Appetizer / Soup's On

After an obscure acetate turned up in Connecticut in 2004, Zero Street Records issued a 300-copy limited edition LP of the complete works of Johnny Lunchbreak. The non-album was a mélange of post-Velvets New York mixed with the upturned collar of Modern Lovers-era New England. Oddly enough, Lunchbreak had been shooting for the Bee Gees, and their horrible miss was our gain. A few months later, we had the original tapes, a stack of unpublished photos, and one of five actual lunch boxes the band had made during their brief existence. Johnny Lunchbreak existed for less than two years and played outside of Hartford, Connecticut, only once, and yet somehow, they reached graduate levels in merchandising. Michael Clare: In the beginning there were the Gents—Rick Weiner, Jim Kelman, Andy Merritt, Steve Murtha, and me—we played the 1966 King Philip Junior High end of year assembly in West Hartford, Connecticut. Over the next few years the ins and outs of school and bands led us in a circle t