If I told you the new Hot Lunch video for “Slappy Sunday” featured grainy-ish footage of dudes skateboarding, would you be surprised? Probably not if you’ve ever heard the band, since grainy-ish footage of dudes skateboarding is kind of their whole aesthetic. Make it catchy as hell and you’re ready to roll down some sprawling West Coast sidewalk, kickflipping all the way. There is a plot to the new clip, though, and it involves a dude dressed as a giant taco.

Basically what you’ve got is the band and a couple other skater types are doing their thing in a parking lot somewhere, as one does when that’s their thing, and somebody orders tacos. Taco Guy shows up in full taco regalia and is like, “Yo, here’s your tacos now I gotta get mine,” and they give him a buck and a taco and he gets pissed and wants more money. Which is legit. That extra probably comes out of his taco delivery paycheck. The band doesn’t really have a leg to stand on, argument-wise, but there are like eight dudes hanging out, so they all get on their skateboards and chase Taco Guy into the Volcom skate park, where it turns out — here’s the twist — he can shred. Skate-brodom ensues and all is well as “Slappy Sunday” draws to a close.

At least that’s how I read it. If you’ve got a different take, I’m all ears. Hot Lunch‘s Slappy Sunday EP (review here) is available now as a free download from Scion A/V. Video is below, followed by some info off the PR wire. Dig it:

Hot Lunch, “Slappy Sunday” official video

SCION AUDIO VISUAL AND HOT LUNCH PREMIERE NEW “SLAPPY SUNDAY” VIDEO

Hot Lunch, the Bay Area band, premiere a video for the title track from their Scion AV Slappy Sunday EP.

The skate-centric clip, which was filmed in part at Volcom, features clips of the band interspersed with a group of mischievous California skateboarders, including Shea Cooper and Trevor Ward.

The five-song EP was released in March via Scion Audio Visual and is available as a free download: https://soundcloud.com/scionav/sets/hot-lunch.

“We’re beyond stoked about this latest batch of tunes,” said Hot Lunch drummer Rob Alper. “Both structurally and sonically they’re true to Hot Lunch form, but we can’t help feel that this five-headed beast is of a new breed. Born of an all night rock ‘n’ roll house party? Or following a ferocious Sunday curb-skating session? We know not from whence it came. We’re honored to continue working with Scion A/V to bring high-energy punk ‘n’ roll music to the people! The Slappy Sunday EP is up-to-the-very-minute Hot Lunch in all its fuzzy, monstrous glory!”

Hot Lunch on Thee Facebooks

Scion A/V Metal on Thee Facebooks

Slappy Sunday at Scion A/V

If living the dream makes you want to scream, San Francisco four-piece Hot Lunch invite you to “live the nightmare” in one of the several infectious hooks on their new Scion A/V EP, Slappy Sunday. Out next week, March 31, the five-song release follows Hot Lunch‘s appearance on the Riley Hawk-curated (also for Scion) Northwest Blow Out compilation alongside Kadavar, The Black Angels and Loom, as well as their Who Can You Trust? Records self-titled debut, released in 2013, an EP for Heavy Psych Sounds and other sundry appearances on splits the last couple years to go along with slots at Scion Rock Fest and the venerable daydream Duna Jam in Sardinia. If it seems like a lot of people are ready to get behind the band, they are, and it won’t take long into the Slappy Sunday EP before you figure out why.

Hot Lunch tap into a blend of proto-heavy rock and punk that’s so seamless it practically rewrites history. Slappy Sunday has five tracks — “Slappy Sunday,” “Expectations,” “China Banks,” “Pot of Gold” and the prior-alluded “Living the Nightmare” — and by the time its 17 minutes are through, the band has offered classic two-guitar soloing Thin Lizzy-style (as on “Pot of Gold”), introduced the Ramones to Jimi Hendrix (with “Expectations”), conjured simple, raw brashness (on the title-track) and even found room for some acoustic work (on “Living the Nightmare”). With “China Banks” as its centerpiece, Slappy Sunday shows off an impressive range, but even more, there’s little to no hiccup in terms of how the songs relate to each other. Classically styled and analog-sounding, Hot Lunch make difficult stylistic turns sound easy; a molten aesthetic that shifts according to the whims of deceptively complex songwriting.

Today I have the pleasure of hosting “China Banks” for stream and download ahead of the Slappy Sunday release next week. The last of an initial three songs all under three minutes before the final two cuts reach past the four-minute mark, it’s a bombastic hook that melds shuffle and thrust smoothly as it works its way to a quick, somewhat understated conclusion. Hot Lunch — the lineup of Eric Shea, Aaron Nudelman, Rob Alper and Charlie Karr — have places to be, and even in the longer tracks, they don’t linger, but “China Banks” should still provide a solid look at what’s on offer with their new Scion EP, and one doubts it will be the last we’ll hear from them this year.

Please enjoy “China Banks” on the player below, followed by the link to the EP at Scion A/V and some comment from the band, courtesy of the PR wire:

Hot Lunch, the San Francisco-based band, releases the Slappy Sunday EP on March 31 via Scion Audio Visual.

The EP’s title track, “Slappy Sunday,” is available now for free download via Scion Audio Visual’s Soundcloud page (http://www.scionav.com/2015/03/16/download-hot-lunch-slappy-sunday-brand-new-track-release).

“We’re beyond stoked about this latest batch of tunes,” said Hot Lunch drummer Rob Alper. “Both structurally and sonically they’re true to Hot Lunch form, but we can’t help feel that this five-headed beast is of a new breed. Born of an all night rock ‘n’ roll house party? Or following a ferocious Sunday curb-skating session? We know not from whence it came. We’re honored to continue working with Scion A/V to bring high-energy punk ‘n’ roll music to the people! The Slappy Sunday EP is up-to-the-very-minute Hot Lunch in all its fuzzy, monstrous glory!”

Hot Lunch on Thee Facebooks

Slappy Sunday at Scion A/V