The Lovely Eggs
Northern psychedelic punks The Lovely Eggs return with a mind-melting new album: This Is Eggland. The Lovely Eggs are one of the most unique, innovative and genuine bands on the British Underground music scene. Heavier and more in-your-face than anything they’ve done previously, married couple Holly Ross (guitar/vocals) and David Blackwell (drums) bring together a fierce DIY ethos, surreal sense of humour and kitchen-sink realism. Working with a producer for the very first time, Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips/MGMT/Spoon/Weezer/Tame Impala/Sleater-Kinney) lends his magic dust to bring out the best of The Lovely Eggs’ explosive blend of motoric krautrock, 60s psychedelia and punk rock attitude, all flipped over and egged up. They create their own world and invite us to join them in Eggland. Be prepared for a joyous riot of a ride.
The album title This is Eggland is a cheeky nod to Shane Meadows’ series, This Is England. It is a comment on the current state of modern Britain, with The Lovely Eggs encouraging people to build their own worlds and create their own reality in these troubled times. The album is about being an outsider and doing things differently, eschewing society’s conventions as they have done. Since having their son in 2013, the pair have taken him on tour with them, racing round the UK with two fingers up to conventional family life firmly out of the window. They have also remained in their hometown of Lancaster, despite its cultural and geographical isolation. As Holly explains; “On this album we're saying it's OK to live life differently, we're doing it and you can do it too!
Being in Lancaster has given them a unique perspective on life and the album wouldn’t have sounded the same if they were living anywhere else. As Holly explains; “Living up here in Lancaster is kind of mad. It's a bit like the Twin Peaks of Great Britain.” The town has a rich history of the witchcraft, notoriously it was where the Pendle witches were hanged. Even today lunatic asylums are being turned into luxury flats and men are being put in prison for feeding ready meals to pigeons.
For the first time ever, the pair worked with a producer on the new album, welcoming in legendary Grammy award winning engineer Dave Fridmann to their world following a typically eggs-style bizarre course of events... After drawing up a drunken list of dream producers they wanted to work with, Fridmann was at the top. So began a piece of detective work to find a number for his studio (and after a couple of wrong numbers), they finally left a message on his answer machine. As Holly explains; “I just put it down as another madcap idea to go down in our catalogue of drunken escapades. But one year later we received an email from Dave Fridmann. He had got the answerphone message, listened to our stuff and wanted to work with us. It was just totally bizarre!”
The album was self-recorded at Lancaster Musician's Co-op (a non profit making recording studio and rehearsal rooms, where the pair met and David works) and the Eggs’ own house in Lancaster, while their three-year-old son was in bed. Dave Fridmann then produced it remotely with the band sending demos and working progress back and forth. They then went out to Dave's Studio, Tarbox Road Studios in New York State, for the mixing process.
The result is a gratifyingly rich sounding record, which still retains the raw energy of the band’s sound but harnesses a real power and dynamism. It’s much heavier than anything they’ve done before. As Holly says: “It's pretty relentless. It kind of sounds like a chip shop on fire. We still write about everyday life and the stuff that goes on in our world, it's just the new album is more fierce and really tells it like it is.”
The Lovely Eggs have been nudging towards a heavier sound with their previous album This Is Our Nowhere, which was praised by the NME, who called them; “One of the country's most beloved underground bands.” Having formed in Paris in 2006, they named themselves after a pigeon laid two eggs on an abandoned nest on the windowsill – when the eggs hatched, they started the band. To celebrate their 10th anniversary last year, they reissued their first three albums If You Were Fruit, Cob Dominos and Wildlife on limited edition coloured vinyl. The band have built up a cult following, selling out gigs across the UK, as well as gaining support from BBC 6 Music and Radio One.
This Is Eggland is a giant leap forward in their wild-ride of a career. The album is like listening in on The Lovely Eggs’ own secret world, with philosophical songs about the mysteries of the universe (“Hello I Am Your Sun”), to abandoning “ the grass is always greener” mentality (“Wiggy Giggy”), to being on the wrong side of society or the music industry (“I’m With You”) and several inspired by local witchcraft. Unashamed to be themselves and have fun while they’re at it, The Lovely Eggs weave an intoxicatingly magnetic magic spell and we’re helplessly and willingly falling under it.
RIYL: Sleater-Kinney, The Coathangers, Screaming Females
TRY: #1, 2, 4, 6, 8
DRTY: #3, 11
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