Weird Music Wednesday: “Meeting the Kid For Lunch” By Mike Keneally and Marcello Radulovich
Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich’s Friday arrives as the grand, slightly eccentric finale to their “days-of-the-week” series—a project that has seen the duo sprint through a staggering amount of material in a remarkably short window. While earlier entries like Monday or Wednesday felt like caffeinated scrambles through a sonic junk drawer, Friday finds the pair settling into a groove that is as sophisticated as it is unhinged. It is a record that prioritizes “atmospheric insularity” over the jaw-dropping technical shredding Keneally is usually associated with, opting instead for a world where sound design is the lead soloist.
The album serves as a fascinating marker in Keneally’s ongoing evolution from the “stunt guitarist” in the late 80s Frank Zappa band to a holistic sound sculptor. In Radulovich, Keneally has found a collaborator who doesn’t just keep pace but actively derails him in the best way possible. Their chemistry has moved beyond simple improvisation into a shared language of surrealist architecture. On Friday, the layers of synths, found sounds, and processed guitars feel less like a performance and more like a living, breathing alien ecosystem that has decided to ignore the laws of earthly physics.
If there is a track that truly earns the “What am I listening to?” award, it is “Meeting the Kid for Lunch.” While much of the album drifts through hazy, electronic dreamscapes, this track takes the listener into a narrative space that feels distinctly uncanny. It earns its status as the “weirdest” song not through aggressive noise, but through its commitment to a specific, mundane-yet-distorted reality. The song pairs Keneally’s conversational phrasing with Radulovich’s penchant for “audio sabotage,” making the “lunch” in question feel like it’s taking place in a room where the walls are slowly melting into static. In an album already full of otherworldly moments, this track stands out because it starts with a foot in the real world before promptly tripping over a rift in the space-time continuum.
The Song
Spotify:
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/song/meeting-the-kid-for-lunch/1846201996
The Album
Spotify:
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/friday/1846201841