

CR: Let me think of all the bands I've opened for in my life… Nicole Atkins, the Lonely Biscuits, SWMRS, White Reaper… we're opening for the Garden but that doesn't count. Oh, when I was younger, I opened up for Cherie Currie! We took an awkward picture with her… she hated us.

SS: That's a good one. You get so many gigs these days that I feel like I see Lunch Ladies playing shows around New Jersey every weekend, but is there any scene you feel particularly aligned to?

CR: Well first, I feel very close to Asbury Park. Always. But also, even more than Asbury Park these days, it's New Brunswick. We play there so much. We've played like twice in Asbury Park this year. It's a lot easier playing in New Brunswick.

SS: Why do you think that is?

CR: Proximity, basically. I think because of how close everyone is. In New Brunswick, especially just starting out, bands don't really have a big draw or the ability to bring many people but it doesn't matter there. Even when you're a new band, on the right night, you could really play to a packed room of people.

SS: That makes sense. Certain spots in New Brunswick sort of have a built in crowd. Could you talk about some of the NJ bands that you're really excited about that you get to play with sometimes?

CR: We've played with Spowder and they're at our album release show. I mean the few times I've watched them… we've played with them at the Meatlocker, I remember that. Their guitarist, I really like their style. They've got a girl on bass and a girl on drums and then their lead singer is this like badass guy. He just has so much attitude! I mean, they're not really like the Germs but just like…

SS: That same vibe, sort of the same feel...

CR: Yeah, just that feel to it that they're so punk! It's like, so much punk spirit. It's cool to see in 2017.

SS: It stands out a bit.

CR: It's cool to feel that in the present-day.

SS: If you could tour with any band, it doesn't have to be one you know personally, who would it be?

CR: Right around the time Lunch Ladies started, I had told Marissa Paternoster (Screaming Females) that I wanted to tour with her. (folds hands) I went up to her and told her, "Marissa, I really want to tour with you," and she was just like, ".... oh. Okay. Here's a tater tot." (Laughs) It was at the Asbury Lanes stage. She signed her Rose Mountain record for me, I have it right here! (stops the interview to grab it)

Photo: Daniel Topete

SS: Very cool. Just like Marissa, just like Cynthia! What would be on your rider for that first tour?

CR: Hopefully I'm not drinking too much, but beer. A Red Stripe, please.

SS: How are relations with the record label?

CR: Good, we have a group chat.

SS: Are you goth?

CR: People at my job think so.

SS: You have a job. So what are some things other things that you do outside of the band?

CR: I've been reading a lot more lately. I have friends that have been giving me books.

SS: What was your favorite book growing up though?

CR: Probably like 1984.

SS: What's on your record player right now?

CR: A KD Lang record.

SS: The dinner table question is typical but requisite. In a slightly altered state, dead or alive, with you in the driver seat, what three people would you take to fill out your car for a drive?

CR: Morrissey, Nicole Atkins, and Joan Jett.

SS: What do you do for fun in your hometown?

CR: Nothing, fuck everyone here

SS: What is one place that you'd want to visit?

CR: Berlin.

SS: Who is the funniest person in Lunch Ladies?

CR: Well, Matt and Matt are pretty silly but I'd say I am! (laughter ensues, for no reason)

SS: What's your favorite Lunch Ladies song to play live?

CR: Well, we've been playing the songs we have for a year, for quite a while, so I can't really tell which is my favorite to play…. Oh! Probably the noise jam at the end because we just get to rock out and it's like totally different every time.

SS: Is there a song on Down on Sunset Strip that surpassed your expectations after it was recorded?

CR: All of them! But "Sunshine," I was really excited to hear it mixed / mastered because I had all my vocal harmonies on it and… it was just meant to be mixed. I was very excited to hear how it would sound a bit more produced, some reverb on it and stuff.

SS: Any big plans for Lunch Ladies coming up throughout the rest of the year?

CR: Well, we're playing with the Garden, so I'm really looking forward to that. I'll keep you updated!

Down on Sunset Strip is out now via Good Eye Records.

Lunch Ladies play a release show tonight, March 10th, at New Brunswick's J House with Whiner, Spowder, Professor Caveman, and Sunflower.  The Band are in Philadelphia tomorrow, March 11th, at Falafull House with Ellen Siberian-Tiger, Brackish, and Whiner.

On March 26th, Lunch Ladies are part of a bill presented by CoolDad Music and Little Dickman Records at The Saint that also features Kino Kimino, Ex-Girlfriends, Sharkmuffin, and EVL MOMMZ.

Guest List: Stephen Stec's Top 10 #1 Modern Rock Tracks, Part 2

The Top Five

It's Friday; and, as promised, I give you the top 5 tracks on Stephen Stec's list of the top 10 songs ever to have reached number 1 on Billboard's "Modern Rock Tracks" chart.

If you missed the Introduction or Part 1 of the list, you may want to check those out before continuing. And don't forget that Paper Streets will be in Asbury Park tonight, playing at The Berkeley on the eve of the annual Zombie Walk.

Thanks to Stephen for all of the work he put into this one. I hope we hear from him again soon.

Now, the list.

My Top 10 Modern Rock Tracks, 5-1

By Stephen Stec, Guitarist for Paper Streets

5. The Sundays -- “Here’s Where The Story Ends” (90). Look at the jangles on these guys. I mean was this the prettiest sounding song to ever go #1? Yes. Probably yes.

I’m constantly dealing personally with the internal conflict between turning up the Big Muff and trying to make my guitar jingle and jangle half as well as the Sundays do on this song. When you hear this song, you understand the brilliance of a beautiful clean tone. It blows my mind that this beautiful song managed to top the chart when it did, during the height of what seemed to have been more dance crazed waters of the early 90s.

4. Phoenix -- “1901” (09). The song that saved Alt Rock from itself. This song, maaaaybe more than any other the list, teetered on the brink of what I considered to be a breakthrough, era-defining song. It is by far the most New Wave song that’s more familiar to its young listeners than the word New Wave.

To me, “1901” represents Phoenix beating all the other similarly-minded, yelpy voiced indie bands like Vampire Weekend and the Strokes -- culturally impactful American bands (from New York no less!) that managed five top 5 albums between them but no #1 singles. If you think trying to get big in your town is hard, try starting a band in Versailles, France. How do you think the music scene is over in Versailles? Yeah, probably just like Williamsburg.

3. The Cure – “Fascination Street” (89). I’m relatively sure high schools were a LOT more Goth in 89 than they are nowadays (editor’s note: They were. I’ll show you CoolMom’s yearbook picture someday.), and The Cure were obviously a big reason why. Half this list could, quite frankly, be composed of Cure songs that crossed over to the mainstream -- “Friday I’m In Love,” “Lovesong,” and “Just Like Heaven” -- but “Fascination Street” never quite reached that level of cultural recognition so it makes this list. It’s no doubt just as well written as all of those songs, it just displays The Cure at the top of their powers in a different direction than those pop tunes.

“Fascination Street” is a hauntingly dark and nervous composition off of Disintegration that was a throwback to The Cure’s early songs from albums like Seventeen Seconds and Pornography. It ended up surpassing the content on those albums, becoming their most successful “Goth” sounding single. It marked the point in The Cure’s history where Robert Smith noted that they had, “despite my best efforts, actually become everything that I didn’t want us to become: a stadium rock band.”

2. Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians – “So You Think You’re In Love?” (91). Although Robyn was sometimes called inaccessible and sometimes inexplicably dismissed by some as being little more than a Syd Barrett-eqsue ripoff throughout his career, this single is as accessible as it gets in showcasing Robyn’s whimsical lyrical style trough the filter of pure Byrds / Beatles music circa ‘65. “So You Think You’re In Love” may be the most hummable melody on this list. Adding to the already sugary goodness and pop magic of the track, the song even includes a particularly jangly Rickenbacker guitar played by none other than Peter Buck of REM.

Lyrically, the song one of the most straightforward things Hitchcock’s done, that’s true; but Robyn’s “It’s beautiful today but it’s going to snow tomorrow” mantra is on full display. Though he starts off asking the title question, he soon starts asking “So you sure that it’s wise?” answering “Oh, you probably ain’t.” The lyrics were described as being “paradoxically detached but exuberant” and yeah, that’s probably just about the best way to put what Robyn did on this track. It’s also a big reason why he’s this high on the list.

1. New Order – “Regret” (93). Almost like what Phoenix did on “1901” but with everything turned up to the max (including the ridiculousness). It almost sounds like a Disney Channel song / what I hope One Direction sounds like. To be up front with all of you, “Regret” would have been #1 of the #1s solely for this video of the band miming on Baywatch Beach while being watched over by none other than Dave Fuckin Hasselhoff. Was there ever really any doubt that Hoff was the best man for the job here? I half expect to see Zach Morris floating around every time I watch this video.



In all honesty, the video is an accurate representation of exactly what this song is: a PARTY that is very much tied to its specific era. It does almost sound like a song you would hear on the Disney Channel / what I hope One Direction sounds like, except, you know, it’s the dudes who were hanging out with Ian Curtis in Manchester a little more than a decade prior.

Guest List: Stephen Stec's Top 10 #1 Modern Rock Tracks, Part 1

Numbers 10 Through 6

Yesterday, Paper Streets guitarist Stephen Stec introduced us to the Billboard "Modern Rock Tracks" (now "Alternative Songs") chart. Today, Stephen gives us the bottom half of his top 10 songs ever to have reached #1 on that chart. Come back Friday to check out his top 5.

Also on Friday, don't forget to check out Paper Streets as they play a FREE Zombie Walk Eve show at Asbury's Berkeley Bar.

Take it away, Stephen.

My Top 10 Modern Rock Tracks, 10-6

By Stephen Stec, Guitarist for Paper Streets

10. The Jesus and Mary Chain -- “Blues From A Gun” (89). An excellent example of the chart’s giving back to legends who many might say were past their prime, “Blues From A Gun” is a commercially aimed Rock single drenched in the band’s trademark fuzz and processed beats. Despite its being their biggest hit on the singles chart, “Blues From A Gun” was the Mary Chain sort of on their last legs as a harshly distorted indie band. The next record was a more stripped back acoustic affair for our heroes in black. This was one of the last times they really cranked the guitars up and wrote a fuzzed out banger.

9. The Charlatans -- “Weirdo” (92). Although perhaps a bit late to the turn of the decade Acid-House party, “Weirdo” is what a lot of Indie kids of ‘92 associated with that year: funky keyboards and organ sounds, dance-y drums that are probably looped and have a tinny sound, and acid. Lots of acid.

From the opening synth stabs, you know “Weirdo” is a psychedelic dance party, but singer Tim Burgess almost goes in a different direction vocally. It really brings everything together. He has a cool, detached airy delivery that most people don’t pull off without sounding like someone I don’t want to be friends with. “Most of the time you’re happy, you’re a weirdo” is my favorite opening line on this list. That’s someone I probably would be friends with.

8. Depeche Mode -- “Enjoy the Silence” (90). It’s hard to put into words for a younger generation just how big Depeche Mode are. This is a generation that can’t quite understand why this song, which seems to them little more than a footnote in the history of Alt-Rock, somehow has nine million YouTube views.

It’s actually interesting to me that YouTube has basically taken the place of what MTV was in the 1990s. YouTube views do (sometimes) correlate well for older songs and how much impact they had during their time. There was absolutely a time, right around the release of this single, when Depeche Mode’s music was considered to be the epitome of Alternative.

7. Ian McCulloch -- “Proud To Fall” (88). Comeback for the Bunnyman himself! Ian McCulloch was lead singer for Echo and the Bunnymen, English Post-Punk legends best remembered by a younger US Alt generation for one of their finest moments: “The Killing Moon” playing over the opening scene of Donnie Darko.

“Proud To Fall” was the first thing we heard from Ian after the Bunnymen’s average 1987 album. It slotted in between that album and the lackluster swan song, Reverberation, in 1990. It was the best thing we heard come from Ian in some time -- a sweeter Pop nugget than anything on the last two Echo records that falls pretty directly in line with what you’d expect an Ian McCulloch song to sound like.

6. Black Keys – “Tighten Up” (11). Finally, some modern rock! After a long time on the fringe, “Tighten Up” was a commercial breakthrough for the Akron duo -- proof that a song doesn’t necessarily need to reinvent the wheel to just fucking NAIL the wheel.

I don’t think Dan Auerbach will tell you he does one thing here that hasn’t been done before, but God Damn, EVERYTHING works in this song in the best possible way. The Danger Mouse production is, no doubt, a nice touch to it all. I know a lot of people that get most excited over the intro whistle melody; but, for me, it’s the solo. And that’s coming from the King of Hating Solos.

Guest List: Stephen Stec, Guitarist for Paper Streets (Intro)

"Make Me a List"

In addition to being a guitarist in Brooklyn-via-Jackson, NJ indie rock band Paper Streets, Stephen Stec is a passionate music fan and, it turns out, an avid CoolDad Music reader (for which I will be forever grateful). We were chatting after a show one evening, and I asked Stephen what he'd like to see on the blog.

"More lists," was his immediate response.

"OK," I said. "Make me a list."

Stephen took to his assignment with all the zeal I'd expect of someone who shares my obsession. He gave me not only a list, but also a short history of his subject. It's a long piece; so I figured I'd do the savvy blogger thing and milk it over the next few days.

We'll start today with Stephen's intro and move into items 10-6 tomorrow. I'll give you Stephen's Top 5 towards the end of the week.

So, without further ado, I turn things over to Mr. Stec.

My Top 10 Number 1 Modern Rock Tracks, Introduction

By Stephen Stec, Guitarist for Paper Streets

September marked the 25th anniversary of Billboard’s "Modern Rock Tracks" (currently known as "Alternative Songs"), consisting of songs now pretty much universally described as Indie or Alternative. The list united separate genres of songs that used to be referred to more specifically as Post Punk, New Wave, Grunge, Electronic, etc. "Modern Rock Tracks" tracked all of the radio plays that these singles accumulated from a designated number of different Alternative-oriented stations.

The Billboard "Modern Rock" started out as a spectacular idea that reaped immediate rewards on a multitude of different levels for a multitude of different reasons. It not only, for the first time, documented the underground; but it also HIGHLIGHTED it. Not only were new underground bands given a platform from which to launch, but the list also rewarded legends from the 70s and early 80s with the recognition they were previously unable to achieve. The bands whose songs repeatedly rose to the top of the charts did not just attain cult status like the top Alternative bands in the early 80s. Instead, supported by high-rotation MTV videos, the Billboard "Modern Rock Tracks" spring boarded bands like Nirvana and The Cure (more than a decade into their career) into the cultural symbols of an era.

The history of "Modern Rock Tracks" accurately reflects Alternative culture throughout three different decades -- from its Gothy, Post Punk beginnings, to the era when Alt became mainstream with the Grunge explosion, to Britpop and beyond (aka when EVERYTHING WENT WRONG for a long time). For every remarkable track released within the first eight years or so of the chart’s incarnation, the last eight years have an otherworldly quantity of songs that are quite legendary on their own terms.

Things got soft and dull around 1995. There was a quick shift from The Cure to Chumbawumba once we didn't know what to do after Grunge and Britpop; and, at the turn of the century, Alternative music was in quite a weird place. I couldn’t really find any #1’s from this time to include on this list. The late 90s / early 00s gave us Alt Rok Classix such as “Butterfly” by Crazy Town, “This Is How U Remind Me” by Nickelback, and “Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down. Personally, I can’t see how it was much fun to grow up exposed to Alternative radio during this time. Things are better now, and I think we may actually get past Crazy Town.

I also have a weird, skewed memory of these charts; and, to avoid any arguments, I’m going to leave off the songs that crossed over into the mainstream and of which every self-respecting music fan is no doubt quite aware. First of all, it would be no fun. Second of all, we could sit here all day and debate the merits of era-defining songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Wonderwall,” “Loser,” “Losing My Religion,” “1979,” “Seven Nation Army,” “Somebody Told Me,” etc. That just seems redundant. Let’s get a bit obscure. Isn’t that what this chart was initially all about?

Check back tomorrow for the first half of Stephen's Top 10 #1 Modern Rock Tracks. While you wait, why not watch Paper Streets cover one of their idols, Modest Mouse.