Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters! And don’t forget to wear flowers in your hair. That’s the mixed (but mighty wild) music message Bay Area retro-rockers Hot Lunch serve up on their cleverly handled sophomore album Seconds. On the one hand, they’re a Detroit-style proto-metal band that can — and most assuredly does — fire off high-octane riff-rock chuggers that channel the beefy bellowing and ferocious intensity of The MC5, Amboy Dukes, Stooges and Grand Funk. On the other, they’re a band of San Francisco-style psychedelic wave surfers who balance all that balls-out power and momentum with multi-faceted, multi-minute musical detours that evolve into epic journeys to the centre of your mind. The result: A six-song, 45-minute album that’s a headbanger, a headnodder and a head trip all at the same time. You might say it’s a sound that abounds and resounds and rebounds off the ceiling. Not bad for seconds.
